Cyprus police detain 21 persons after an attempt to harm Syrian migrants by protestors

The police in Cyprus have apprehended 21 individuals and had to use tear gas and a water cannon. This was in response to a group of Greek Cypriots, who were wearing hoods and holding baseball bats, attempting to attack Syrian protesters in a small village. This village has experienced a lot of tension between its residents and migrants.

On Tuesday, the police reported that two groups of people, around 250 Syrians and 250 Greek Cypriots, held protests in the village of Chloraka on Monday evening. Unfortunately, the protests turned violent when a small number of people from each group started to set fire to trash bins and a fence of a building.

The special police team kept the two groups apart during the riot. However, one officer got badly burned on his hand by a homemade bomb thrown by the rioters.

A police spokesman named Christos Andreou said on Tuesday that the fights started when some Greek Cypriots tried to attack the migrants. He said that nine people from Greece living in Cyprus and twelve people who moved to Cyprus from another country were captured by the authorities.

They are being accused of having weapons and causing violence.

On Monday night, there were fights after a violent incident the day before. Two migrants and a Greek Cypriot man were taken by authorities after hundreds of people from Chloraka marched in protest against the increasing number of migrants who have moved to their village in the past few years. The residents feel that their village has become like a ghetto because of this.

Andreou said that the protest became violent when some smaller groups of demonstrators went on a rampage in the village. They supposedly attacked a migrant, caused damage to a restaurant owned by a migrant, and flipped over a car.

On Sunday, there was a protest because the police cleared out an empty apartment building in Chloraka to remove many migrants who were living there without permission. The police did many raids in the village over the past three years because a court said that no more asylum seekers or people with international protection could live there.

The next day, migrants held their own protest because they believed that they were not being treated fairly by the authorities and locals. They were also upset about the damage done to their property. Justice Minister Anna Koukkides-Procopiou and Police Chief Stelios Papatheodorou were present to meet a group of migrant people and listen to their complaints in order to calm down the situation.

Andreou, who spoke to a TV station called Sigma, said that a man from Syria was arrested because he is being looked into for potentially encouraging people to be violent on social media.

The President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, strongly criticized the events, saying that violence doesn’t solve anything and only leads to more violence.

Christodoulides wants the police chief and the justice minister to talk to the Chloraka municipal authorities and the Syrian migrants to make sure everyone is safe. The security and well-being of the people is very important and cannot be compromised.

He also tried to calm the worries of the people living in Chloraka. He said that his government is still focusing on dealing with the large number of migrants coming to Cyprus. He mentioned that they have already taken steps that have cut the number of people coming and applying for asylum in half.

The Cyprus Republic is a member of the United Nations and European Union. We are willing to follow our obligations to the international community. However, we will not accept anyone who uses our country as a good place for illegal migration.