Turkish Cypriots deny censoring books at Karpasia school

AUTHORITIES in the north yesterday denied tearing pages out of textbooks used by Greek Cypriot students at the Rizokarpaso gymnasium.

Kemal Gokeri at the Turkish Cypriot ‘Foreign Ministry’ said yesterday: “We did not tear any pages out.”

But Nicos Falas, President of the Karpasia Co-ordinating Committee said the page-ripping had been going on since the school reopened in the north last month and both the government and the UN had been informed.

“The Turks rip out many pages from text books,” he said. “And we’re not just talking about history books, but also books which appear to have nothing to do with past troubles, such as geography textbooks.”

“There was even one case where pages making up half a book were removed,” he added.

Falas also called on the government to make a “high level” report to the international community: “We have no doubt the UN will take the necessary steps regarding the problem, but the government must take this further.”

But Turkish Cypriot authorities insist they have not changed their policy.

“We’ve been exercising the same policy as we have since 1977,” Gokeri said. “We have asked the Greek Cypriot authorities to review the content of some of the books, as they contain things which could breed hatred between the two communities – this they have not done.

“But we did not tear any pages out of any books. Perhaps they did.”

The north’s ‘education ministry’ also denied any knowledge of page-ripping at the gymnasium, which re-opened on September 13 for the first time since the invasion.

UN spokesman Brian Kelly said the UN had not received any complaint from Greek Cypriots regarding abuse of textbooks.

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