Ken Livingstone insists it’s wrong to advertise the north

LONDON Mayor Ken Livingstone believes that advertising the north’s tourism in the British capital is wrong, a London Turkish newspaper reported yesterday.

Last year, ads for the north were banned from London buses after complaints from Greek Cypriots saying the ads offended them. However, the decision was challenged by the Turkish Cypriots, who were supported by the High Court.

Judge Justice Newman described the London Transport ban as ‘irrational’ and ‘disproportionate’ after four weeks of deliberation, and ordered compensation to the ‘TRNC’ tourism board.

However, Livingstone said he did not agree with the decision. “Simply raising the issue of properties in North Cyprus, when there are an awful lot of Londoners who have not been able to go back to their villages since the Turkish invasion, that’s wrong,” he said.

When the Turkish paper interviewing Livingstone reminded him that “many Turkish Cypriot Londoners were also made refugees and are unable to return to their properties in the south,” Livingstone said:
“There is a difference, which is that in the south there are issues, no doubt, about all the injustices done in the past. And we have this quite clear international legal position, and it applies to Israel and their illegal occupation of the West Bank, as it applies to the Turkish illegal occupation of North Cyprus.”

He said that as long as the artificial division of Cyprus persisted, “the world won’t move on”.
“Therefore I’d like to see Turkish forces withdrawn, a unified Cyprus on some sort of federal structure, and people from both communities able to move between the two parts of the island,” he added.

“Because what you find over here, is that the Turkish, umm, Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots live happily along with Kurds and Turks. I mean, all the refugees, all the diasporas, here in North London share a lot of common cultural bonds and get on very well, and I think you could get that both in Turkey and in Cyprus.”