Akinci insults and threats’ probe underway

ASSOCIATES of Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Thursday handed over to authorities in the north a file with information on insults and death threats made against him on social media.

Copies of the file were delivered to the north’s ‘police chief’, the ‘attorney-general’, as well as to the Turkish embassy in the northern part of Nicosia.

Suleyman Manavoglu, the north’s top cop, was quoted as saying that a probe into the threats was already underway.

Authorities would complete their investigation as swiftly as possible, he added.

Reports said some of the social media posts under scrutiny have been traced to accounts in mainland Turkey, while others to accounts in the north of the island.

Havadis newspaper on Wednesday reported that a number of threatening comments were made against Akinci on social media that were not limited to swearing and insults. According to other reports, there were already 6,000 such comments posted between Sunday and Tuesday.

“We will take you suddenly one night, be sensible, listen to what Erdogan is saying”; “We will hang you and your family on gallows”; “You will come to Turkish territories, then we will squeeze your head”; and “We will take your head, dog..” were just some instances of the vitriol thrown Akinci’s way.

The social media blitz, as well as a political storm in the north, were triggered by Akinci’s earlier ‘anti-war’ remarks relating to Turkey’s military incursion into Syria.

Akinci’s comments were seen as ‘unpatriotic’ by many.

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.