TURKISH Cypriot ‘authorities’ yesterday released two Greek Cypriots held since Saturday for trespassing on a restricted military area in the breakaway north.
Former MEP Yiannakis Matsis and Loizos Afxentiou, of the Famagusta Refugees Movement, appeared before a military court in the north. They were charged with illegal entry into a restricted zone, fined €90 each and ordered released.
The two were among a party of MEPs and Christian Orthodox clergymen who had crossed into the north on a tour of derelict Orthodox Christian churches and cemeteries there. The trip included a visit to abandoned Varosha, the fenced-off Greek Cypriot suburb of Famagusta on the island’s east coast that is controlled by the Turkish army.
Also detained on Saturday were Polish MEPs Artur Zasada and Jaroslaw Leszek Walesa, the son of former Polish President Lech Walesa; they were released hours later.
The four men had crossed into the fenced-off area and entered the courtyard of a dilapidated Christian church when they were confronted by soldiers who turned them over to arriving police officers.
All the MEPs are European People’s Party (EPP) national parliamentarians.
The group included Cypriot MEP Eleni Theocharous, Bulgarian MEP Mariya Nedelcheva and a European Parliament employee. They and two clerics were kept for questioning at a ‘TRNC’ police station before also being released on Saturday evening.
Matsis, former leader of the DISY party, and Afxentiou were held at a separate police station. Later on Saturday, the two were taken to a hospital in Famagusta after feeling unwell.
Due to a history of heart problems, Matsis was kept for observation at the hospital throughout the weekend. During his stay there, the former MEP was visited by his wife and son.
Afxentiou appeared in court on Sunday to hear the charges against him, but the hearing was adjourned for a day so that he and Matsis could appear together. Afxentiou reportedly spent the rest of Sunday at the residence of a Turkish Cypriot acquaintance.
In the south, condemnation of Saturday’s incident by political parties and organisations continued to pour in yesterday.
Earlier in the day, DISY had read out a statement issued by Wilfried Martens, president of the EPP, expressing “astonishment” over the event, denouncing the arrest of European citizens by Turkish Cypriot authorities and calling for the immediate release of all those detained.
Speaking to reporters while still in the north, Afxentiou, a Famagusta refugee, explained that in crossing into the fenced-off area he had sought to reach his parental home, situated just behind the Christian church:
“We abandoned our house in 1974 when I was eight years old.,” he said. “When MEP Jaroslaw Walesa saw this, he told me ‘As a European citizen I cannot accept that someone should forbid me from visiting my home’.
“At that point he went inside [the restricted area] and I followed behind him. Next followed MEP Artur Zasada. And Yiannakis Matsis, despite his age, managed to hurdle the fence and came into the church courtyard. In the end, I did not succeed in going to the house where I had dreamt of raising my own family.”
On returning to the government-controlled areas late on Saturday, MEP Artur Zasada declined comment on the incident except to say: “Two of our friends have been arrested. I will have more to say when they are released.”
Theocharous, back in the north yesterday as a show of support for Matsis and Afxentiou, said ‘TRNC’ police had initially seized the group’s travel and identification papers, and called the treatment of the MEPs by Turkish Cypriot authorities “unacceptable”.
She did however praise certain Turkish Cypriot politicians for visiting her group at the police station and for apparently interceding for their swift release. She also said Ferdi Sabit Soyer, leader of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) had promised to ensure that the two Greek Cypriots’ stay at the hospital over the weekend was as comfortable as possible.
Neapolis Bishop Porfyrios, who represents the Church of Cyprus in Brussels and was among those briefly detained on Saturday, described it as an “ordeal”, adding that after Famagusta the party had intended to visit the Apostle Andreas monastery.
Over the weekend, and as the government made representations to the UN for the release of the detainees, other Cypriot MEPs had scrambled to inform their respective parties in the European Parliament of the incident as an additional form of pressure
