In the early hours of Saturday, June 3, 2023, two groups were caught hand in hand, on the pedestrian street above the parking lot of the Church of Panagia in Ayia Napa. The reasons are still unknown. During the argument, one of the group pulled out (according to his admission) a bat, while according to a video released on Social Media by the victim himself, the 25-year-old tried to take a close-up video of the two's faces one of the young men hit her, as a result of which she fell from a height of one and a half meters and caused ecchymosis in various parts of her body.
So far, one would call the event ordinary, for a tourist resort where all too often drunken tourists or entertainment center patrons are caught in the act for usually trivial reasons. However, the fact that on the one hand the 25-year-old woman was a Turkish Cypriot, and on the other hand the two young men, 22 and 30 years old, were Greek Cypriots and from a community in the province of Famagusta, caused a lot of negative comments on social media for both. The attempt to draw conclusions about the incident was almost automatic and even before the Police had time to receive statements. Loud headlines were heard such as "racist incident", "bi-community dispute", elsewhere they called it a "sexist attack" or that "he beat her because she rejected him" and other similar headlines which - indeed due to the dozens of sad incidents we hear every week - cause the interest, public opinion, clicks and comments.
On the other hand, there were many who were quick to accuse and ascribe abusive characterizations to the 25-year-old herself, to her origin, to the Turkish Cypriot community as a whole, raised their nationalist sentiments and listed the reasons for the inability of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to co-exist. And even before the statements to the Police were completed, the case took the way of the popular courts, causing polarization among those who were waiting for the occasion to start such a controversy.
The question, however, is that if it is proven in the end that the whole case is not due to bi-communal differences or nationalist beliefs and racist causes (even the President of the Republic himself made it clear), then who are most causing the bi-communal strife and separation of the two communities by their hasty and zealous actions? The abusers? Or those who dynamit with comments as innocent social media authorities?
From the editorial office of Famagusta.News