CYPRIOT OFFICIALS and politicians displayed a rare moment of unity yesterday, joining forces to condemn Turkey’s efforts to exploit politically last week’s incident of basketball hooliganism.
Foreign Minister Marcos Kyprianou said Turkish officials had entered a pre-election period and were “babbling” in an effort to politically exploit random events after an international men’s basketball match in Nicosia.
“The attempt to politically exploit an unfortunate incident at a sporting event is truly reprehensible and unjustifiable,” he said.
After last week’s game ended APOEL fans attempted to attack players of the Turkish team Pinar Karsiyaka. No players were injured while five police officers were taken to hospital for treatment.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan used the event to highlight that racism and hatred was on the rise among Greek Cypriots. He attempted to establish a link between the hooligans and the argument that Greek Cypriots did not want peace on the island.
Turkey’s EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis went a step further saying: “The fact that they could not guarantee the safety of a basketball team showed the whole world that they cannot be a state.” One Turkish paper quoted him saying the “Greek Cypriot side is not a state, but a nomadic tribe”.
Responding, Kyprianou stressed that the state reacted immediately and effectively ensuring that the Turkish team’s players were not in danger.
Instead of focusing on exploiting the incident at Cyprus’ expense, Kyprianou called on Turkey to implement its obligations and show the country’s tolerance with other religions.
Unfortunately incidents do occur at sports events, he said, highlighting the serious incidents, resulting in injuries, which took place in Turkey last Sunday at a football match.
“We understand the irritation of the Minister for European Affairs, Mr Bagis. Turkey’s weakness to open EU negotiation chapters makes him adopt extreme political interpretations of the incident in an effort to attack the Cyprus government,” he said.
Turkey should realise that the lack of progress in its EU negotiation process is exclusively its own responsibility, he added.
“If Mr Bagis dedicated more energy and effort to the compliance and implementation of Turkey’s obligations, instead of verbal attacks against the Cyprus Republic, I believe he would have helped his country much more,” said Kyprianou.
Ruling AKEL leader Andros Kyprianou said Turkey’s efforts to exploit the incidents were “unacceptable because they do not reflect the way Cypriot people behave, they reflect how a small group of people operate and behave”.
“Turkey is an occupying power in Cyprus and it cannot in any way shake off its responsibilities for the situation by shifting blame on some young Cypriot extremists,” he said.
In a released announcement, coalition partner DIKO labelled Erdogan’s comments as “political hooliganism”.
“The complaints and quibbles of Mr Erdogan cannot disguise brutality, and absolve Turkey from the crime of invasion and occupation and the continued violation of the human rights of Cypriot people,” said the announcement.
EDEK condemned Erdogan’s comments for being “brazen, insulting and provocative”.
Foreign Minister Kyprianou added that Turkey was the last government to give lessons of tolerance in Cyprus, following the Turkish military’s interruption of Christmas mass in Rizokarpasso in the occupied north last Saturday.
