Man arrested after assaulting two Turkish Cypriot ‘MPs’

A man appeared in court in the north on Sunday, accused of assaulting two Turkish Cypriot ‘MPs’ who were attending a peace event in central Nicosia on Saturday.

According to the police’s representative in court, the man attempted to drive his car down Arasta street in Nicosia’s old town, which meets the small square at the northern end of Ledra street where the peace event was ongoing.

However, Arasta street is fully pedestrianised, and as such, the two ‘MPs’, opposition party the CTP’s Devrim Barcin and Urun Solyali, warned the man to not continue driving up the street, especially given that his car had already reportedly damaged some storefronts and products which were left outside shops on the street.

The man reacted badly to the ‘MPs’, intervention, and according to the police representative, “vegan waving his arms randomly to the right and left and said in a loud voice, ‘what are we suffering from you? Are you men? You have gathered here and it is getting a bit much now!’”.

He then moved towards Barcin and pushed him with both hands in his chest, before then gesturing wildly at Solyayli and asking him the same two questions again.

The Turkish Cypriot police then intervened, and the representative reported that the man then said, “what crime did I commit? I have already spent four years in prison!”

The representative requested that the man be remanded in custody for three days, before the man was allowed to say his piece in court.

He told the court he had been heavily drinking in the area around Arasta street on Friday night, and that as such, he had become drink and lost his shoes.

He said he had then returned to Arasta street on Saturday to look for his shoes, that he did not say the words the police representative had said he said, and that he recognised neither Barcin nor Solyali.

Judge Gokhan Asafogullari acquiesced to the police representative’s request, and ordered that the man be remanded in custody for three days.