Two fired over lottery ticket ‘blunder’ in the north

Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel on Tuesday told Turkish Cypriot media that two people have been fired over the use of the wrong photo on lottery tickets.

The mistake landed officials in hot water and started a political media war after it was revealed that depicted fighters holding a Turkish flag were actually Greek Cypriot Eoka fighters rejoicing after capturing a Turkish Cypriot stronghold in 1964.

Citing Turkish Cypriot newspaper Vatan, the Cyprus News Agency reported that Osman Uzun has been replaced by Turgut Sunalp as head of the ‘lottery authority’, while Berhan Ongan will replace Huseyin Cahitoglu as the head of the ‘sports authority’.

Turkish Cypriot media on Sunday said the lottery authority in the north was recalling thousands of unsold tickets in a sweepstake draw scheduled for August which had been issued to commemorate the battle of Tylliria in 1964, known in Greek as battle of Kokkina, when Turkish planes bombed Greek Cypriot positions that had surrounded Turkish Cypriot enclaves.

Turkish Cypriot newspaper Avrupa on Sunday accused the ‘lottery authority’ of using a touched-up photo which obscured the image’s original location and context.

The Eoka fighters depicted in the original image, were hoisting a captured Turkish flag outside a chapel in the Kyrenia mountains in April 1964, just months after the island embarked on a political crisis and ethnic violence.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar called the lottery incident “a huge and unforgivable blunder” and said he would personally follow the developments to make sure those responsible would be punished.