TURKEY "MIXING THINGS UP" IN CYPRUS
London Daily News
ng-things-cyprus-p-3678.html
Jan 12 2010
It maybe quick, and some might say its irresponsible to point fingers,
but is Turkey trying to destablise the Republic of Cyprus and provoke
a "casus belli" in order to do what Turkey is good at, exporting its
internal problems and unite its population, on a nationalistic cause.
Last night Andy Hajicostis the owner of Cyprus’s largest media group
Dias Media Group, was gunned down outside of his home in the Engomi
area of Nicosia, near the US Embassy. Assassinations of politicians,
and journalists are not something that occurs in Cyprus, period. But
in Turkey assassinations are much more common place; 16 November 2007
Ä°hya Balak the head of the Turkish National Lottery, was assassinated
in his office by an ex-inspector of his directorate. Hrant Dink,
Armenian-Turkish journalist and editor-in-chief of the weekly Armenian
and Turkish language newspaper Agos in Istanbul was shot dead in front
of his newspaper’s officeon 19 January 2007. Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin
a state member judge was murdered on 17 May 2006 during a session
in the high court in Ankara. In 2002 Necip Hablemitoglu a Kemalist
historian from Ankara University was killed in an armed attack near
his home in Ankara was assassinated 18 December 2002.
The Dias Media Group, its flagship newspaper Simerini, one of Cyprus
leading daily newspapers, was and has been consistently against the
adoption of the UN sponsored Annan Plan by the Greek-Cypriots. Could
this have been the motive for Turkish sponsored agents to go out and
murder Hajicostis? At present sources close to the victim have said
that they have no knowledge of any "underworld" vendettas against him,
and according to many in Cyprus Hajicostis had good relations with
all the main political parties in Cyprus.
The assassination of the Andy Hajicostis, follows the bizarre
theft of the corpse of the former President Tassos Papadopoulos,
another anti-Annan campaigner. The corpse has not been found, foreign
intelligence agencies are believed to be helping the Republic of Cyprus
find the ex-presidents body. In summary intelligence sources contacted
by the London Daily News indicate that there has been a sustained
and co-coordinated attempt by Turkey in Cyprus to "mix things up".
There is deep anger in Turkey, that a mere 600,000 Greek-Cypriots can
veto Turkey’s hopes from ever becoming an EU member state. The hatred
amongst Turks for the way in which the "Greek-side" are always being
given carrots cannot be under-estimated.
Today the media world in Cyprus is in mourning for the life of Andy
Hajicostis, but will the assassination of a media mogul lead to a
total breakdown of talks between President Christofias and Mr Talat,
which will in effect give the green light to a formal partition of the
island? Time will tell, but this murder must not be allowed to stop
the peace talks, and as in Northern Ireland with the Iris Robinson
scandal, the so called "peace dividend" is far more important, and
should be remembered before knee-jerk reactions take place.
If Turkey has sanctioned the murder of Andy Hajicostis, then once again
the Turks have shown to the international community their true colours.