Growing calls to change street names in Turkish Cypriot quarter of Larnaca
Names are notoriously contested territories whenever politics and history enter the mix. The Cyprus problem is no exception, as a recent push to rename some Turkish names in the old Turkish Cypriot quarter of Larnaca makes clear.
The town’s municipal council is slated to discuss requests by some political parties and other groups to change the names of Istanbul and Bozkurt (Grey Wolf) streets, even though mayor Andreas Vyras, citing the foreign ministry, has advised against it.
“The foreign affairs ministry advised not to proceed with this as this would create issues as regards the management of the Cyprus problem,” Vyras told the Cyprus Mail this week.
“If we do change them, we will be doing what the occupation regime is doing in the north,” he added, referring to the widespread changes after the 1974 invasion to the street names, towns and villages in northern Cyprus.
Vyras said the requests have been tabled by Edek, the Solidarity Movement, far-right Elam and other groups. Istanbul street has been targeted because of the age-old dispute over the proper name of the city which Greeks say should be Constantinople. Bozkurt street is contested because it brings to mind the Turkish ultra-right, nationalist organisation, the Grey Wolves.
The name-change demand in Larnaca is not an isolated event.
Just last November, the Turkish Cypriot side changed the name of Varosha’s main thoroughfare, Kennedy Avenue, after Semih Sancar, the Turkish chief of the general staff from 1973 to 1978, including during the 1974 invasion.
And then last month, Paphos municipality renamed Talaat Pasha street in its Turkish Cypriot quarter. Talaat Pasha is widely regarded as the principal architect of the Armenian genocide. The change followed a request by the Armenian and Greek Pontian communities of Paphos.
But the official line on name changes remains a cautious one.
“As the Republic of Cyprus, we have a bicommunal character,” Vyras said. He added that this has been the standing position of the government and the municipal council because of the delicate balances that need to be observed due to the Cyprus problem.
He said that when the same issue was raised in the past, then Interior Minister Socratis Hasikos opposed any changes on these grounds.
Such caution, however, did not prevent the controversial renaming in 2015 of part of Larnaca’s coastal Piale Pasha street into Tasos Mitsopoulos avenue, in memory of the late defence minister. The road was named after the Ottoman conqueror Piale Pasha, who took over Cyprus in 1571.
President Nicos Anastasiades, who addressed the renaming ceremony, said at the time that the government respected history and tradition, thus the Turkish Cypriot toponyms would not be touched.
Despite the controversy, there was wiggle room. The renaming was justified on the grounds that Tasos Mitsopoulos Avenue begins at the point where in the past the historic Piale Pasha road had ended and covers the new section of the road which differs morphologically from the rest of the traditional core of the Turkish Cypriot neighbourhood.
To return to the recent demands, Edek and its Larnaca municipal councillors are firmly behind a name change for Bozkurt street, citing declarations by the German and French parliaments last November branding the Grey Wolves as dangerous organisations.
“It is not a nationalist or racist issue,” Edek municipal councillor Andreas Christoforou told the Cyprus Mail.
Since France and Germany have ruled the Grey Wolves as a dangerous organisation, he said, “it is inconceivable to have in our town such a street name.” Christoforou also cited the actions of the Grey Wolves in the north and their involvement in the murders of anti-occupation protestors Tassos Issaac and Solomos Solomou in 1996.
“It is an insult, to say the least, to our heroes and to those who fought for the freedom of our country to have streets with this name,” Christoforou wrote in recently.
He said that the street can be renamed with any other Turkish name it is deemed fit.
“We have nothing against the Turkish Cypriots, they have the same rights as Greek Cypriots,” he said.
Christoforou believes his colleagues at the municipal council will back the Edek motion exactly because it is not prompted by nationalist sentiment.
Head of the Solidarity Movement, Eleni Theocharous, also called last month for the renaming of Bozkurt street, also citing the Grey Wolves.
“The argument that we will not touch anything left by the Turkish Cypriots cannot always be justified, because it concerns a road related to a criminal organisation,” Theocharous said. “Imagine if there was a ‘November 17’ street in Athens or a ‘Red Army’ street. These things do not happen.”
Vyras said the now-contested street names were given in the 1910s and 1920s. The Grey Wolves organisation did not emerge until the 1960s. Bozkurt is also a place name in Turkey.
Last October, meanwhile, organised groups called on the municipality to rename Istanbul street to Konstantinoupoleos.
The Coordinating Committee for the Struggle for a Free Cyprus, the Association ‘Support for the Cyprus Struggle’ of Athens and Adouloti Kerynia, had cited the decision to turn Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque and argued that renaming the street would send a clear message to Turkey that “Hellenism was starting to rise up against its attacks and provocations”.
If Istanbul street was named thus during the Ottoman rule, “it was given illegally by the occupier”, they said. (Turkey did not officially rename Constantinople Istanbul until 1930). Even if it was named during the British occupation, it was again by a conqueror, “the British who accommodated Turkish demands.” “If it was given by the Republic of Cyprus, it was an unjustified and not seriously thought mistake,” the group said.
But Edek’s Christoforou said he had no objection to the Istanbul street name. “It means ‘eis tin poli’ (in the town), it is from Greek anyway.”
But even if the motion to change this name as well is approved, he said, it cannot be Konstantinoupoleos, because the street is in the Turkish Cypriot quarter and cannot have a Greek name.
Vyras is concerned about a slippery slope when it comes to street names.
“The issue is, where does this stop?” he asked.
Referring to the risk of going into a never-ending debate on this issue, he said that if these requests are granted, why not rename other streets in the Turkish Cypriot quarter named after Ottoman officials who fought against the Greek population during the Greek revolution.
