TROUBLE AGAIN IN CYPRUS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31169, 20 September 1966, Page 15

TROUBLE AGAIN IN CYPRUS

CV Z Press Assn —Copyright

NICOSIA (Cyprus), September 19. Tension gripped Cyprus yesterday and United Nations peace force leaders said they were worried about deterioration of the situation on the island.

They fear there may be fresh outbreaks of shooting between the rival Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Greek Cypriots outnumber Turkish Cypriots four to one. The village of Arsos, 15! miles south-east of Nicosia, is the most tense spot. More than 300 Greek and 300 Turkish Cypriots exchanged gunfire around midnight in what peace force officials described as “a pointless and haphazard outbreak of firing.” There were no casualties. Tension has been high in Arsos for 10 days, since the murder of a Turkish Cypriot and a reprisal attack in which a Greek Cypriot was killed and two others wounded. The deaths in Arsos are believed to be the result of I an old village vendetta which' has now taken on political I

significance because of the confrontation between the two communities over most of the island.

Tension continued high also in about a dozen Turkish Cypriot villages in the mountains of north-west Cyprus. State forests in this region were ravaged by more than a dozen big fires last week. The Government has accused Turkish Cypriots of setting the forests alight. The Turkish Cypriot leadership has denied this.