Assessing recent racist attacks in the Greek Cypriot administration controlled part of the divided island of Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot President Ersin Tatar said it foreboded what would happen to his community without the presence of security forces.
"This is a lesson that incidents in Limassol taught us. It is vital for us to have guarantees of Türkiye and the presence of Turkish soldiers here," the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Monday.
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decadeslong dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the U.N. for a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor of power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. The TRNC was founded in 1983.
The growing far-right and anti-migrant tendencies in the Greek Cypriot administration reared its ugly head once more leaving at least five people injured in a series of racist attacks on foreign nationals last Friday.
The attack came during an anti-migrant protest in the southern city of Limassol on Friday night. A group of people, consisting mostly of members of the Greek Cypriot far-right and racist National People's Front (ELAM), gathered in the Molos area of the city to protest against migrants.
Some 350 hooded rioters – and as many as 500 in some reports – attacked migrants and their businesses. The rioters threw incendiary devices and stones and set fire to bins and cars before police could disperse them.
They also carried banners with slogans such as "Cyprus is Greek" and "Migrants, you are not welcome."
Police have detained at least 13 people for involvement in the attacks.
Earlier, similar unrest targeted mainly Syrian migrants in the small town of Chloraka, prompting security forces to use tear gas and a water cannon. More violence ensued on Monday night.
Authorities have been struggling to take measures against the increasing racist attacks in the Greek Cypriot administration in recent years.
In the last 16 years, 413 racist attacks and incidents have been taken to court in the Greek Cypriot administration, and 125 cases related to these matters are still pending in the courts, according to daily Politis.
Greek Cypriot administration leaders held an emergency meeting Saturday to address the far-right protest.
"I am ashamed of what took place yesterday," Greek Cypriot administration head Nikos Christodoulides told the relevant ministers and heads of the police, civil defense and fire service. "Those who are responsible for it should also be ashamed."
Xenophobic and racist attacks on foreigners and places of worship in the south have so far been "tolerated" by the Greek Cypriot administration, which protects the perpetrators by not putting them on trial, Tatar argued Monday. "Whether the perpetrators of the recent attacks will be tried remains to be seen but I don’t think so," he added.
He also pointed out that the names of members from far-right and racist groups like the EOKA and the ELAM party were in the mix regarding the Limassol attacks, whom he said must be brought to justice.
Turkish Cyprus too has been lamenting numerous attacks against mosques and historical monuments in the Greek Cypriot administration in recent years.
According to Lefkoşa-based (Nicosia) Cyprus Foundations Administration (EVKAF) and the Foreign Ministry of TRNC’s records, more than 20 mosque attacks were carried out in the last 10 years in cities controlled by the Greek Cypriot administration.
From 2012 to 2023, there were five attacks, including arson, on the Köprülü Hacı Ibrahim Ağa Mosque in Limassol, where Molotov cocktails were thrown on Aug. 26. Both TRNC and Ankara condemned the arson attempt as "a heinous attack" and "the latest example of growing Islamophobia across Europe."
Three more attacks were carried out in the last three years.
There have been two attacks and arson attempts on a mosque located in the village of Denya in the Greek Cypriot administration in the last 10 years. The Denya Mosque was attacked in 2013 while it was being restored with U.N. Development Program funding. The same mosque was targeted in 2016 when three Molotov cocktails were thrown at it.
Tombstones were also destroyed and trash was thrown in the Ottoman/Turkish cemetery in the city of Larnaca.
Attackers hurled Molotov cocktails into the courtyard of the Tuzla Mosque in Larnaca in 2020, hung a Byzantine flag on the mosque wall, and wrote anti-Islamic slogans.
In 2021, an attempt was made to burn down the Great Mosque of Larnaca. Anti-Islamic slogans were written on the mosque’s walls, located in the village of Yalova, and the Greek flag was painted.