Gunmen strike at Guzelyurtlu murder suspect

ONE of the key suspects in the murder of Turkish Cypriot businessman Elmas Guzelyurtlu, his wife and teenage daughter, was seriously wounded in a gun attack in the northern town of Kyrenia, the Turkish Cypriot press reported yesterday.

Media reports identified the victim as Mustafa Cavga, the name of one of the eight suspects for whom police in the south issued arrest warrants. He was reportedly ambushed by three men while exiting a shop. The assailants fired an undetermined number of shots at Cavga, who was rushed to Kyrenia hospital and later to a hospital in the occupied part of Nicosia.

His condition was described as non life-threatening. No further information on the perpetrators or their motives was given.

Eight men were apprehended by authorities in the north in early January in connection with the Guzelyurtlu murder, but later walked free due to the lack of incriminating evidence. The suspects were released without restrictions and allowed to travel abroad if they so wished. However, law enforcement in the north said they were not closing the case and would continue investigations.

Elmas Guzelyurtlu, his wife Zerrin and their 15-year-old daughter Eylul were found dead in their family car on the verge of the Nicosia-Larnaca highway on the morning of January 15. Each had been killed by a single bullet to the head.

Authorities on the two sides of the island refused to pool their resources. The south insisted they had evidence, including DNA material, linking some of the suspects to the murder. Requests to hand over the suspects went unheeded, with the breakaway regime insisting they should be arraigned and tried in the north. Police in the government-controlled areas denied the north access to its evidence.

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.