Turkish Outrage Over Street Renaming by Armenian Community in Cyprus

According to Ermenihaber.am, there has been dissatisfaction in Turkey regarding the renaming of several streets with Turkish names in the Greek part of the Republic of Cyprus. An article from the Turkish government-affiliated news site "Hürriyet" accuses the Greeks of seizing Turkish neighborhoods in the southern part of the island before 1974 and now erasing the names of those neighborhoods, while conveniently ignoring the ongoing Turkish occupation of almost half of Cyprus that began that same year.

Among the renamed streets mentioned by a Turkish author upset over the changes is Talat Pasha Avenue in the city of Paphos, which was renamed Justice Avenue a few weeks ago through the efforts of the local Armenian community.

Other recently renamed streets include the former Turkish-inhabited Bozkurt (Gray Wolf) Street in Larnaca, named in the 1910s, and a street in Istanbul which has been renamed Costantinople Street.

It is important to note that following the Turkish occupation in 1974, over 200,000 Greeks moved from the Turkish-occupied part of the island to the Greek part, while about 20,000 Turks relocated from the Greek to the Turkish side. Many places in the Turkish-controlled area have been renamed to reflect Turkish names, and numerous churches, monasteries, and temples have been converted into mosques.