Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Friday telephoned Panathinaikos basketball coach Ergin Ataman.
The call came days after Ataman had reacted with upset to a banner reading ‘50 years of illegal occupation, no one forgets’ which was unfurled at a Panathinaikos’ match in Cyprus on Monday, demanding to be ejected from the court.
Tatar told Ataman the banner “does not suit the spirit of sports”, adding that “sports is an area in which friendship and brotherhood are experienced together.”
“It is unacceptable to distort the realities of Cyprus and to bring those distortions to sports halls and act provocatively. What has been done seriously damages the sense of trust between [Cyprus’] two peoples,” he said.
Additionally, Tatar thanked Ataman for his “great efforts” in supporting the career of Cypriot basketball player Erten Gazi, who currently plays for Turkish side Fenerbahce.
Ataman had expressed his surprise at the banner in a social media post on Tuesday, saying that “in the arena, where sports and friendship should prevail, a political banner was displayed by a small group that I did not find fitting for the hospitality we have experienced here.
“I expressed my reaction to this situation in the strongest way possible to draw attention to it,” he added.
In response, Cyprus Basketball Federation chairman Andreas Mouzourides said he “agrees with the sentiment … that sports and friendship must always win and that sports can unite people”, though was keen to make clear that “the message of this particular banner touches all Cypriots and Greeks, and there is no one who disagrees with the essence of the message.”
Later on Tuesday, Ataman told Turkish news agency Demiroren that Panathinaikos’ upper management is “very angry about this situation”, and that the club’s Gate 13 fan group in Athens had telephoned him to apologise for the banner, telling him the banner “was opened without notice by a group of Greek Cypriots”.
On Tuesday night. Panathinaikos issued a message of unity, saying each member of their team “has the self-evident and inalienable right to believe what they want, to advocate for any sociopolitical concept and position, to walk with their own code and values”, but that “the team is beyond and above everything individual, every personal position and point of view.”
They added that the team “is beyond and above all of us”, and that with this in mind, “agents, players, coaches, fans, must only serve the ideal of sports.
“Sport unites, it does not divide, and we all have a moral obligation in our history and our future to remain true to the spirit of sport and its ideals.”
