Protecting peace in Cyprus

The preparation of the 28th rotation of the Hungarian contingent participating in the UNFICYP mission has finished with a four-day closing exercise. Besides Hungarian troops, the servicemen of the Serbian army are also represented in the contingent departing for Cyprus, for as of September, our southern neighbour will send a total of 7 officers and non-commissioned officers with peacekeeping duties to the island in the Mediterranean.

The Hungarian Defence Forces have been participating in the UNFICYP for seventeen years, since 1993. Initially, our country contributed to the peace of the divided island with four observers, but since 1995, there is also a military unit participating in the supervision of the ceasefire agreement. In earlier years, Hungarian soldiers were controlling the eastern sector (No.4) of the buffer zone with Austrian troops, but since June 2001, they have been performing this duty in cooperation with Slovakian soldiers – Maj. Gábor Balogh told honvedelem.hu at the closing exercise conducted at the contingent’s training base in Táborfalva.

The head of the training department of the Szolnok-based HDF Peace Support Training Centre (HDF PSTC) responsible for the training of personnel preparing for peacekeeping missions added: Hungarians have been participating in the UN peacekeeping missions with 84 troops since 2005. The soldiers of the Hungarian Defence Forces work in three locations: at the UNFICYP Command in Nicosia, where Hungarian soldiers serve mainly in staff positions (military police and so-called command reserve forces are also stationed in Nicosia).

The other site, Sector 4 Command, is in Famagusta, where there are nearly twenty Hungarian servicemen in staff positions. In addition to that, military observers and liaison officers also work here. Most of the Hungarian soldiers serve in Athienou, there are some forty troops stationed in the camp of the platoon, and the contingent command is also in this town.

The present rotation will also deploy to Athienou in September – told us the senior officer responsible for training, adding that this time six Serbian soldiers will join the Hungarians. Based on the joint decision of the armies of the two countries, in the next six months, Serbian servicemen will join the Slovakian–Hungarian–Croatian battalion responsible for the supervision of Sector4. (The Croatian army participates in the mission with four military observers and liaison officers.) The tasks of the two Serbian deputy squad commanders and four patrols is not different than that of the Hungarians’, they will patrol the divided island together. The seventh Serbian soldier will work at the Nicosia command as staff officer.

Serbian soldiers have joined the training on 12 July in Szolnok. Maj. Balogh told honvedelem.hu that despite the short time, they have successfully mastered the skills that are imperative for their duties in the operational area.

The preparation of Hungarian troops for the Cyprus peacekeeping mission began on June 28 – we were told by Lt.Col. Imre Kovács, the commander of the Hungarian contingent. The senior officer – the commander of the HDF 86th Szolnok Helicopter Base, Operations Support Battalion – is preparing for his first mission and told us that at the moment, there are 56 applicants for the 44 positions. The personnel are from more than ten corps and nearly a third of them have served in one of the HDF’s peacekeeping missions. There are some who have been to the island, others have served in the Balkans or Afghanistan. However, for the majority of the contingent this will be the first foreign posting.

The commander of the Hungarian contingent – who is also the deputy commander of the joint battalion – told us that the names of those who will begin their six-month tour of duty in Cyprus in September, will be announced the week following the closing exercise. Decisions will be made on the basis of personal interviews, the troops’ performance during the weeks of preparation, language skills and the tests of the HDF PSTC. A few of those who stay at home will be reserves for the contingent.

In the opinion of Lt.Col. Kovács, the Cyprus peacekeeping mission is still very popular among Hungarian soldiers. There were more than 150 applicants for the present rotation, but following the first surveys and fitness tests, only 56 remained.

As regards the four-day closing exercise, the commander of the contingent emphasised: during the continuous training conducted at the Táborfalva training base, soldiers have to solve tasks that really happened or may happen again any time in Cyprus. Hungarian and Serbian blue beret troops had to take action, among others, in the case of a tourist taking photos and against protesters as well.

Regarding the latter, it is worth noting that the ’angry crowd’ was played by the soldiers of the OpFor Company of the HDF Bakony Combat Training Centre, Várpalota. Outsiders would have said that the nearly thirty-minute ’clash’ between soldiers in protective gear and protesters was real.