Any incident of violence is reprehensible, President Nikos Christodoulides, said on Tuesday in relation to the assault of a Turkish Cypriot woman in Ayia Napa over the weekend, stressing that it should not be interpreted as having to do with differences between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.
Asked to comment on his conversation about the incident with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, Christodoulides said that “any incident of violence is reprehensible” and welcomed the “immediate” reaction of the police.
He also said that his phone call to Tatar was to explain “that as far as I have been informed, this is not an incident that has to do with the fact that they were Turkish Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and so on, and it should not be given such a dimension”.
He noted that, in 2003, Turkish Cypriot leader at the time, the late Rauf Denktaş, allowed a partial lifting of the restrictions with the opening of crossings, considering that in a week or two there would be such incidents between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots “that would strengthen his own narrative that we can’t co-exist.
“He was proven completely wrong”, he added.
Asked to comment on a new incident at Ledra street crossing point, involving a Turkish national attacking Greek Cypriot police officers, Christodoulides said that he has been hearing criticism that Tatar did not call him about this incident, and noted that “we are a state, we are not a pseudo-state. We are an EU Member State, with rule of law and (it is) good for everyone to keep that in mind”.
Earlier in the day, police said they were looking for a third person involved in the assault of the 25-year-old Turkish Cypriot woman, for which two Greek Cypriot men, aged 22 and 30, have been remanded in custody.
The latest evidence emerged after scrutiny of CCTV footage of the incident that occurred around 3.30am on Saturday, Famagusta police spokesman Steve Theodoulou told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).
The 25-year-old victim, Asia Karaali, meanwhile, in a social media post said she did not want the incident to cause tension.
“I don’t want this incident to cause any tension and animosity between the two communities,” Karaali’s post read. She added that police intervened promptly and arrested the perpetrators, and she thanked all the authorities involved in the incident, both in the south and in the north.
The spokesman later added that further analysis of CCTV appeared to show that during the attack on the woman a young man from the Turkish Cypriot group opened the boot of his car and took out a bat, then rushed back to the main fracas.
He has been identified and confessed that he was in possession of such a weapon. Police are to now form a case against him.
In an earlier post the 25-year-old detailed what had happened and published a photo of her face, her broken finger and a video that appears to record the moment two men attacked and beat her. The video is mainly audio without image with a brief flash of two men before the image becomes scrambled. In it a male voice can be heard expressing concern that she had fainted.
Karaali described having gone to Ayia Napa for a night out with a friend on Friday and how she was harassed by three men while leaving.
“They cursed me and punched me in the face because I said I didn’t want them and they knew I was Turkish Cypriot from the way I spoke. I was then thrown from a wall about two metres high. I don’t remember why I passed out. Someone who saw it called an ambulance, but when I went to the hospital, they told me I had nothing,” the 25-year-old said in her post.
According to the woman’s account, she then went to the north and had her teeth fixed by her dentist, after which she went to the hospital also in the north, where she was told that her finger was broken, however, a certificate that the injury was the result of assault, could not be issued because the incident had happened in the south.
Karaali further described how police in the north told her they could also not help her and directed her to police in the south, in Nicosia.
“How can I expect the Greek-Cypriot government to defend me when my own Turkish nation does not defend me?” the woman said.
Details of the ethnicities of those involved were not initially released by police but came to light following social media outcry.
In her latest update on social media, the 25-year-old said that she has been called to report to the police station on Wednesday.
“The criminals have been arrested and I have been called to the police station tomorrow… the necessary procedures have been initiated and as a result of our voices being heard I will get to report the beating.”
Elsewhere, Karaali stated she would do everything to stand up for herself for what had happened, which could have happened to any woman, and said that throwing someone off a wall was essentially a murder attempt.
President Nikos Christodoulides issued a statement condemning the incident on Monday, and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar asked for the bicommunal technical committee to monitor the case, state broadcaster CyBC reported.
“Incidents that negatively affect the peaceful atmosphere on the island are not acceptable,” the Turkish Cypriot leader posted on Twitter.
Tatar also stated that he will closely follow the developments surrounding the incident.
Christodoulides, meanwhile, communicated with Tatar, condemning the attack.
The president said the episode does not appear to have been racially motivated, however, it was to be condemned as unacceptable and delinquent behaviour.
Justice Minister Anna Procopiou told CyBC that the attack was part of a larger societal problem and escalating prevalence of aggression. She added that it was important to note that police had acted swiftly and brought the suspects to justice well before any media response.
Sources on Monday initially reported that the incident began as a confrontation between two groups in the context of which the woman fell from a brick wall.
Police are continuing to investigate the exact sequence of events.