NICOSIA: Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades fired his police chief yesterday after extremists attacked a former Turkish Cypriot leader, drawing an angry response from his successor just days before a new round of peace talks.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and seized its northern third in response to a Greek-engineered coup in Nicosia to unite the island with Greece.
Witnesses said around 100 members of the extreme right-wing National People’s Front (Elam) tried on Wednesday night to disrupt a meeting in the southern coastal city of Limassol at which former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat was due to speak.
Elam is a fringe party that was founded in 2008 and espouses a radically anti-Turkish and anti-immigrant line.
Police said they arrested three people as some Elam members tried to force their way inside, shattering a glass door, and that more arrests were planned.
Turkish Cypriot media said the Elam members threw eggs, oranges and “explosive materials” at Talat, but that he was not injured.
Authorities said the event, also attended by US Ambassador John Koenig, went ahead and that Talat gave a speech on the prospects of a reunified Cyprus.
Greek Cypriot media said a flare was thrown into the hall, landing at Koenig’s feet.
Anastasiades said in a statement he had sacked police chief Michalakis Papageorgiou over Wednesday night’s “unacceptable events” after “reviewing the facts... and taking into account previous oversights”.
He did not elaborate, but there were comments in the press that there had been insufficient security at the venue.
Anastasiades said he had instructed the justice minister and attorney general to investigate a complaint by a Turkish Cypriot journalist who was injured during the incident and had his camera stolen.
“I want to make clear that the state will not accept any form of fascist behaviour, wherever it comes, especially a minority that declares itself as the alleged protector of the Greeks of Cyprus,” Anastasiades said.
The incident angered Talat’s successor as head of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Dervis Eroglu, who issued a statement yesterday condemning it.
Eroglu is due to meet Anastasiades on Monday for the second time since UN-brokered peace talks resumed last month after two years of stalemate.
“It is worrying that such violent incidents are taking place at a time when the negotiation process has reached a critical point and measures aimed at eliminating the mistrust between the two sides are on the agenda,” he said.
AFP
