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/ Outrage at brutal Karpass murder
/
THE PAPERS were outraged by the murder of a Greek Cypriot man living in the
village of Rizokarpasso. "Brutal murder" read one headline while another
said, "Heinous crime by Denktash’s Anatolian beasts".
Haravghi
reported that 68-year-old Stelios Harpas had been burned alive in his car,
at a location one kilometre east of his village. According to the Turkish
Cypriot paper Kibris, Harpas had been phoned by a person calling himself
Mehmet on Monday night and was asked to go to a meeting. On Tuesday morning
his wife reported that he was missing and his body was found on Tuesday
afternoon.
The victim’s son claimed that his father had been kidnapped by two Turkish
settlers from the village coffeeshop and murdered. He also said that he was
worried about his mother’s safety. No one could establish a motive for the
murder as Harpas was a very popular person, said the paper.
Politis
said Harpas’ death was the latest addition to the "long list of mysterious
deaths of enclaved of the Karpass". According to the victim’s wife and the
chairman of the Karpass Co-ordinating Committee Nicos Falas, Harpas had
been a target of the murderers for months. Eight months ago three Turks had
visited him and threatened him to give them his money, reported
Politis.
Machi, in a front-page editorial said:
"Every civilised person will have been gripped by feelings of rage and
despair after being informed about the brutal murder of Stelios Harpas....
Undoubtedly the enclaved, for 25 years, have undergone many ordeals at the
hands of the (Turkish settlers) who have even dug up the graves of the
Greek enclaved to steal their clothes....
"Stelios Harpas is not the first enclaved to be murdered in such a brutal
way. Others have been murdered and others have been brutally assaulted when
resisting robbery attempts. This is the ‘thank-you’ of the Atillas for the
help that Greece and Cyprus offered the Turkish quake victims."
Simerini
reported that there is a "war" at the Cyprus Stock Exchange between the
stockbrokers and management of the exchange. The stockbrokers had
threatened to go on strike if the board of the Stock Exchange did not
accept within 24 hours a compromise package proposed by Disy leader Nicos
Anastassiades.
Among other things, the brokers want the stock market to be open for one
hour only three days a week, instead of 90 minutes five days a week, with a
limit of 3,000 transactions per day. As an alternative, they would accept
trading four days a week, with a limit of 2,000 transactions a day.
On the same day, the Stock Exchange board held a press conference to
announce a new set of measures clamping down on day trading, which the
brokers have rejected.
Phileleftheros
reported that Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was leaving, hurriedly,
for the United States in an attempt to pre-empt any Cyprus developments.
According to diplomatic sources, his objective is to present his conditions
-- recognition and confederal solution -- for attending talks, before the
UN sends out its invitations.
It was no coincidence that Denktash had gone to New York before President
Clerides, said the paper. Denktash would first visit Washington for talks
with US officials before going to New York for a meeting with UN Secretary-
general Kofi Annan.
Alithia
saw Denktash’s visit to the US differently. It said Britain and the US
first wanted to establish whether the Turkish side had any intention to
participate constructively in talks, which was why Denktash had been asked
to the US now. Twenty days later, the Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit
was also due to visit Washington.
© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999
