Turkish Cypriot leader Tatar reacts angrily to Greek Cypriot leader Christodoulides: ‘Who the hell are you, man?’

President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Ersin Tatar in an angry outburst launched an attack, the second of such in a week on Cyprus republic President Nikos Christodoulides over the latter’s statements over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, asking, “who the hell are you, man?”

Tatar was speaking at a meeting of the Union of chambers of Denizli tradesmen and craftsmen who had traveled from the southwestern Turkish city to Kyrenia, north Cyprus for a meeting on Sunday April 27.

Criticizing those who have called for Cyprus to govern itself without Turkish involvement, Tatar said “Cyprus belongs to the Cypriots. The Cypriots will govern Cyprus. Turkey will leave here, and we will be very happy with brotherly relations. Now, that is all a load of hogwash. The main thing is to protect our national values together with Turkey. God help us if the day comes that Turkey is removed from here with the ‘dream of federation’, which is the real goal, anyway,” he said.

“The Greek Cypriot leader said something like, ‘Mr Erdogan said something, he will visit here illegitimately on May 3, he said this and that about the Turkish Cypriots’. Who the hell are you, man? Who the hell are you? Who the hell are you?”

He added, “are those who carried out attacks on Turkish Cypriots for 11 years in the 1960s, those who buried Turkish Cypriots alive, those who implemented all kinds of policies to have the Turkish Cypriots migrate from the island, and those who are still making us groan and moan with embargoes and isolations going to come and criticise my president from here and tell Turkey to know its place? Get the hell out of here!”

His statements come after he had earlier accused Christodoulides of “attempting to agitate our internal affairs, damage the deep brotherly ties between the Turkish Cypriot people and motherland Turkey, and gain political advantage from this”.

“It is an unacceptable act of impudence for the Greek Cypriot leader to make statements as if he has the right or authority to represent the Turkish Cypriot people and to have the audacity to talk about the future of our people,” he said.

He was reacting to remarks Christodoulides had made during a televised interview with Ant1, during which he made reference to alleged statements by Erdogan regarding the north’s ongoing “headscarf crisis”.

Erdogan had, according to reports, voiced frustration at Turkish Cypriot “impudence” over ongoing protests against the north’s ruling coalition’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs by children at public schools, and teachers’ refusal to apply the law in question, and added, “if you don’t come down hard on this lot, they don’t know their limits”.

Christodoulides had responded to those alleged statements, saying, “Erdogan’s intervention concerns citizens of the Republic of Cyprus, and as the Cypriot Republic, we will not let these unacceptable remarks and any such attempts at imposition on our Turkish Cypriot compatriots stand”.

“Specific messages have already gone to the European Union in relation to Erdogan’s statements,” he said, before adding that Erdogan’s reported words “show, if you like, even earlier, that in 1974, they did not come to save the Turkish Cypriots, as they had talked about a peace operation, they came to serve the interests of Turkey and impose something which serves only Turkey and no one else”.

He added that the situation shows, “to our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, even to those who have any doubts whatsoever regarding the reunification of Cyprus, that their future is in a reunited homeland, a member state of the EU”.