MOST of the papers in the north yesterday sought to avoid turning the murder of an 11-year-old boy in Limassol on Tuesday into a political issue and chose to run the story as brief news items, devoid of political or emotive comment.
Two papers, however – Afrika and Volkan – ran the story on their front pages.
Coming from either end of the political spectrum, they dealt with the story in very different ways.
Predictably, right-wing Volkan sought to inspire tension in the Turkish Cypriot community by describing the boy’s killer as a “Turk hater” and “barbarian”.
It also tried to rekindle hatred towards Greek Cypriots by referring, in the same front-page article, to the rape and murder of a Turkish Cypriot mother and daughter from Limassol in 1974. The perpetrator, the article said, also claimed diminished responsibility and a drug habit in order to receive a lighter sentence for his crime.
Pro-reunification Afrika focused on why the perpetrator, in the light of his apparent criminal and psychological profile, was allowed out onto the streets of Limassol. The paper also called into question the Republic’s track record on justice and human rights.
“Chrystomides says the killer will be brought to justice,” wrote Afrika editor-in-chief Sener Levent, “But under which norms would a mentally ill person be tried and sentenced?”
Levent also questioned the impartiality of the police in the Republic by asking why, if the police and the judiciary were impartial, Marios Matsakis – who, like 11-year-old Salih Mehmet Ozhovarda’s killer has a “fat file of previous convictions and alleged misdemeanours” – is not being brought to justice.
“And he’s not the only criminal that goes scot-free in the south,” he continued.
“The criminal gang that sold Turkish Cypriot properties in the south remain untroubled by the law while the statements given to the police by the Turkish Cypriot owners of the properties were either thrown in the bin or remain secreted in a locked draw.”
The Turkish Cypriot public seem, on the whole, to have taken the news of the murder in their stride.
Kadir Huseyin, a recent returnee to the island, said the murder was not something that reflected on relations between the two communities.
“That something like this could have happened is awful. But it won’t in any way affect my decision on whether or not to travel in the south. I’ve lived in London for years and if a deranged black person kills someone it does not mean that we then live in fear of black people. That’s just ridiculous.”
Ayse, who has lived all her 24 years on the island, said, “Of course, this tragic event cannot affect my relationship with Greek Cypriots. As far as I know the murderer was mentally ill and on drugs. It’s doubtful whether the killer even knew that his victim was Turkish Cypriot so I think it would be very dishonest for anyone to try and make political capital out of this.”
Berna, a mother in her thirties from Lefka, said, however, she would think twice before letting her young son go alone to Limassol, “not because there are Greek Cypriots there, but because it can be a dangerous place”.
“I would think about sending him to Kyrenia too. There are dodgy people everywhere these days,” she added.
