The National Federation of Cypriots in the UK has written letters to the Sunday Telegraph and the MailOnline, which promoted holidays in the Turkish-held area of Cyprus, it announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, the federation, which described itself as the umbrella organisation representing Cypriot community associations and groups across the UK, said that “the UK’s 300,000 British nationals of Cypriot origin strongly object to such adverts and appeal to fellow Britons not to go on holiday in the areas of Cyprus that are illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974”.
In particular, the federation protested that the Sunday Telegraph referred to Kyrenia harbour as being in the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”.
In its letter, the federation reminded the editorial team at the Sunday Telegraph that “the illegal regime in the Turkish-held part is described by the United Nations as ‘legally invalid’ (United Nations Security Council Resolution 541)”.
“The feature misrepresents the situation in Nicosia, the last divided capital city in the world,” the letter said.
“The Sunday Telegraph described Nicosia as being ‘divided into Turkish Cypriot and Greek zones’. Nicosia is not divided into zones on ethnic lines and is only divided into zones as a tragic result of Turkey’s illegal invasion and occupation. This type of inaccurate reporting normalises Turkey’s illegal invasion and occupation to readers and misleads them about reality in Cyprus.”
The MailOnline, the federation said, published an article about the occupied northern part of Cyprus that referred to the Karpas peninsula as “isolated” and “the most naturally beautiful and sparsely populated part of the island.”
In its letter, the federation pointed out that “the town of Rizokarpaso is home to enclaved Greek Cypriots who are deliberately ‘isolated’ and deprived of their human rights by the illegal regime and are forced to rely heavily on supplies delivered to them by the United Nations”.
“It is therefore, both inappropriate and insensitive for the MailOnline to romanticise such a place,” the federation charged.
“We ask you to withdraw this article [and] kindly suggest that the MailOnline contact the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK in the future for information on how to accurately report issues that relate to Cyprus.”
The letters also asked both news outlets to “refrain from future advertorials about the Turkish-held part of Cyprus, given the offense caused to the large number of refugees who now live in the UK and lost their property following the illegal Turkish invasion”.
The post Expat UK Cypriots protest ‘TRNC’ tourist promotion appeared first on Cyprus Mail.