Sir,
As an Anglo-Cypriot resident of Famagusta until August 1974, I would like to congratulate Anorthosis Football Club for its outstanding achievement in qualifying for the Champions League. Their outstanding quality of play under the inspired management of Temuri Ketsbaia is just reward for their efforts.
However, I think it’s high time that their supporters took a long, hard look at the flag that they insisted on waving. Namely, Greek. It is astonishing that Anorthosis supporters who went to the recent return match in Athens were draped in Greek flags and for their pains had to sprint for safety as they were pelted with stones, chairs and other missiles. While watching the game on television, the only flags I saw being waved in the visitors’ section, no doubt by these same fans, were Greek.
To cap it all, in the stadium the Greek fans taunted the Anorthosis fans with the word “Ottomans”. Even if you take into consideration the highly charged tribal atmosphere and the fact that football matches tend to bring out unruly behaviour, in the circumstances I personally found it galling to see the profusion of these Greek flags. Surely I don’t have to remind people that it was the Greek inspired coup of July 15, 1974 that was the catalyst for the Turkish invasion and as a result tens of thousands of Famagusta’s residents became refugees. Yet it’s incomprehensible that Cypriots continue to wave the flag of a nation which was not only central to unleashing these catastrophic events but who also mocked and called them “Ottomans” into the bargain.
Although I fully understand the historical and emotional ties between Greece and Cyprus, it’s time that this schizophrenic nationalism was dumped. In the coming Champions League games, the fans should be waving the Cypriot flag – NOT the Greek flag – and be proud to do so. Perhaps the club and possibly the government could take the lead in promoting this and appeal to the fans as the eyes of tens of millions of people will be watching these games. Apart from confusing the rest of the world, this heaven sent PR opportunity to promote the island’s identity and hard pressed tourist industry, rather than Greece’s, should not be squandered. It could be worth untold millions of pounds to the island’s economy.
Finally, for a club which lost its Cypriot, not Greek, town and stadium, to quote the immortal sporting phrase, “The boys done good.”
Gavin Jones, Lemba
