A PROMINENT Turkish Cypriot organisation yesterday called for people in the north to attend the festival at Ayios Mamas in Morphou on Wednesday in a show of solidarity with Greek Cypriots following a bomb attack on the Orthodox church on Friday.
At the same time, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou warned that extremist elements in the north were planning to create serious trouble during the festival.
The minister said that the secret service had information about serious trouble including the murder of Greek Cypriots, which aimed at shutting down the crossing points.
It was also reported yesterday that security forces in the government-controlled areas were on full alert following Friday’s bombing.
A meeting was held and plans were drawn to prevent provocations, reports said.
Guards were placed around mosques and other sensitive places, while police have increased their patrols around Turkish Cypriot neighbourhoods, the reports added.
In a related development, the Morphou municipal council has unanimously decided to participate in the September 1 festival.
The municipality, however, warned people who wished to take part that they were doing so at their own risk as no one could offer them any security in the occupied areas.
In a written statement, the ‘Platform This Country is Ours’ said they had been planning to stage a mass rally to mark trade unions’ day at Inonu Square in north Nicosia on the same day, but had decided to shift it to Morphou where the first religious service is to take place for 30 years.
“The decision expresses in the most intense way the response of the Turkish Cypriots for the bomb attack against the Church of Ayios Mamas,” the statement said. “Such a decision constitutes a slap for the nationalists on both sides who try to prevent such events.”
The group believes its decision could signal a turning point for developments in Cyprus and perhaps lead to a mass rapprochement movement. “It is the first time after decades that ordinary people of one of the two sides show immediately and decisively on a mass level their concern to protect the democratic rights of the ordinary people… not the bloodstained world rulers who want to use our island as a stepping stone for their war plans.”
Friday’s bomb attack, which caused damage to the outside of the 16th century church, used since the invasion as an icon museum, was widely condemned on both sides and by the international community. Authorities on both sides branded it a terrorist attack.
However, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, who had been calling on people in the north to protest against the resumption of church services at Ayios Mamas, has implied that Greek Cypriots might have been responsible for the attack.
In statements to Turkish Cypriot television, Denktash said no one should automatically assume Turks were responsible. He said that in the 1960s, EOKA B had pulled a similar stunt leading to deadly clashes between the two communities.
“We cannot reach an immediate conclusion as regards the identity of the perpetrators,” said Denktash. “Naturally, the possibility of it having been perpetrated by some pro-Greek persons – the Greek Cypriots do not have to come over here to commit the act, they could ask others to do it – also comes to mind. That is why we are concentrating on this possibility.”
