Cyprus-Forum.com

[humanist]

Talat. Or is he really a turkish puppet and Papadopoulos has ever right to ignore him.


"THOSE OFFENDED by the giant ‘TRNC’ flag on the Pentadaktylos mountains could soon find insult added to injury if a group of nationalist activists succeed in their plans to erect two more giant flags at the peak of the range.

“We would like to send a message to the whole world that these lands and region belong to the Turkish nation,” Cavlan Suerdim, a spokesman for a group calling itself the Flag on the Zenith Association told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

The group says it has applied to the breakaway state’s ‘interior ministry’ for permission to erect two new flags – one Turkish, and one ‘TRNC’ – on the highest peak of the Pentadaktylos mountain range. Each flag, the association says, will be 92 metres square, illuminated at night and be mounted on flag poles 36 metres high, making them clearly visible from the capital.

An existing ‘TRNC’ flag painted onto the southern slopes of the range, and equal in size to 11 football pitches, already causes ire to many, in particular Greek Cypriots, on the island.

Suerdim, however, refused to acknowledge that Greek Cypriots might find the flags provocative and said, “This is Turkish land and we can erect flags wherever we wish”. He also hit out at Turkish Cypriots not taking an equally nationalistic approach by saying, “If anyone doesn’t want to live in the shadow of these sacred flags, they are free to move elsewhere in the world”.

Suerdim, a former ‘TRNC ambassador’ and advisor to ex-Turkish leader Rauf Denktash, said the project came to life after he was approached by a number of students wishing to express their patriotic feelings.

Yesterday, leader of the pro-solution Peace and Democracy Movement (BDH) Mustafa Akinci hit out at what he described as “fanatical nationalism” and warned that such sentiments could in time “lead to terrorism”. He added that the flags were not just there to annoy Greek Cypriots, but also to send a message to Turkish Cypriots.

“This kind of nationalism needs both foreign and internal enemies to survive,” he said, adding that it was “moderate people with empathy for those on the other side” who were regarded by such groups as the internal enemy.

Environmentalists in the north have also voiced opposition to the flag project, with Green Action Group leader Dogan Sahir saying he will take legal action to stop it.

If the flag project gets the go ahead from the north’s authorities, it will do so at a cost of around £25,000, which the association says it will collect from public donations.

But whether the Flag at the Zenith Association will get the green light remained in doubt after Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer branded the project “unnecessary”.

The ‘interior ministry’ meanwhile said it was yet to receive the group’s application and warned the association against going ahead with fundraising before gaining approval for the project.
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