DIKO deputy Marios Matsakis said yesterday he was “honoured to be considered a threat by Denktash” after reports that his name was on a Turkish secret service hit list.
Former National Guard chief Demetrios Demou told the Athens’ daily Eleftheros Typos that the had UN told him of a plot against Matsakis during his service on the island.
Matsakis yesterday told the Cyprus Mail he had been aware of the threat since 1996.
“There have been numerous threats to my life, information about which has been passed on to me through the Cyprus police, the British police, the Justice Ministry and other agencies,” Matsakis said.
“I live with the threat and take certain precautions. It is something I have learned to live with and I do not think it has in any way affected the action I take.”
Matsakis said that the fact that he was still on the hit list indicated how effective he was.
Demou served as National Guard chief for two years from 1998. He told Eleftheros Typos that the UN “knew everything about the planned assassination of the deputy. I myself collected a lot of information on the matter from military sources during my term in Cyprus.”
The authorities have been aware of a Turkish Secret Services hit list since the assassination of Kurdish sympathiser Theophilos Georgiades seven years ago.
Matsakis, who will not be running in the upcoming parliamentary elections, is well known for his outspoken campaigns against the Turkish occupation
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
