OUTGOING E.U. Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has promised to look into the environmental impact of the giant ‘TRNC’ flag on the Pentadaktylos mountain range following a complaint by DIKO’s MEP Antigone Papadopoulou.
Apart from being an eyesore, the giant ‘TRNC’ flag could present an environmental hazard for both humans and wildlife, Papadopoulou argued in a recent letter to Rehn.
Papadopoulou’s warning was taken seriously enough to spark an EU enquiry into the possible environmental implications of the vast red and white star and crescent. The Greek Cypriot MEP said the flag represented an “a brutal abuse of the environment” and an “absurd waste of electricity at a time of economic crisis”.
Although Papapdopoulou also aired her political objections to the flag, calling it an “unprecedented daily provocation to the people of Cyprus,” Rehn refused to be drawn into launching an enquiry on anything other than the environmental implications of the giant symbol of ethnic partition.
Yesterday, an environmental expert working for the UN told the Cyprus Mail the extent of the risk posed to humans and wildlife depended entirely on what chemical compounds had been used in the painting of the flag. The most likely problematic element, the expert said, was lead.
“In the EU, lead is banned from paints, but because the paint was possibly produced in Turkey, I can’t say,” the expert said. Lead is known to cause brain damage and even death, he added, and was particularly dangerous because of its ability to accumulate in the bodies of those who are exposed to it.
“As a heavy metal, lead stays in the food chain and ends up in the organs of the final consumer in the chain,” the expert said, adding that in many cases the final consumer in the food chain was man.
Another problem possibly arising from the paint comes from volatile organic compounds, which, the expert said, could react in the environment and cause the release of toxic gases.
“Again, the EU has strict regulations on these compounds, and although Turkey is harmonising with the EU, I cannot be sure how far the process has gone,” the expert said.
Unperturbed at how the giant flag might not only poisons relations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, nationalists in the north were similarly unconcerned that it might harm the environment.
Namik Cafer, chairman of the nationalist Kemalist Thought Association (ADD), ruled out any idea that the flag might be erased by saying: “Those flags are the indispensable symbols of our independence and freedom. Such an intervention in the flags with such unreasonable allegations of the Greek Cypriots through the EU is unacceptable.”
“Throughout their history, Turkish Cypriot people have lost numerous sons to protect their flag, the noble symbol of their national identity.
“Neither the EU nor any other power can remove our flags from the peak of the Besparmak [Pentadaktylos] Mountains. We condemn Rehn for making such an unfortunate statement,” he said.
