Mirror Travel
Edited by Iain Mayhew (24 February 2001)
Other side of Cyprus
Q - I AM writing to complain about your article and adverts for
holidays to occupied Cyprus (The Mirror, February 3). Turkey invaded half of Cyprus in 1974. No other country in the world recognises it apart from, it appears, The Mirror. Is it the paper's policy to support illegal occupations and apartheid regimes?
Tony Ioannou Finsbury Park, North London
DOC HOLIDAY writes: I have had several letters along the same lines.
I was even asked to lunch this week by the (Greek) Cypriot Director Of Tourism for a friendly chat.
Firstly, I am a travel editor, not a political pundit, which would be far less fun. Also, I manage to keep the advertising department of The Mirror at arm's length, unless we are running a special travel supplement.
The adverts you complain of have been appearing regularly in other newspapers such as the Sunday Times and the Telegraph.
I would be the last to promote an apartheid regime and this, as most people recognise, is simply not the case in North Cyprus.
I would never have written about South Africa as a holiday destination during the apartheid era. And at the moment, I wouldn't consider writing an article on Burma and would have misgivings about promoting China as a tourist destination.
I am a member of Amnesty International and I get regular reports on what is
going on in these countries.
Indeed, if I had been travel editor of The Mirror between 1967 and 1974, I
would not have run holiday articles on Greece, a beautiful country with charming
people which at that time was run by one of the most vicious regimes Europe
had seen since World War Two.
As you will know, it was the disastrous attempt by this government to murder
the Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios and install a known Eoka terrorist,
Nikos Samson, in his place to unite Cyprus with Greece that led to the Turkish
invasion.
It is a tragedy that Cyprus continues to be divided after all these years.
But there is no reason, in my view, why Mirror readers should not see both
sides of such a beautiful island.
I have found that Cypriot warmth and friendliness transcends politics ...
whichever side of the Green Line you go.