Trial of Turkish Cypriot couple, charged for hanging Cyprus Republic’s flag outside their home
The trial of a Turkish Cypriot couple, charged for hanging the Cyprus Republic’s flag outside their home and shop in June last year in Famagusta will once again be in court on Wednesday.
Koray Basdogrultmaci and Cinel Senem Husseyin were arrested on June 21 2013 outside their shop for flying three Cypriot flags and were kept in jail for six and a half hours.
As there was no law on flying the Cyprus flag, the charges were for disturbing the peace and non-recognition of the ‘TRNC’.
Five mainland Turks complained to the police about the flags hence the arrests and confiscation of the flags.
The couple had tried to explain to the Turkish Cypriot police that Basdogrultmaci, who was arrested four years ago for the same reason, had been acquitted in court.
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Tayyip Erdogan had, the previous day attended the opening ceremony of the Mediterranean Games in Mersin, in Turkey where the Cypriot flag had flown unimpeded. The Turkish Cypriot couple protested that the Cypriot flag could be waved in Turkey but not in the occupied north.
They have appeared five times so far in total before the courts but each time the case has been postponed with the last hearing on May 6 postponed until June 11 because the judge wanted the police witnesses called to testify before him and they were not in court at the last session.
Koray and Cinel call themselves Cypriots.
No label attached before or after, just plain simple Cypriots. For their belief they are being victimised and are standing proud stating they are willing to go to jail and then take their case to the European Court of Human Rights to protect their basic human right, their freedom of expression.
Growing support for the couple has been gathered from various friends and sympathisers and there is also an online petition against their arrest with calls for dismissal of the charges which will be addressed to various EU parliament members, the European Court of Human Rights, the EU President, President Anastasiades and the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community DervisEroglu, as well as Ban Ki-moon UN Secretary General and Ahmet Davutoglu the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey.
Additionally a campaign of photos of individuals holding the sign ‘I am a Cypriot not a martyr’ has been started to raise awareness and offer support to the couple on the social media site Facebook.
CyprusWeekly.com | @parikiaki | @kapouti
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