Not time to panic, it was an accident and a mistake said TRNC Prime Minister on missle that hit north Cyprus

The TRNC government has confirmed that the unidentified object that crashed in a village near Taşkent was indeed a stray S-200 missile.

Speaking after an emergency cabinet meeting, TRNC Prime Minister, Ersin Tatar said that there was no need for panic or alarm.

The Council of Ministers convened on Monday morning at an emergency session.

The meeting was also attended by the Commander of the Cyprus Turkish Security Forces Brigidair General Tevfik Algan and Commander of the Turkish Peace Forces in Cyprus Major General Yılmaz Yıldırım.

Tatar reassured the public that there was no poisonous gases or chemicals in the missile.

We have been assured by our military authorities that the missile does not pose a health threat, he said.

The Prime Minister also said that there was no need to blow the incident out of proportion or spread false reports that such an incident could occur again.

This was an accident and a mistake. It could happen as a coincidence, Tatar added.

Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay who also spoke gave information about the S-200 missile.

Özersay said that he had met with ambassadors of several countries stationed in South Cyprus and that the information they had received overlapped with their own findings.

He said that the missile was a stray Russian-made S-200 fired in response to Israeli missile attacks.

A similar missile had fallen in Gaziantep in 2018. The writings on that missile and on the object that crashed in the TRNC are the same. Our initial findings confirm that this is an S-200 missile. This is an important incident but there is no need to panic, he said.

Özersay also urged Israel and neighbouring countries to exercise calm and to refrain from actions that could pose a danger to lives and property.

BRT