‘Being trapped by the past is not going to help Cyprus’
A MAP of Cyprus with dripping blood representing the occupied north is the latest target for London-based pressure group Embargoed! , who say the image is insulting to Turkish Cypriots.
Embargoed! made an impact earlier this year when it launched a poster campaign that showed naked footballers protesting against the exclusion of Turkish Cypriot sportsmen and women from international competitions.
The picture was accompanied by the racy title, “Balls to the embargoes!”. This time, however, it is a logo used by the National Federation of Cypriots (NFC) in Britain that is at the centre of their latest campaign.
“For Turkish Cypriots, the sight of the bloody map is utterly offensive. Its crude and vulgar imagery demonises north Cyprus and vilifies Turks,” Dr Fusun Nadiri, an active Embargoed! member said in a press released sent by Embargoed!, adding that it was “false and cruel to imply only Greek Cypriots suffered and all the suffering was inflicted by Turkey”.
The protest was triggered by the use of the bloody map logo in a two-page advertisement in the Haringey Advertiser calling for Cypriots to gather for the NFC’s annual Rally for Cyprus. In response to the advertisement, Embargoed! wrote to both the NFC and the Advertising Standards Association (ASA) asking that steps be taken to prevent future use of the offending logo.
Nadiri warned Greek Cypriots that “being trapped by the past is not going to help Cyprus” and that “the best way to reconcile the two sides is to avoid anything that fuels hatred of the other”. She added that, “both sides have endured major trauma and only by acknowledging this can we move forward to a peaceful future built on the recognition of the collective and individual rights of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots.”
Embargoed! say they have yet to receive a response from the ASA, but have begun an campaign of lobbying MPs and collecting names for a petition against the logo. The group say they have received the support of a number of MPs and councillors who agreed that the logo is “damaging” to relations between the two communities.
In his letter to NFC head Haris Sophoclides Embargoed! head Bulent Osman called on Greek Cypriots to move on from the stance he believes they have maintained since 1974 and follow the Turkish Cypriot community’s lead in revising its view of past events.
“In the past three or four years, Turkish Cypriots have undergone enormous changes politically and psychologically. They have sought to come to terms with the events of 1963-74 and beyond, not just from their own perspective, but from that of their neighbours,” Osman said.
He uses the example of a recent change in the history syllabus in Turkish Cypriot schools that, he says, no longer demonises Greek Cypriots and gives a “more balanced version of history, celebrating multiculturalism and championing tolerance”.
“These are the seeds to a peaceful future,” Osman concluded.
A spokesman from the NFC yesterday told the Cyprus Mail the logo was not meant to be offensive to Turkish Cypriots, and that what some may have thought was dripping blood was the in fact the uneven shape of the Green Line. The spokesman added that the message “I will not forget” that accompanied the logo referred to the suffering of all Cypriots, whether Greek or Turkish, even though the message was written only in Greek and English.
Embargoed! spokeswoman Ipek Ozerim rejected the NFC’s spokesman’s explanation by saying, “That logo has been around for years and we all know what it represents”.
??
??
??
??
