Of late I have been quite disappointed with the response towards Greek Cypriot Arsenal fans who stood up and objected to the flying of the flag of occupied Cyprus, as I don’t think labels such as ‘Politically Correct Moaners’ are fair. Here is my take on the issue at hand and I have confidence in saying it is the more universal view amongst Greek Cypriot Arsenal fans in the UK and Cyprus.

The national flag ban at The Emirates seems to have been enforced through some confusion and Arsenal Football Club being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Basically, although the club received a lot of complaints and a mostly Greek Cypriot petition protesting against the flying of flag of occupied northern Cyprus, the flag owner threatened to sue the club on grounds similar to freedom of speech (which is ironic as there is virtually none in Turkey or its occupation of northern Cyprus). As this flag represents Turkey’s occupation of the northern part of the island and the sovereign state of The Republic of Cyprus, it is not recognised as a legitimate republic by any country, or sporting body (FIFA, UEFA, etc) across the globe, as the Turkish invasion of 1974 and the continued occupation of the island breaks countless international laws. Hence there are no grounds for this flag being described as a national flag, because there is only one legitimate nation on the island of Cyprus. The so- called ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ flag seems to represent more of a separatist political ideology than it does a country.

As the illegal Turkish state (check European Courts of Human Rights judgements below as to why I use the word ‘illegal’) was set up on the back of the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Greek Cypriot population, as well as other smaller communities such as Armenian and Maronite, in Cyprus' north during Turkey's invasion in 1974, then hopefully you can see why Greek Cypriot Arsenal fans, many of whom are refugees of the Turkish invasion, feel a lot of distress when reminded of the pain they have suffered as well as a continuing struggle to return to their homes (which the ECHR recognises as belonging to them), while wanting to enjoy a simple non-political football match. I’m sure if someone flew a BNP or Nazi flag at Arsenal, the flag would be taken down straight away – even if their followers would object to such an action because that is the flag that they feel represents them and their ideologies.

Under the judgment of the European Courts of Human Rights, the European and extended international community recognises only one state and one flag to represent the island of Cyprus. The flag of the Republic of Cyprus represents all its communities, Greek, Turkish, Maronite, Armenian and other smaller groups – which all have the same rights, unlike the Turkish occupation in the north. If the Turkish Cypriot community wants to politically embrace the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ flag as their own then that is their decision, but you cannot blame Greek Cypriot Arsenal supporters for being annoyed at someone flying a flag in their face that represents Turkey’s continual oppression of the Cypriot people in their homeland, which has been condemned by the international political community. Why do you think Turkey is having such a hard time getting into the EU? I for one would accept the flag of Turkey being flown at the ground if these Turkish Cypriots feel separate from the rest of the Cypriot community, but I think flying a knowingly offensive flag, which is still causing controversy, is a step too far. Unfortunately there is a lack of understanding by many non-Cypriot / Greek / Turkish Arsenal fans and the Greek Cypriot point of view is not understood. It seems as though there is a misconception that the Greek Cypriot community is being racist towards Turkish Cypriots or are PC moaners; on the contrary, the disputed flag ‘TRNC’ in question represents a military forced racially segregated pseudo-state and the occupation of a sovereign state by another. If anything, the Greek Cypriot Arsenal fans are upset because that flag represents a racist oppression in their homeland by a foreign country, that has been trying to remove them from their homes and heritage which have been Greek since around 1,500 BC and the times of the Trojan War.

Here is an extract from the European Courts of Human Rights judgments that Turkey has been found guilty of regarding their invasion of Cyprus. First commission report made between 20th July 1974 – 18 May 1976. I hope those who are intrigued by the Greek Cypriot response to the flying of the Turkish occupation flag at Arsenal will take time out to read the findings of the ECHR and maybe grasp an understanding as to what it represents, as it documents some of the war crimes committed by Turkey such as displacement of persons, deprivation of liberty, killings, mass rapes, torture and inhuman treatment, deprivation of possessions, looting and wanton destruction, discrimination and no remedy. As the previous link seems to be from a Greek run website, I have added links below from neutral websites which back up what has been described above. This is a link to a neutral website that gives the official ECHR press release to the Cyprus v Turkey case in 2001, whilst this is a link is to an official United Nations report of the Cyprus Problem and some of its causes.

A map of Cyprus made by the British colonial administration in the 1950s has been re-produced near the top of this article. The areas in bright blue show villages populated by all Greek Cypriots, light blue are mostly Greek Cypriot and some Turkish Cypriot villages, light red are mostly Turkish Cypriot and some Greek Cypriot villages and bright red are all Turkish Cypriot villages. I hope you can see the mass scale of movement the Turkish invasion led to, as Greek Cypriots naturally populated the majority of the north. I would also like to point out that the terms ‘Northern Cypriot’ as to refer to a Turkish Cypriot person are misleading, as the map demonstrates.

