English School defaced

Greek nationalist graffiti was found yesterday sprawled on the old building of the English School, Nicosia.

Slogans included anti-AKEL slogans and ‘E.S. is Greek’. Insults were also sprayed next to the name Antonis Antoniou, the same name as one of the school’s economics teacher who is known for his pro-rapprochement political position.
The perpetrators also signed the graffiti ‘by ESL08’, meaning English School leavers 2008.

No one from the school was available for comment with the school still closed for the Easter holidays.

The school has been the site of bi-communal trouble in the recent past, when a gang of hooded pupils from surrounding state schools attacked five Turkish Cypriot pupils on November 22 2006.

Graffiti had also appeared in the run-up to the 2004 referendum, this time directed at leavers who were in favour of the Annan Plan.

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.