Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that a defense agreement signed by France and Cyprus allowing for the presence of French forces on the divided Mediterranean island violates international law and the 1960 treaties that established Cyprus’s constitutional order.

The agreement, signed Monday by Paris and Nicosia, is aimed at deepening bilateral defense ties and contributing to greater strategic autonomy for the European Union.

It also provides a framework for hosting French forces in Cyprus, which French President Emmanuel Macron said during an April visit would support “humanitarian operations in the wider Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East.”

Ankara has strongly criticized the deal, warning that it could upset the fragile balance on the island.

“The agreement signed between France, which has no guarantor status in Cyprus, and the Greek Cypriot administration, which seeks to unilaterally alter the fragile balance on the island and disregards the will and equal sovereign rights of the Turkish Cypriots, is contrary to the 1960 Cyprus agreements and to international law,” the ministry said in a statement Thursday.

The ministry also warned that Turkey would respond forcefully to any threat against Turkish Cypriots, saying the Turkish Armed Forces had “the capability and determination to respond in the strongest terms to hostile actions that threaten the security of the Turkish Cypriots.”

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.

The island is now split between the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey, and the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus, an EU member that controls the Greek Cypriot south.

© Agence France-Presse