A TURKISH Cypriot man was briefly detained by police in the north after draping himself in a Cyprus Republic flag and parading around occupied Famagusta.
According to Turkish Cypriot daily Afrika, Korai Basdogroulmaci took the initiative to display his allegiance to the Republic of Cyprus after a night of drinking on Sunday.
He donned a T-shirt with Greek writing on it and draped the Cyprus flag around his shoulders.
What followed is less clear. Kibris newspaper reported that when Basdogroulmaci was confronted by a citizen who questioned his choice of regalia, he proceeded to attack him and was subsequently arrested.
However, Afrika reported a slightly more gripping sequence of events.
It said Basdogroulmaci was approached by a lieutenant of the ‘Turkish Cypriot Security Forces’, who began speaking to him in English, thinking that he was a Greek Cypriot.
When Basdogroulmaci assured the lieutenant in Turkish that he was in fact a Turkish Cypriot, the lieutenant began insisting that he replace the Cypriot flag with a Turkish one. According to the report, Basdogroulmaci refused and the lieutenant took the matter into his own hands, and attempted to take the flag from him. A tussle ensued and Basdogroulmaci was briefly detained before being released on bail.
The incident comes two weeks after Turkish flags were placed at a number of locations around Paphos by a man suspected to be Greek Cypriot.
Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2009