The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned the weapons training for priests that has taken place in South Cyprus.

“We condemn in the strongest terms this target practice, which includes rewarding the best shooting priests,” the ministry said in its statement.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement regarding the weapons training of priests in cooperation with the Greek Cypriot National Guard and the Greek Cypriot Orthodox Church.

In the statement, the Ministry said that it was not surprising that the Greek Cypriot Orthodox Church, which has done its best to keep the feelings of hostility and enmity against the Turkish presence on the island alive, takes part in such provocative activities.

“Likewise, in the past, it once again appeared in the press that the Greek Cypriot Orthodox Church had participated in similar exercises of the Greek Cypriot National Guard,” said the statement.

“This hostile act, witnessed by the whole world, demonstrates the main purpose of the Greek Cypriot leadership and the Greek Cypriot Orthodox Church. It is of paramount significance to see that the international actors, supposedly supporting an agreement on the island, remain silent against these video footages” read the statement.

It also noted that the continuation by the Greek Cypriot administration’s armament and military activities in South Cyprus proves that the Turkish Cypriot people are justified in seeing the existence of their sovereign State and motherland Turkiye’s effective guarantee as a prerequisite.