Turkish organizations inBritain hit out at Cyprus bias
THREE of the UK Turkish speaking community’s largest groups have criticised the National Federation of [Greek] Cypriots and their British MP support base for their one-sided seminar on ‘Cyprus, Turkey and the EU’, hosted at the House of Commons last week. The British Council for Turkish Cypriot Associations, Embargoed! and the Federation of Turkish Associations UK have hit out at claims in the Greek media that the Turkish Cypriots seeking entry into the seminar were “extremists”.
A series of news reports in the Greek press have claimed the event had been organised for families of missing Greek Cypriots to lobby MP. But while adverts placed in a newspaper by the National Federation of Cypriots said the seminar was about ‘Turkey, Cyprus and the EU.’ One newspaper also described the handful of Turkish Cypriots participants as “extremists” and accused them of being members of an ultra nationalist group that allegedly murdered two Greek Cypriots.
Embargoed! member Ata Cholak, one of only four Turkish Cypriots initially allowed into the seminar room, described the accusations as "sheer paranoia”. He said: “They are totally groundless. The comments are a smokescreen to divert attention from the racist gathering that evening.”
He added: “The National Federation claims to represent all Cypriots, yet it barred Turkish Cypriots from attending.”
