‘Why can’t we advertise in the south?’
THE VICE Chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Advertisers Association Zeki Tasci hit out at the Greek Cypriot media yesterday for its refusal to handle advertising from companies based in the north, despite statements by the government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides stating that there is no legal basis for their refusal to handle Turkish Cypriot advertising.
“There is no law that says Turkish Cypriot companies cannot advertise in the Republic,” Chrysostomides said, adding that the reason why papers did not run advertisements from the north was that there was “too little demand”.
Tasci, however, told the Mail there was great demand in the north, but that repeated efforts by Turkish Cypriot businessmen to get Greek papers to run their advertisements had been met with refusal.
“After the crossings opened in April 2003 we applied to all the papers in the south, but only one of them, Politis, ran one of our ads. All the others refused point blank. When we wanted to run the ad again, Politis also refused,” Tasci said.
“I think the paper came under great pressure from other papers and political circles not to run our advertisements,” Tasci added.
Since then, all attempts to buy advertising space in the south’s press have failed.
Tasci said the refusal of media in the south to handle Turkish Cypriot advertising showed a “deep hypocrisy” in the mindset of Greek Cypriots.
“Papadopoulos says he wants to help Turkish Cypriots raise their standard of living, but the fact that we can’t even advertise in the south, let alone sell our produce, shows he is not sincere”.
Tasci said the south’s refusal also exposed an inequality between the way the north and the south handle the division of the island.
“The south can advertise in nearly all our papers. Even the Greek Cypriot government can publish messages regarding the European Union elections – something our government had serious problems with – but no one objects”.
Tasci added that it is not only official bodies that use the north’s press to advertise.
“A supermarket in the south recently took out a full-page colour ad in Kibris. The same supermarket also paid for a full-page sized pullout. No one objected on the grounds that Greek Cypriots could be taking business from us or that they might be operating from a property previously owned by Turkish Cypriots”.
He added that, as far as he knew, the north’s administration had no policy on the matter and criticised the Republic for taking such an “unconstructive” approach in the current atmosphere of rapprochement between the two communities.
“If they want peace, as we do, why don’t they work with us rather than trying to starve us?”
He added that if the Greek Cypriots were attempting to punish the Turkish Cypriots for the Turkish invasion, why were they not boycotting Turkish products.
“All kinds of products from Turkey are available in the south and we know of literally thousands of contacts between Greek Cypriot and mainland Turkish businessmen who are waiting for the day when Turkey officially recognises Cyprus”.
Tasci said the stance of Greek Cypriot newspapers and those who pressured them not to take Turkish Cypriot advertising exposed “hypocritical attitude” in the south that punished Turkish Cypriots, but not Turkey.
“We are not the invader. We are Cypriots”.
Tasci added that the attitude of the Greek Cypriot press sent a clear message to the Turkish Cypriots that they were “not wanted on the island” and called on the south to begin working with the north rather than “bypassing” it.
“We are ready to do business in a free market. We are not scared, and I don’t think they [Greek Cypriots] should be either”.
“Many businessmen go south to get promotional materials made and we don’t have a problem with that. But not one Greek Cypriot comes to us. They are doing everything they can not to spend a penny here”.
Andreas Paraskos of south Cyprus daily Politis denied his paper had a policy of not accepting Turkish Cypriot advertising.
“We ran advertisements from Turkish Cypriots almost immediately after the crossings opened, but we got a very big reaction from other papers and many of our readers. So we decided to stop running them for a while and reconsider at a better time.”
Asked whether now was a good time to reconsider the decision Paraskos said, “We might reconsider. I think we should. It’s not an easy thing to tackle”.
He added: “We were sure we were doing the right thing, but doing the right thing is not easy in Cyprus”.
Rena Koulermou of Alithia said she no knowledge of applications from Turkish Cypriots for advertising space.
“We don’t have a policy of not allowing them to advertise. The same rules apply to them as to anyone else”.
