MEP MARIOS Matsakis yesterday sent a letter to the President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell, requesting that the EU intervene in the matter of his arrest in the occupied areas on New Year’s Eve.
Matsakis had walked to the Ledra Palace checkpoint bearing a cake and chocolates, which he claimed he wanted to present in a goodwill gesture to Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. After refusing to show his identity card, he was told to wait, and a few minutes later was arrested by plainclothes officers.
“On 31/12/2005 while accompanying the Polish MEP Mrs. Genowefa Grabowska (on a visit to Cyprus after my invitation) and in the presence of Mr. Tasos Georgiou, head of the European Parliament in Cyprus, and while near the Ledra Palace checkpoint in Nicosia, I was attacked (knowing that I was an MEP) and forcefully taken in ‘custody’ by ‘policemen’ of the illegal North Cyprus Turkish Cypriot Regime. My protests and those of Mrs. Grabowska and Mr. Georgiou were totally ignored.
“Then followed a three-day ordeal during which I was striped searched, all my belongings (including my EP ID) confiscated and imprisoned under atrocious conditions and under threat of being lynched by angry Turkish prisoners and Turkish protesters belonging to the extremist nationalist organisation ‘Gray Woolfs’ (sic). No visits were allowed to the UN, my relatives or the EP representatives, despite official requests.”
The beleaguered MEP goes on to relate the incident in which he walked into the buffer zone near Louroujina and walked away with the Turkish flag and how he had later given it to a Turkish reporter in Brussels. He added that at no time did he damage or shame the flag in any way, stating that “it was purely a peaceful, political protest/symbolic action against the occupation of my country by Turkey”.
“I ask kindly for your intervention towards the Turkish government to protest against the treatment I as an MEP received and to ask that this is not repeated in the future. I also request that this matter, especially the way the Turkish Authorities treat MEPs, be discussed in the next plenary session.
“I note that the Turkish government has also recently treated MEP Joost Lagendijk with similar disrespect and threatened to bring charges against him on allegations of “public denigration of Turkishness” (article 301 of the Turkish penal code). Mr. Lagendijk, co-president of the JPC of Turkey – EU, was in Turkey attending the trial of Human Rights writer Mr. Orhan Pamuk and was merely expressing a personal opinion regarding army operations against the Kurds while exercising his freedom of speech and expression.”
Meanwhile, Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides yesterday hit back at comments by Matsakis who had told reporters that he would reappear before the Turkish Cypriot court only if the government and legal services told him to.
“The government’s position on the matter concerning the occupied areas of Cyprus is clear to all. Mr Matsakis should be more than aware of the Cyprus government’s position and therefore I have nothing more to add.”
The controversial MEP, who forced to resign from his party DIKO just days after the Louroujina incident, is presently under two investigations: one for allegedly attempting to influence a police officer in a case involving the shooting of a drug suspect; and the other for buying smuggled antiquities from the north. His European parliamentary immunity has been lifted in connection with the two investigations.
