THE RUSSIAN government is clamping down on tourist companies that operate tours to the occupied north of Cyprus, on the grounds that they do so in breach of the country’s political sanctions against the self-declared ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow has sent a letter to the Russian State Sport Committee, which oversees the tourist industry, warning it to put a stop to activities by a small travel agent called Kumir-Tur that sends tourists to the north.
The letter, addressed to one-time State Sport Committee chairman Boris Ivanuzhenkov, and signed by deputy foreign minister Alexander Avdeev, urges the organisation to “take effective steps against Kumir-Tur and other tourist companies which act contrary to our political line in issues relating to Cyprus”.
But Kumir-Tur company director Natalya Sevastyanova is sticking to her guns. “This letter has no legal justification, since we don’t send tourists to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, we send them to the territory of north Cyprus,” she said.
Anyway, Sevastyanova added, tickets to the ‘TRNC’ are sold at the Moscow branch of Turkish Airlines.
Her company was investigated by representatives of the Moscow Chamber of Commerce and as a result it has removed its website advertisement for tours to the north of Cyprus. The firm also organises holidays for Russians to Italy, Spain and Turkey.
Sevostyanova has called on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to publish an official prohibition relating to the north of Cyprus and circulate it to all Russian tourist companies who market the destination.
The Foreign Ministry picked up on the holidays after officials from the Russian Embassy in Nicosia responded to one Kumir-Tur’s advertisements, which was published in the Russian women’s magazine Lisa.
There are thought to be around 10 Russian companies that send tourists to the north, despite the fact that the Russian government recognise the Republic of Cyprus as the only legal government on the island.
Moscow tourist operators bill Cyprus as the third most popular tourist destination among Russian tourists, after Spain and Turkey.
“It is not a very important destination, but it has attributes which some companies are making money on,” said one Moscow tourist operator, who preferred to remain anonymous. “Serious companies won’t get involved while political questions are unresolved,” she added.
But Sevastyanova is dismissive of the political connotation. “There is no need for politics to be involved,” she said. According to her 1,000 Moscow tourists have visited north Cyprus in the past few years, while the number of holidaymakers from other Confederation of Independent States (CIS) countries like Azerbaijan and Belarus was much larger.
