Kormakitis community leader Antonis Sarros on Tuesday denied any involvement in the exclusion of a candidate from running in the local elections.
On Monday it emerged that the ‘foreign ministry’ in the north had banned restaurant owner Maria Skoullou from claiming the position of community leader.
This sparked various reactions in the north, with rumours circling that Sarros was the one who submitted an objection to her candidacy.
Responding to this, Sarros told the Cyprus News Agency that he was not involved in the specific case and threatened media outlets printing this claim with lawsuits.
Asim Akansoy, secretary general of opposition party CTP, had denounced the move to exclude Skoullou as “humiliating”, questioning whether there was any legal basis to it. “What happened is racist, it’s fascist,” he said.
On Tuesday, CNA reported that former president of the Turkish Democratic Party, Serdar Denktash, stepped into the fray to remind that in 2005, the government in the north had given Maronites living in the enclaved village the right to elect their own mukhtars.
“As foreign minister at the time, I had said that they would be able to elect their own mukhtars, as we would not accept the ones designated by the Greek Cypriot side as interlocutors.”
Up until then, Kormakitis’ community leaders had been appointed by the Republic of Cyprus.
“Today, the party that says it wants a two-state solution refuses to allow the residents of this village to determine their community leaders,” he said.
“As long as you act by excluding one of the two candidates without elections and saying, ‘this is your community leader’ to the Maronites…they are not going to accept the one you appointed, but the one appointed from the south.”
Earlier on Tuesday, a copy of Skoullou’s alleged criminal record had been circulated in social media, according to CNA.
Meanwhile, on Monday the ‘ministry of foreign affairs’ took a stance on the matter in a written statement, saying that “each state has the authority to make decisions based on its administrative authority and sovereign rights”.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Mail
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Mail
Source
