LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus 

US Senator Bob Menendez was awarded the Gold Medal of Apostle Barnabas by the Greek Cypriot Orthodox Church during a visit to Southern Cyprus on Thursday.

Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, received the medal from Archbishop Georgios "for his contribution to the struggle of the Greek Cypriots for justice and liberty," several local media outlets reported.

Menendez also held several meetings, including with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Annita Demetriou, the president of the House of Representatives in the Greek Cypriot administration.

Addressing the World Conference of Cyprus Diaspora, Menendez said the mother of his spouse Nadine Arslanian was born in Cyprus, adding that he and his wife were happy to be there again.

The senator from the state of New Jersey is known for his ties to the US’s Greek and Armenian lobbies and has repeatedly expressed his opposition to the Biden administration's potential sale of F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits to Türkiye.

Menendez's visit came after the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) intervened last week in road construction work to link the Turkish Cypriot village of Pile in the buffer zone with the rest of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Türkiye fully supports a two-state solution on the island of Cyprus based on sovereign equality and equal international status between its two states.