OFFICIALS yesterday sought to play down an incident in the mixed buffer zone village of Pyla, which saw Turkish Cypriot properties vandalised and a bust of Ataturk daubed in paint.
Yesterday, Turkish Cypriot papers splashed the incident across their front pages, accusing the Greek Cypriots of “provocation” on the eve of reunification talks
According to the Turkish Cypriot press, stones were thrown at shops as well as a car belonging to Turkish Cypriots, while the bust of Ataturk outside the village’s Turkish primary school was daubed in plaster.
The perpetrators also allegedly attempted to haul down the school’s Turkish flag.
The incident is said to have occurred at around 4am on Wednesday and both Cyprus and Turkish Cypriot police, together with United Nations police, rushed to the scene.
Last Tuesday, nationalist slogans had been painted on the walls of the community multi-use hall, which a council crew was called to remove.
The President of the Pyla Community Council, Christakis Antoniou, said yesterday that “the situation was defused as soon as it was realised that no Greek Cypriot or Turkish Cypriot village residents were involved in the incident”.
Calm was reported to have returned to the village yesterday.
Ahmet Muratoglu, president of the Pyla Co-ordinating Committee, yesterday insisted that “no political connotations should be given to this episode and similar isolated incidents should not be allowed to spoil the atmosphere ahead of the start of the direct talks”.
Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer described the attack as “unfortunate and unacceptable” and called Turkish Cypriots to stay calm, claiming that “this is the action of some Greek Cypriot organisations which have recently increased their provocations ahead of the meeting of the two community leaders”.
The attack, he said, aimed “to overshadow the atmosphere” ahead of the September 3 meeting between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
‘Foreign Minister’ Turkai Avtzi said that the incident was being examined and called Turkish Cypriots to stay calm, while he called the Greek Cypriot side to identify the culprits and bring them to justice.
Turkish Cypriot newspaper Kibris yesterday dedicated most of its front page to the episode under the banner headline “Provocations”.
It said incidents such as this were serious and claimed it the act of the ultranationalist neo-Nazi organisation Golden Dawn.
Halkin Sesi headlined “Greek Cypriot provocations continue in Pyla”, while Volkan said “Behold united Cyprus”. Ortam’s main headline is “Agent provocateurs are resuscitated”, while Yeni Duzen wrote “Provocations in Pyla”.
Kibrisli questioned the extent to which the daily lives of the residents of Pyla would serve as a model for the lives of Cypriots after a solution of the Cyprus problem.
It added there was a continuous increase in the number of people who wanted each side to confine itself to its own territory, and held up as an example the Turkish and Greek children of Pyla who do not argue with each other simply because they do not play together.
A representative of the United Nations said yesterday that “the peace-keeping force based in the village is continuing its investigations on the incident”.
Residents of the bi-communal village said yesterday that there were no problems in relations between them. They said that the coverage was sensationalist and that the whole incident was a provocation from unknown persons in an attempt to degrade the good relations between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, especially in Pyla.
Pyla is a bi-communal village in the Larnaca district, located in the eastern part of the island in the United Nations Buffer Zone set up since 1974. It is under 24-hour surveillance by UNFICYP. Pyla is the only settlement in Cyprus still inhabited by its original Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot residents.
