Like the San Andreas Fault or Mount Vesuvius, divided Cyprus can only be ignored for so long before something snaps or simply blows up. While neither just recurred, the sparks that flew when a group of United Nations peacekeepers came under attack by Turkish Cypriots are alight.

What happened in the island’s neutral “dead zone” on Friday is igniting a  diplomatic crisis and setting the stage for a nasty confrontation in the shadow of the war in Ukraine. The United Nations has but a supporting role in this Mediterranean drama, in which the key players are presidents Erdogan of Turkey and Putin of Russia.

President Biden, Greece, and even the North Atlantic Treaty Organization could get sucked into this, too. Congressman Sarbanes, has stated that he “holds Turkish President Erdogan accountable for this assault” and considers it “part of the pattern of provocation and destabilizing conduct that, among other things, argues against sending F-16s to Turkey.”

On Sunday, the congressman from Maryland called on President Biden “to use the United States’ good offices at the United Nations to ensure the crisis in Pyla is meaningfully addressed by the UN Secretary General and the UN Security Council.”

Chances are, though, that it won’t be addressed by the UN in a meaningful way (what has been in recent generations?). More on that below. The back story goes deep into the history of Cyprus, a former British colony once conquered by Alexander the Great and the easternmost island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Cyprus is bisected by a UN-monitored buffer zone. It separates Greek Cypriots in the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus from Turkish Cypriots in the northern third of the island that Turkey invaded and subsequently occupied in 1974. That area is now home to a Turkish state, the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The zone extends 112 miles from east to west while from north to south it varies from about four and a half miles to as little as 33 feet. Friday’s attack transpired in the village of Pyla, a rare case of a mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot area inside the buffer zone. 

Further complicating the geography, Pyla is virtually adjacent to Dhekelia, which along with Akrotiri is one of two British sovereign military bases on Cyprus — both of which are situated in the southern section of the island.

On Friday a group of Turkish Cypriot construction crews tried to do roadwork that would have extended a road from the Turkish-occupied north into Pyla, which is to say into the buffer zone itself.

As that was about to happen, British and Slovak members of the UN’s Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, or UNFICYP, tried to block the work from happening. When they did, a larger group of Turkish Cypriots fell upon them. Some peacekeepers were punched in the face as they linked arms to try to hold back the advancing Turkish Cypriots. The UN said that three soldiers were treated for injuries sustained in the melee.

Road construction would violate the status quo within the buffer zone, which it is the peacekeepers’ mandate to monitor. That is why a spokesman for UNFICYP,  Aleem Siddique,  stated that the UN would not back down from continuing to “block or frustrate construction of the road by nonviolent means.”

The lid on the violence that has long plagued these parts, in any event, is now off and could spiral absent a thaw in Turkish intransigence. The  Cyprus government spokesman, Constantinos Letymbiotis, was quick to condemn what he called “organized violence.”

Mr. Letymbiotis told reporters that the government was in touch with the U.N., the EU — of which all of Cyprus is technically a member, but in practice only the south —  and other governments to prevent “Turkish designs.”

For the road Turkish Cypriots are building could let Turkish Cypriots from other areas of the north bypass the military checkpoint at  Dhekelia and reach Pyla directly. For the Greek Cypriots it represents an attempt by the TRNC and its chief sponsor, President Erdogan, to solidify its grip on territory seized in the 1974 Turkish invasion.

It could also hamper attempts at the island’s reunification. As a measure of how far apart the relevant parties are, the Turkish Cypriot authorities lambasted UNFICYP and said the peacekeepers are trying to hold back a “humanitarian” project that would help improve Pyla’s water supply. 

There have been no known complaints of water scarcity in the village. The Turkish Cypriot, which is to say Turkish, description of an assault on peacekeepers largely underwritten by American taxpayers as defense of a humanitarian project has echoes of Russian’s insistence that its invasion of Ukraine is simply a “special military operation.”

So what does Vladimir Putin have to do with all of this? Quite a bit, as it turns out. The first clue came with what he did not do. Every permanent member of the UN Security Council, including latterly Communist China, condemned the Turkish Cypriot provocations except for Russia.

Britain, France, and America issued a joint statement of concern about arbitrary construction in the buffer zone, which was not considered a matter of urgency by Moscow. And no wonder: For one thing, Turkey and Greece are not only guarantor powers of the lawful Cyprus government (along with Britain), but they are also both members of NATO.

An eruption of hostilities in Cyprus automatically pits Athens against Ankara and undermines the military alliance at a time when its cohesiveness cannot be taken be for granted, a fact of which Mr. Putin is keenly aware. For the Russ strongman, the more division he can sow, the better. 

Plus, too, there is the matter of the 50,000 Russians now living in northern Cyprus. The Russian embassy at Nicosia confirms the number, and has just announced that it would start providing them with consular services. That is music to President Erdogan’s ears, because in so doing Moscow would be quietly legitimizing Turkey’s occupation of the north. 

How did so many Russians end up north of the buffer zone? Before the Ukraine war, many Russians were living and doing business in southern Cyprus. Locals even called the Cypriot port city of Limassol by the nickname of “Limassolgrad.”

In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cyprus has started to wash resident Russians out of its hair. Most Russian companies have been frozen out. Washington has pressed Cyprus to de-Russify and has lifted an arms embargo, too.

In the occupied north of Cyprus, different rules apply. And when it comes to purloined land, Messrs. Putin and Erdogan know this better than any real estate agent.