By Jacqueline Agathocleous Published on September 4, 2012<\/p>\n
AEL Limassol Europa League match, Cyprus, Fenerbahce, football, government, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou, President Demetris Christofias, Turkish EU negotiator Egemen Bagis<\/p>\n
THE GOVERNMENT yesterday dismissed as \u2018cynical and lacking seriousness,\u2019 an informal invitation to President Demetris Christofias from Turkey\u2019s EU negotiator Egemen Bagis to watch AEL Limassol\u2019s Europa League match with Turkish team Fenerbahce together.<\/p>\n
Bagis, was quoted in a Turkish daily yesterday saying that Christofias was \u201clooking for a reason to come to Istanbul\u201d.<\/p>\n
So he said Christofias should talk to Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu about the possibility of visiting the country together to watch the November 8 match. But under one condition, he added: \u201cI will be happy to be the host provided that they will come together and sit at the same table.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the government was not impressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Bagis is attempting to impress by sarcastically sending out a non-serious invitation for a football match,\u201d government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou said yesterday. \u201cThis is not serious behaviour from a minister and if the Turkish politicians adopt it, then they too lack seriousness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Eroglu, if he so desires, can watch the AEL-Fenerbahce game which will be played in Cyprus,\u201d said Stefanou. \u201cThe President of the Republic and Mr Eroglu can watch it together in their country, as citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fenerbahce is scheduled to arrive in Cyprus on October 25.<\/p>\n
In his interview yesterday, Bagis also raised the possibility of protests against the Turkish club in Cyprus. \u201cWhen Galatasaray went there, they had major troubles,\u201d Bagis said.<\/p>\n
Last year, during a game between Apollon Limassol\u2019s and Galatasaray\u2019s women\u2019s volleyball teams, local fans threw debris onto the court. Similar troubles occurred during a basketball match between APOEL Nicosia and Pinar Karsiyaka.<\/p>\n
Bagis gave assurances that the Greek Cypriot team would not face such trouble in Istanbul.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should not be worried, they will be hosted in Istanbul in the best way possible,\u201d Bagis said. \u201cI personally guarantee that there will not be any problem.\u201d<\/p>\n
via Turkey \u2018not serious\u2019 about match invite – Cyprus Mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Jacqueline Agathocleous Published on September 4, 2012 AEL Limassol Europa League match, Cyprus, Fenerbahce, football, government, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou, President Demetris Christofias, Turkish EU negotiator Egemen Bagis THE GOVERNMENT yesterday dismissed as \u2018cynical and lacking seriousness,\u2019 an informal invitation to President Demetris Christofias from Turkey\u2019s EU negotiator Egemen Bagis to watch AEL Limassol\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":46055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3996],"tags":[4376,6352,8327],"class_list":["post-56549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","category-sport","tag-christofias","tag-eroglu","tag-stefanou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56549","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=56549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}