Turkist ultranationalist paramilitary leader(1) and Turkish Cypriot president Rauf Denktaş died on the 13th of January 2012.
To avoid the fate of senior Hellenist ultranationalist paramilitary(2) and Greek Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos – whose grave was robbed (3), and whose grave’s Greek flag was desecrated - Denktaş will be ‘buried in a safe place‘, in Republican Park. (It is a symbolic place, because the Turkish Resistance Movement (TMT) was founded there.)
A monument to Denktaş will also be built.
Let’s hope that Denktaş’s monument park is a touch more modest than Atatürk’s mausoleum.
1: Denktaş led first Volkan, then the Turkish Resistance Movement (Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı (TMT)).
2: During British colonial rule, Papadopoulos was in the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (EOKA) [Εθνική Οργάνωσις Κυπρίων Αγωνιστών (ΕΟΚΑ)]); after the achievement of Cypriot independence, he was one of the senior figures in Akritas.
3: According to the Greek Cypriot government, the grave was robbed to ransom Papadopoulos’s body ransom; but not according to Papadopoulos’s family.
