Dear friends,
The Community of Ukrainian-Cypriot friendship is informing you of our intention to conduct a peaceful protest “Beware of predators” to express the frustration of Ukrainians about the celebration of the so called “National day of Russia” to be held on the main square of Cyprus, Eleftheria sq. on Sunday 11.06 at 19:00. Our people will come with posters and flags to demonstrate that such celebrations are absolutely inappropriate.
For more than a year has already lasted the full-scale military invasion of Russia into Ukraine. Tolerating such celebrations has nothing to do with democracy. It is not a demonstration of tolerance to the other “point of view” by the authorities of Cyprus. This is tolerance to violence and terror, encouraging the supporters of war to persist in their opinion that military aggression is a legal means of solving political contradictions.
We not only think it’s unfair and unjust but we’re also convinced that tolerating Russia and Putin supporters is dangerous for Cyprus. The Russian government shows itself as friendly and generous only if you obey. Every attempt to express free will by the independent democratic society results in Russia not going the diplomatic way but resorting to violence, terror and murders. Russia doesn’t care for its own people (look at the life of russian people outside of large cities, the majority of russians live in extreme poverty and despair) nor it will care for the lives of the other country’s nationals. What other evidence do you need? Trying to overcome Ukraine Russian army keeps shelling and bombing cities hundreds of kilometers far from the front line. They initiate ecological disasters resulting in thousands of people left homeless and dozens of people drowned. It is quite common for the Russian government to use terroristic methods. In case of Russian victory in this war Russian army won’t stop on the conquered territories, they will keep “protecting russian-speaking people” in other countries — this is a common narrative they use to justify their military invasions (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova are just some quick examples). Russians already call cities in Cyprus in a Russian manner — e.g. Limassolgrad or Limassolsk (as Volgograd or Omsk) when they advertise the attractiveness of Cyprus to the Russian investors. They already consider Cyprus to be their island.
We called our peaceful protest “Beware of predators”. We want to warn Cyprus against tolerating Putin’s regime supporters. They are dangerous, believe us, we know. Millions of Ukrainians suffer from the evil and cruelty of this regime right now. Don’t let the supporters of Putin feel welcome in your country. Don’t let them celebrate their terrorist state on the main square of your capital. Learn from our mistakes, we also used to treat them as friends. It’s not about democracy any more it’s about survival.
When: Sunday, 11.06 19:00
Where: Eleftheria sq., Nicosia