Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel on Sunday expressed bemusement at plans to rename Paphos’ Kemal Ataturk Street, saying that the move “clearly reveals the true face of the Greek Cypriot side’s mentality”.

He made the comment while reacting to newspaper reports suggesting that the Greek Cypriot side would suggest as a confidence-building measure that the flag of the ‘TRNC’ which has been painted onto the southern side of the Pentadaktylos mountains be removed.

“Calls in the Greek Cypriot press, particularly in the Phileleftheros newspaper, known for its closeness and its most staunch support for Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides, to remove our glorious flag from the Pentadaktylos mountains under the guise of a ‘confidence-building measure’ are excessive and unacceptable,” he said of those reports.

He added that “any demand to remove our flag, which symbolises the will of the Turkish Cypriots for independence, is null and void to us”, before turning his attention to plans regarding the street in Paphos, his hometown.

“It is a separate hostile act which the Greek Cypriot side, which makes calls for ‘peace’ and ‘goodwill’, is attempting to change the names of streets bearing the name of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, our nation’s leader, and a man in whose footsteps the Turkish Cypriot people are proud to walk,” he said.

He added that “the Turkish Cypriot people, as in the past, will continue to uphold their values, their flag, their state, and their ties with their motherland, Turkey”, before saying that “the Turkish Cypriot people have always respected the religious values, flag, and sacred things belonging to the Greek Cypriot community”.

“Our people expect the same from the other side,” he said.

He then said that both the reported calls for the flag to be removed and the planned renaming of the street are “completely destroying trust between the communities” and “serve conflict, not peace, and enmity, not friendship”.

“The path to lasting peace and tranquillity on this island lies in mutual respect. However, such actions taken by circles which cannot tolerate the Turkish presence and are driven by dreams of Enosis are undermining trust between the two peoples,” he said.

He added that “our flags, with the crescent and star, will continue to wave forever, and our glorious flag on the Pentadaktylos mountains will continue to be a symbol of our centuries-long presence in these lands”.

Paphos’ Kemal Ataturk Street is located in the Moutallos neighbourhood, which had, prior to 1974, historically been the home of the town’s Turkish Cypriot community, with the names of its streets reflecting that fact.

Disy councillor Nina Gkaraklidou announced that she had put a motion forward to the town’s council for it to be renamed “Nikos Kapetanidis Street”.

She said that the fact that the street was named after the Republic of Turkey’s founding president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk “creates and provokes a painful emotional reflection” among Moutallos’ current residents, most of whom are Greek Cypriots who were displaced from the north in 1974 and their descendants.