by halil » Thu Dec 23, 2010 3:26 pm
Basketball team safely home after Greek Cypriot hooligan attack
A Turkish professional basketball team that was subjected to an attack from rowdy Greek Cypriot fans after a game in the southern part of the divided island on Tuesday evening arrived home safely.
The Turkish Pınar Karşıyaka squad from İzmir was in Nicosia for their FIBA EuroChallenge Cup Group G game versus the Greek Cypriot side APOEL. When the referee blew the final whistle fans charged the court with stones, knives and sticks and got as far as the Turkish team's dressing room .
he team’s manager, Nihat Mala, said the angry mob attacked the Karşıyaka squad on the court and this continued in the corridors on the way to the locker rooms.
Greek Cypriot police spokesperson Michalis Katsounotos said on Wednesday that tear gas was used to disperse around 500 stone-throwing fans outside the stadium. Three 15-year-olds were also arrested, he said.
Karşıyaka executives posted the developments on the club’s official website. The team masseur’s hand was injured, while no other casualties were reported.
The Turkish team made their way to their Nicosia hotel accompanied by a convoy of Greek Cypriot police; however, they were not allowed to pass the Turkish side of the island despite the calls by Turkish authorities and the United Nations Peace Force. The team headed from Nicosia to Athens early Wednesday and flew to İzmir where they were greeted by Turkey’s chief negotiator for European Union talks, Egemen Bağış, as well as their fans.
The attack in Nicosia prompted hectic diplomatic activity in the Turkish capital late on Tuesday that continued until the early hours of Wednesday, upon orders from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Officials at the Foreign Ministry and Turkey’s ambassador to theTRNC, Kaya Türkmen, contacted officials from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) to ensure the safety of the team.
While State Minister Faruk Özak called authorities from international sports organizations, Bağış held separate telephone talks with Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas, European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Stefan Füle, TRNC Foreign Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün and former TRNC President Mehmet Ali Talat.
Officials from the European Commission told Turkish officials that they were following the incident and pledged to also closely follow the related judicial process concerning the attack, Bağış told the Anatolia news agency on Wednesday. Bağış stressed that Erdoğan was also personally following the security measures taken for protection of the Turkish team.
The attack upset KKTC officials who expressed sadness, while urging the international community not to remain silent against such racist incidents. Tuesday’s incident is a reflection of negative feelings of Greek Cypriot towards Turkish Cypriots, TRNC PM İrsen Küçük said in a written statement released on Wednesday.
Condemning such racist attacks, Özgürgün also slammed Greek Cypriot authorities for not letting the Turkish team to pass to the Turkish part of the island after the attack.
“It is desperate and thought-provoking that the Greek Cypriot side almost kept the Turkish basketball team in confinement and didn’t let them to go to the north where they would have been more secure. This situation is the strongest indication of Greek Cypriot fanaticism,” Özgürgün said, also in a written statement released on Wednesday.
The roots of the decades-old division between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities date back to the outbreak of inter-communal clashes in 1963 after the eastern Mediterranean island was granted independence from Britain in 1960.
The clashes were triggered by a Greek Cypriot campaign of annihilation of Turkish Cypriots across Cyprus in what was later revealed by the Greek Cypriot Patris newspaper in 1966 as the “Akritas Plan,” which aimed at enosis (union with Greece). The National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston, or EOKA) initiated a guerilla campaign on April 1, 1955 with the intention of making the island Greek.
APOEL fans are known to be extreme-nationalists, the Anatolia news agency reported, and noted that racist attacks by Greek Cypriots have recently increased. Most recently, a group attacked participants, including Turkish Cypriots, at the Rainbow Festival in Larnaca in November.
There is a widespread perception that most of the racist attacks are encouraged by a movement called ELAM (National People’s Front) which seeks to establish itself as a political party with a view to running in elections. ELAM is against any federation-based solution to the Cyprus problem and wants the crossing points with the TRNC to be closed.
From AA.
But how come these shitriot midgets beat your brilliant giants?
