Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou has been fired in the wake of Wednesday’s night’s violent protest by a far-right group at an event being attended by former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat in Limassol.
President Nicos Anastasiades informed Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou of his immediate dismissal in a letter, a day after some 100 National People’s Front (ELAM) members noisily protested Talat’s presence in the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus at a cultural center in Limassol, a coastal city in the island’s Greek Cypriot south.
“The state will not tolerate any form of fascist behavior, from anyone and whomever, not least from an overwhelmingly small minority proclaiming themselves the so-called protectors of Cypriot Hellenism,” Anastasiades said, referring to ELAM.
ELAM (a far-right Greek Cypriot group), which polled barely one percent in 2011 parliamentary elections and less in 2013 presidential elections, called Talat’s presence a “provocation”.
Anastasiades has asked for an immediate investigation that will bring the culprits to justice.
Papageorgiou is being replaced immediately by Chief Superintendent Zacharias Chrysostomou, hitherto Director of the Police Academy.
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