CYPRUS HOUSE PRESIDENT SENDS BACK NORTHERN CYPRUS LEADER’S NEW YEAR PRESENTS
PanARMENIAN.Net
15.01.2009 13:49 GMT+04:0
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A political feud has broken out over the decision
by Cyprus House President and DIKO party leader Marios Garoyian to
send back a basket of presents sent to him by Northern Cyprus leader
Mehmet Ali Talat for the New Year.
The action was criticized by the Turkish Cypriot press which called
it an insult.
DIKO said that the reason he did so was because it wrote "President
Mehmet Ali Talat" and "TRNC" on the card. That accepting a present
does not mean recognition, Gibrahayer reports.
In 1974, following years of intercommunal violence between ethnic
Greeks and Turks and an attempted coup d’etat by Greek Cypriot
nationalists aimed at annexing the island to Greece and engineered by
the military junta then in power in Athens, Turkey invaded and occupied
one third of the island. This led to the displacement of thousands of
Cypriots and the establishment of a separate Turkish Cypriot political
entity in the north, recognized by Turkey only. This event and its
resulting political situation are matters of ongoing dispute.