Cyprus: Taking Sides

Red-faced beneath their blue berets, the United Nations forces in Cyprus last week owned up to a glaring lapse from impartiality: two Swedish lieutenants were caught trying to smuggle arms to Turkish Cypriots in the town of Lefka — not for gain but out of sympathy for the besieged and outnumbered villagers.

The U.N. Security Council in New York nonetheless voted unanimously to extend the 6,100-man peace-keeping force's mandate for another three months, and U.N. Secretary-General U Thant announced at week's end that the Turks had at last agreed to hand over to the U.N. complete control of the strategic highway between Nicosia and Kyrenia. The agreement would represent a major Turkish concession toward peace. Question was, would the Greeks reciprocate by freeing some of the roads they control?