Dherynia mayor: EU countries practically supporting Turkey

The Mayor of Dherynia, Andros Karagiannis, has claimed that ‘some EU countries are practically supporting Turkey’.

Speaking regarding Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s announcement of the planned construction of more than a thousand residential properties immediately north of Dherynia, he said that “unfortunately, the number of countries which support Cyprus regarding a solution to the Cyprus problem is decreasing”.

Karagiannis said that Erdoğan’s announcement was “worrying both for refugees and for the residents of Dherynia as they can see that Turkish expansionism reaches all the way to the barbed wire”, while acknowledging that many Turkish Cypriots have come out against the planned construction.

He added that “the powers of a mayor only go so far” and called on the Interior and Foreign Ministries to report Turkey’s actions.

In addition, he called on the European Union to take measures, saying that “it is not possible for a country which is a candidate to join Europe to trample on the human rights of a full member state of the EU”.