Outspoken Turkish Cypriot Afrika newspaper changed its name and logo on Thursday following criticism that its name and monkey logo were racist.
Afrika changed its name back to Avrupa (Europe) which was its initial name when the paper was first established in 1997.
Avrupa’s new logo is a thinking donkey with the paper saying it represents “everything we have been through, will go through and our country’s wretched condition.”
It’s main headline on Thursday was titled, ‘Oh, we donkeys’.
The paper said that Avrupa first circulated in September 1997 and was forced to stop its circulation on December 14, 2001 following a lawsuit filed against it by former Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. A day later Afrika was born.
Avrupa wrote that they were back to the beginning of the adventure that started around 23 years ago.
“We did not make any progress…The right-wing politicians could not accept Avrupa and the left Afrika. Bombs and bullets came from the right-wing, animosity and hatred from the left,” it said.
The paper’s publisher and editor-in-chief, Sener Levent announced last week they were renaming it following criticism from African students in the north that name of the paper and the monkey logo were racist.
The paper said on Thursday they were carrying on as Avrupa without making any concessions from the principles which they have been defending.
“We are bidding farewell to Afrika and our belloved ape. Instead, we now have a thinking donkey as the paper’s logo,” the paper said.
The campaign was launched by organisation Voices of International Students (VOIS) set up in 2018 to raise awareness and combat discriminatory practices in relation to overseas students studying in the north of Cyprus.
The student’s call, coming in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in the US, stirred a debate in the north over the Afrika logo.
Despite the fact the paper had argued that the monkey was derived from the image of the three monkeys who don’t see, don’t hear and don’t say anything but that Afrika, on the contraty, has open eyes, ears and mouth, giving in to pressure, decided to make the change.
The donkey is the logo for the US Democrat party but it is also a symbol closer to home for Cyprus through the famed Cypriot donkeys that roam free in many parts of the north. Rauf Denktash once said the only real Cypriots in Cyprus were the donkeys.
