THE ARREST of Marios Matsakis on New Year’s Eve caused a political uproar and while President Papadopoulos, House President Christofias and other politicians rushed to support the MEP, some were still critical of his actions.
President Tassos Papadopoulos personally mediated with the EU, while House President Demetris Christofias yesterday turned to the president of the European Parliament Josep Borrell and asked him to intervene to ensure the MEP’s immediate release.
The parliament announced yesterday that Christofias had informed Borrell that the Cypriot MEP had been “abducted and illegally held in the section of Cyprus that is under Turkish occupation”.
In addition to that, Christofias continued, the abduction and remand of Matsakis is a violation of his rights as a member of European Parliament and therefore depicts the Turkish Cypriot side’s low regard of the Body.
”Please use all of your influence to ensure the immediate release of Mr Matsakis,” he concluded.
Independent of people’s opinions over Matsakis’ actions, Government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said yesterday, there was no call for the way the MEP was abducted and arrested.
“The House President said that there was no need for Matsakis’ action (entering the buffer zone and removing a Turkish flag from a military observation post). But independent of how people rate Matsakis’ action, our attention is concentrated on the fact that he was abducted.”
Foreign Minister George Iacovou supported the MEP, saying that Matsakis was a citizen of the Cypriot public and that it was the government’s duty to protect him. He did stress, however, that by stealing the flag, Matsakis had not helped the resolution of the Cyprus problem.
“While Greek Cypriot behaviour is as a rule very cooperative with the agreements made with the UN, Matsakis actions have marred this.”
AKEL Spokesman Andros Kyprianou said that although his party strongly condemned the actions of the occupying forces and the reactions of Ankara, they were also critical of Matsakis actions.
“Did he not know what the consequences of his actions would be by going to the checkpoint on Saturday? The occupying forces cannot behave in this manner. But unfortunately neither can Matsakis behave in this manner. Unfortunately it is not the first time that Mr Matsakis has acted in a way that isn’t respectful towards the nation’s best interests.”
DIKO MP Andreas Angelides said that Matsakis wasn’t arrested on Saturday, but abducted and that this is a matter that needs to be dealt with by the European Parliament. “I witnessed the event by chance and Matsakis didn’t look like he wanted trouble.”
European Party MP Christos Klerides stressed that Ankara should realise that human rights are not to be violated. Matsakis, he continued, has continually protested the Turkish occupation in his own way.
“Turkey’s action was clearly illegal and they will now have to answer to the European Parliament. It is also a violation of the European treaty. As is the fact that a citizen, in this specific case an MEP, was taken to a military court. Ankara cannot extend its military courts to European citizens. In Europe there are justice rules, there are institutions, there are bodies, there is the European Parliament and there is the immunity, which is internationally recognised, of its MPs.”
Referring to Matsakis’ flag-snatching fiasco, Klerides continued, “Here we have an MEP who is continually protesting against the Turkish occupation. He does it in his own way. He is much braver than what people say. I don’t agree with the opinion that he is harming the Cyprus problem with his actions.”
Finally, Green Party president Georgios Perdikis said that Turkey’s behaviour should be denounced. “What or how Matsakis does what he does is another issue, which I think with all due respect is of secondary importance. I’m afraid to observe, that an internal discussion is taking place over why Matsakis did it and why he chose the specific date.”
“This is serious, but the most important thing now is to denounce Turkey’s behaviour, it’s tactics and character because this involves us, not only as sufferers from the occupying threat, but also because this state wants to become part of a team, a group where there are no army forces,” he said.
