This one’s for Recep

EMBATTLED MEP Marios Matsakis intends to personally hand his trophy from his recent escapade in no-man’s-land to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Matsakis made the headlines two weeks ago when he wandered into the buffer zone and snatched a Turkish flag from an unmanned outpost, earning both admiration and disapproval for his daredevil stunt.

It also resulted in his becoming a pariah in his own DIKO party.

Matsakis had more antics in store for the European Parliament plenum on Monday, when he displayed the flag to his colleagues as he gave a speech on the continuing occupation of Cyprus by Turkey.

At one point he asked European Parliament President Josep Borrell to send the flag to Erdogan; but Borrell politely declined, suggesting Matsakis should do so himself.

Beyond Cyprus, the MEP has made quite a name for himself in the European Parliament: during a speech by British premier Tony Blair a few weeks ago, he waved a banner reading “Cyprus is still a British colony.”

Matsakis is currently facing allegations of trying to extort a police officer and of trafficking in antiquities from the occupied north.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.