With any luck you can recognise from some of the ECHR judgments above why there is such a negativity towards the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ flag by Greek Cypriot Arsenal fans and understand what that flag represents to us. It was not the initial intention of the people who signed the original petition (to remove this political flag from our terraces), to cause a total blanket ban on all national flags from the stadium. As a life long Greek Cypriot Arsenal fan, I think it is ridiculous for fans not to be able to fly the national flag of England at an English football ground. What I don’t want is politics to be brought into the stadium and subsequently having to reconsider if I want to support the club at home matches if I am going to be reminded of this painful issue every time I watch a game. At this moment in time, there seems to be various Turkish nationalist groups active in London, trying to spread their ideologies of the Cyprus problem by various means in order to get the illegal Turkish state officially recognised by various organisations. Taking this into account, it is of my own belief that the person who brought this flag into the ground did so to make a political statement and knowingly cause offence to the many Greek Cypriots who go to Arsenal home matches on a regular basis.

I am sorry that Arsenal Football Club and their fans have been drawn into this political saga and sincerely hope that all this confusion and fuss ends as soon as possible. I get slightly frustrated and slightly embarrassed when asked about this issue every time I go to a match. As much as I would like not to talk about this issue at an Arsenal match, I feel I have to put across my point of view as the last thing I want to see in my face is an overt act of Turkish nationalism, such as the flying of the Turkish flag next to the ‘TRNC’ flag which I saw at one game this season, when trying to enjoy an English football match. The same two flags also desecrate a whole mountainside in Cyprus, painted by the Turkish military, as an act of taunting towards Greek Cypriots that look at it over the Green Line. I hope that fact in itself makes it clearer why we get annoyed when that flag is forcefully flown in our faces.

Taking such elements into consideration, I believe the Greek Cypriot Arsenal fans have a right to object to the flying of this flag in the ground. This is Arsenal Football Club, not Hyde Park, Parliament Square or any other place of a political rally – as far as I know, we don’t pay our ticket money to watch a political demonstration (do we?), we want to come and watch the Arsenal play. One of the best things about football in this country is that it is separate of politics (unlike in Greece, Cyprus or Turkey) and I would not like to see politics being brought into the game now. If someone who believed the ideologies of the National Front represented them flew an NF flag, would you expect Arsenal’s Black and Asian fans (and other ethnic minorities) not to object? At the end of the day, the flag in question is not a national flag and if the Turkish Cypriot fans want a flag that represents them but do not feel the Republic of Cyprus flag does the job, then let them wave the Turkish flag, as unlike the so-called ‘TRNC’ flag, it is not under contention and politically and internationally recognised by government bodies as well as sporting ones such as FIFA, UEFA, etc. After all, the Turkish flag is flown everywhere (literally) in occupied north Cyprus anyway. On a finishing note, I would also like to add that I am sure that there will be people who read this that will take issue with my views, as it is only natural -there are two sides to every story. What I would like to point out is that I have made an effort to post extracts and links from respected and neutral parties such as the European Courts of Human Rights, the United Nations, etc. Let’s just get back to supporting Arsenal as one and leave politics out of football !!!

(Ed’s note – As usual with this highly contentious issue, some clarification about this website and what it tries to do. Onlinegooner is an open church, and the opinions expressed in online exclusives are those of the contributor, but do not represent any policy or view of The Gooner, onlinegooner.com or the editor, unless it says ‘Online Ed’ (meaning editorial) at the top. We have made the decision to post this offering because of its significance in the light of the national flag ban (and the only Gooner policy on this particular issue is that we believe the ban on all national flags is wrong). We have no wish to get too deep into the political problems in Cyprus and do not pretend to know enough about them. What we will say is that the online editor has, through a third party, expressed a willingness to post an explanation of the situation from the original flyer of the flag that has caused the upset to Greek Arsenal fans in the stadium. That still holds true. As an alternative, we would be willing to give the Turkish side of the story the same prominence as the article you have just read. At the time of writing, no one has got in touch with anything which they wish us to post on the site from the Turkish perspective. Onlinegooner is not making any judgements on this issue, and does not exist to alienate any groups of supporters, of any race or national creed. As N13 Gooner states, there are two sides to every story, and by posting this exclusive, we accept that there are some readers who will probably not agree with this view of the situation. But to re-iterate, at the time of writing we have not had anything offered from the opposing side of the argument. Once that situation changes, then in the interests of balance, we will post such an offering and website visitors can make their own judgements. Finally, we do not really want the website to become a venue for political ping pong over the Cyprus issue. We are willing to post a representative perspective on the political situation from each side (and consider we have done so for the Greek one with this exclusive), but will not continue to do so on this part of the site, as we would like to prioritise the football played by Arsenal. However, the onlinegooner forum exists for future debate if the two sides (or any other interested parties) have any desire to continue discussion on the rights and wrongs of the Cypriot issue ad infinitum.)