"Turn the gun on me": The experience of a journalist in occupied Famagusta

The journalist, Chris Leadbeater, wrote in an article in the Telegraph about the adventure he lived in Cyprus and specifically in the occupied territories.

Specifically, referring to his trip to Cyprus to study the green line and its consequences in the 21st century, he recounted the adventure he lived in occupied Famagusta, when he was marked with a gun by a soldier.

According to what he wrote in this article, it was one of the two times where someone marked him with a gun. Describing his experience, he wrote, among other things: "This experience is never pleasant, although in this case, I hoped to provoke it. So it turned out. There were signs all over the roadblock warning that it was strictly forbidden to take pictures. Most of them underlined their message accompanied by the figure of a soldier. I wanted to see if such a figure would appear if I stood on the beach and with obvious disobedience, I started taking pictures. Then such a figure appeared and in fact immediately ".

He continued: "I did not think the soldier would shoot me, not even as a warning, on a crowded beach on Sunday afternoon. There was a crowd that day. He did not even think that he would arrest me. Too much effort, too much hassle - for what reason?

"It simply came to our notice then. He appeared behind a fence, shook his head using a gun as an extension of his hand, implying with this gesture that I had to leave the beach and stop the nonsense. I apologized to him with a stupid excuse that I did not read the signs correctly. We both knew this was a lie, and he had not made any move to check my camera or asked me to delete the photos. Then we both turned around and left. I to a safety distance of 30 meters ".

He concludes: "The whole situation was horrible. Everything for the look, without any purpose ".

The experience is an excerpt from the journalist's lengthy article on occupied Famagusta.

Source: sigmalive