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23 May, 2016Victory of those with black shirts became a source of concern
24 May, 2016“The success in South Cyprus’s parliamentary elections of a far-right party opposing the island’s fragile peace process should spur on those aiming for a deal this year before more momentum is lost, analysts said”, as published on Reuters.
Reuters stressed that the right-wing ELAM party took two seats in the 56-member chamber in the Greek Cypriot parliamentary elections on Sunday, its first since it was created in 2008.
According to Reuters “The result largely mirrors voter disillusionment over the country’s financial meltdown in 2013, with fringe parties picking up protest votes. But it could also endanger reunification talks between the island’s estranged Greek and Turkish communities. Diplomats say the talks are one of the best chances in generations to solve the Cyprus problem.” Reuters also gave some details about ELAM. “At the extreme on the right is ELAM, an affiliate – and some say ‘kindergarten version’ – of Greece’s Golden Dawn party. ELAM has been involved in isolated acts of violence against Turkish Cypriots in the past. Some members stormed a lecture delivered by former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat in 2014.
Some of its sympathizers are also thought to be behind attacks on Turkish Cypriot cars in November 2015 in incidents roundly condemned by Anastasiades.”
ELAM’s getting seats in the South Cyprus Parliament also created eco in POLITICO. (Internet newspaper) Politico gave the news as “The far-right ELAM party’s success in getting its first seats in the South Cyprus parliament in Sunday’s elections, alongside two other small groups, casts doubt on support for the fragile negotiations to reunify the Greek and Turkish halves of the island.
The Greek-Cypriot nationalist ELAM (National Popular Front) party, which has links to Greece’s neo-fascist Golden Dawn and has been accused of racism against Turkish Cypriots, won two seats in the House of Representatives in Nicosia.”
