TWELVE naked Turkish Cypriot footballers launched a media campaign yesterday protesting against their 50-year exclusion from international football, and to highlight the general hardship experienced by Turkish Cypriots as a result of decades of political and economic isolation.
The campaign centres on a poster featuring 12 naked football players with their modesty covered only by a banner reading “Balls to Embargoes!”
Leading the campaign is renown UK fashion designer Huseyin Caglayan, who told the Cyprus Mail he had decided it was now time for him “to give something back” to the country where he was partly raised.
“This campaign is about human rights, not politics. A lot of people I know can’t set up businesses, trade or travel,” he said, adding: “We [Turkish Cypriots] can’t compete in international football or under the Olympic flag. We can’t even play in friendlies.”
Twice named as UK Designer of the Year, Caglayan’s latest attempt to highlight the problems faced by the Turkish Cypriot community as a result of the international community will undoubtedly cause a stir, both in Cyprus and the UK.
London-based campaign organiser Ipek Ozerim told the Mail many thought a poster focusing on male nudity might be too risqu? for conservative Cypriot audiences, but that it was eventually decided to go ahead nevertheless.
“Some said it might be risky, but I’m sure at least the women will love it,” she said, adding that a “light hearted” approach was being used “in order to get people to take notice of a serious issue”.
The serious issue Caglayan and Ozerim are trying to get across is that Turkish Cypriots living in Cyprus face major economic, social and political disadvantages when compared to their Greek Cypriot compatriots.
“They have to stop alienating us by blocking our opportunities,” Caglayan says of the international community and the Greek Cypriot authorities.
But both are emphatic they are “in no way anti-Greek Cypriot” and say the campaign is as much aimed at Greek Cypriots as it is at the international community.
“The popular belief about Cyprus is based on 1974, but you have to look at what happened before that. Most people think there was an invasion and that was it,” says Caglayan. He adds a warning: “If you block us at every step, how can we work together in the future?”
Caglayan believes it is time for Greek Cypriots to question their government’s policies regarding Turkish Cypriots.
“They’ve been let down by them [the government]. You can’t really play the 1974 game any more,” he says.
Ozerim echoes Caglayan by saying: “We hope that we can make Greek Cypriots realise what it is they are actually standing for.
“We want to ask them, ‘Why are you doing this?’ – especially if, as you say, you believe in universal human rights.”
The campaign is also aimed at the international community, which Caglayan says has reneged on promises to reward the Turkish Cypriot community for its pro-solution and pro-EU stance in the referendum on the Annan plan. He insists also that giving Turkish Cypriots equal rights has nothing to do with promoting the idea of a separate Turkish Cypriot state.
“There is a difference between wanting a separate state and wanting your rights,” he says.
Ozerim adds that the existence of the breakaway state is after all a result of the decades-long “alienation” of the community.
“If you prevent people from having their say, of course they will set up their own way of doing things. That’s why everything is split in two in Cyprus.”
It is not the first time Caglayan has used to his talents to highlight what he view as the unfair treatment of his people. In a recent fashion show in Paris he exhibited a t-shirt depicting a rotten lemon. He said it symbolised “stuff we can’t export”.
“The idea was to make people a little more aware of the situation,” he says.
And it is unlikely to be the last of Caglayan’s efforts to raise the profile of his countrymen’s plight. He now heads a London-based pressure group called Embargoed! that has a series of serious and not-so-serious protests planned for the coming year.
Ozerim says the group currently has around 200 members, mostly London-based.
“Many of the members are active professionals,” she says, but adds that there is a need to get more Cyprus-based Cypriots involved. She believes with their football “fanaticism” the message might get through.
