The mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), in operation since 27 March 1964, was widened and extended following the events of 1974. The photo shows a Danish UN peacekeeper monitoring the 180-km-long demarcation line that divides the island into two distinct republics separating the Greek Cypriots from the Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus lies to the north of this buffer zone, and the Republic of Cyprus to the south.