A football player claims to have received death threats after becoming the first Greek Cypriot to join a Turkish Cypriot team for more than half a century.

Demetris Vassiliou, 35, says he has been the target of abuse both personally and via social networking sites since news broke that he had signed for Degirmenlik, in the second tier in northern Cyprus.

“I never wanted to cause any problems and I wasn’t looking to make a political statement with my actions,” Vassiliou told Reuters.

“I just wanted to play football and the opportunity presented itself at a club which happened to be in the north, which was willing to pay me more than triple any club was prepared to pay me on this (the Greek Cypriot) side.”

But since signing for Degirmenlik, the 35-year-old father of two has lost his job coaching his local side, Omonoia Aradippou’s Under-15s and says he has also been threatened with the possibility of a transfer to a warehouse position by his superiors at the semi-state owned Electricity Authority.

He claims to have received threats to his life via text messages.

“Following my first training session with the club after signing with them I came home to find I had 30 missed calls and a number of abusive text messages and figured something had gone wrong,” Vassiliou said.

“I’m not the first person to go to the north in search of work and I won’t be the last but the treatment I’ve received has been very unfair.”

Hasan Sertoglu, president of the Cyprus Turkish Football Association, told Reuters he was “very disappointed” by the saga.

Turkish Cypriot clubs cannot presently play in international fixtures because of the ongoing stalemate on the divided island.

The enclave, officially recognised only by Turkey, was carved up after Turkey’s invasion of north Cyprus in 1974, following a brief Greek-inspired coup.

But the CTFA signed a ‘provisional arrangement’ with the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) in November last year in which both sides agreed in principle that the CTFA would become a member of the CFA after 59 years of separation.

Almost a year on, both sides appear to be waiting for each other to ratify the agreement.

Source: Reuters