{"id":29574,"date":"2010-12-24T00:33:48","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T22:33:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=29574"},"modified":"2023-04-05T14:26:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T11:26:26","slug":"turkey-seeks-response-to-greek-cyprus-hooliganism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/12\/24\/turkey-seeks-response-to-greek-cyprus-hooliganism\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey seeks response to Greek Cyprus hooliganism"},"content":{"rendered":"
FULYA \u00d6ZERKAN<\/div>\n
ANKARA – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/div>\n

Turkey is readying to use legal and political channels to respond to attacks against Turkish basketball players during a match in Greek Cyprus. ‘Our first priority was to ensure the players’ safe return after the attack. That was done and the next step will be to bring the issue onto the international agenda,’ a diplomatic source says<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Turkey is poised to take strong legal and political measures in pressing for an international response to an assault Tuesday night on a Turkish basketball squad by home-team fans during a match in Greek Cyprus.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur first priority was to ensure the players\u2019 safe return after the attack. That was done and the next step will be to bring the issue onto the international agenda,\u201d a diplomatic source told the H\u00fcrriyet Daily News & Economic Review on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Turkey will pursue legal channels by sending a letter of complaint to the world basketball governing body, while the government presses the United Nations and the European Union to take action. Ankara holds the U.N. Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus responsible for not taking sufficient security measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will, of course, complain to the United Nations both in Nicosia and New York because while our team\u2019s initiative to play the match in Greek Cyprus was a [friendly] gesture, our players\u2019 safety was not ensured,\u201d the diplomatic source said. \u201cBecause Greek Cyprus is a member of the European Union we will also take initiative at the EU level.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a FIBA Eurochallenge game against Apoel in Nicosia on Tuesday night, players on Turkey\u2019s P\u0131nar Kar\u015f\u0131yaka were severely attacked by hundreds of Apoel fans who threw objects at the team and charged the court after the match\u2019s final buzzer. The game had no particular importance since both teams\u2019 places in Group G were already certain.<\/p>\n

The Turkish basketball players returned home to the Aegean province of \u0130zmir through Greece because Greek Cypriot officials rejected P\u0131nar Kar\u015f\u0131yaka\u2019s request to spend the night with security in northern Cyprus. They argued\u00a0that such a step would be tantamount to recognizing Turkish Cyprus, which is only recognized by Turkey. Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been divided since 1974, when Turkey sent troops into the north after a rebellion by Greek Cypriots who wanted to unify with Greece.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Greek Cypriot squad played in a previous match in \u0130zmir, where they were warmly welcomed without encountering any incident. Turkish authorities did not even feel the need to take any extra security measures,\u201d one source familiar with the developments told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur players thought they would be treated the same and in return decided to play the match in Greek Cyprus but what was expected did not happen,\u201d the source added.<\/p>\n

Immediately following the incident, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu held a telephone conversation with Kaya T\u00fcrkmen, the country\u2019s ambassador to northern Cyprus. Embassy officials contacted by the Daily News said T\u00fcrkmen would be unable to comment due to his busy schedule.<\/p>\n

Turkey will track the issue, says FM<\/p>\n

In Istanbul, Davuto\u011flu said Thursday that necessary security measures were not taken. \u201cThis is not an excusable situation, and we will keep track of the issue,\u201d he told a group of journalists in Istanbul\u2019s \u00c7\u0131ra\u011fan Palace, where he was attending the 11th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization.<\/p>\n

The Turkish foreign minister also said statements of apology made by Greek Cypriot authorities immediately after the attack were not sufficient, and emphasized that brotherhood and peace must prevail in sports events.<\/p>\n

In initial remarks, Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias slammed those involved in the assault as \u201cbrainless,\u201d saying their actions harmed the interests of the Greek Cypriot side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has caused big problems for the Republic of Cyprus because this gives great fuel to Turkish propaganda,\u201d he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n

* Daily News reporter Erisa Dautaj \u015eenerdem contributed to this report from Istanbul.<\/p>\n

H\u00fcrriyet Daily News<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FULYA \u00d6ZERKAN ANKARA – H\u00fcrriyet Daily News Turkey is readying to use legal and political channels to respond to attacks against Turkish basketball players during a match in Greek Cyprus. ‘Our first priority was to ensure the players’ safe return after the attack. That was done and the next step will be to bring the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":29575,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3996,89,922],"tags":[9723,2020],"class_list":["post-29574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","category-sport","category-turkey","category-world","tag-cyprus","tag-greek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}