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======Press Release Occupy Buffer Zone (OBZ) (Leaflet)======


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This leaflet was published in April 2012, by [[en:groups:obz|Occupy Buffer Zone]], in Nicosia. It is the press release of the movement regarding its eviction from its squat by Greek Cypriot police forces, which occurred on the 6th of April, 2012.

===== Content=====

**Press Release Occupy Buffer Zone (OBZ)
**

On the night of Friday 6/4/2012 as is known, the police invaded the space that was under occupation by the Occupy Buffer Zone movement in the Dead Zone. The movement is part of the global occupations movement that began last year in New York and is protesting against the poverty and social injustices that the capitalist neoliberal model is creating in every corner of the earth. In Cyprus, the movement took on a multicommunal character and considered from the beginning that the so-called ‘Cyprus problem’ is a result of the competitions that are created in capitalism and expresses the interests of local and international forces in the region. Thus we considered it important, T/Cs and G/Cs jointly, to transfer the protest to the space of the dead zone, a point of the island which semiotically describes all of the above.

The empty building owned by the Kykkos monastery was transformed by the movement into a center for activities of cultural and sociopolitical nature which was open for all. On Friday night the executive power in an unprecedented demonstration of force, and, in communication with the other authorities including the United Nations (in view of the coming EU presidency), proved that any political and social action that differs from the ‘standard’ stereotypes will be persecuted with a dictatorial and authoritarian character that does not recognize nor respect human and constitutional rights. In the only space of the island where reunification and social equality escape the limits of state negotiations and are realized through collective and self-organized processes, the answer of the legal Cypriot state took place in the framework of intimidation, threat and irregularity.

The accusation of illegal entry with which all the arrested were charged does not constitute an offence according to the penal code as there was no intention for committing a penal offence. Therefore the detention of the arrested is considered illegal. As a movement but also as citizens we demand to know why the policemen refused persistently to show any warrant, as well as their identification numbers (as is provided by law) when they were repeatedly asked to. In addition, it was not answered whether the terrorist raid of the repression forces took place with the consent of the legal owner. If the Kykkos monastery wanted to claim and restore the building to inaction it would have been morally more right to ask, or take action with the legal procedures instead of encouraging the police to intervene making unfounded allegations.

The unfounded reason for drug trafficking is rejected naturally from the result of the operation during which the police managed to find in total less than a gram of cannabis on the floor of one room! They took care of charging this quantity on two young men that happened to be near the room, one inside the room and the other outside, giving them a beating in the process. Several hours later and after the young men asked to be examined by the doctor, they were also charged with the accusations of resistance and assault, obviously in order to justify the uncalled-for beating. A body search also took place on girls by armed men of the special forces who were aiming their guns at 16 year olds. As for our friend who is charged with assaulting a policeman, it is enough for someone to see the marks on her body to understand if she were a victim or an aggressor.

The participation of the Special Anti-Terrorist Force shows the way in which the state handles the youth of this place, G/Cs and T/Cs, who claim a future which will be a creation of the Cypriot people themselves and not a creation of the existing domestic and world politico-economical and social status quo.

We apologize for being unable to transfer in words the repugnant scenes of state violence we lived, and we wish to assure you that we will not stop existing actively and creatively.

«You cannot evict an idea»

«You can’t solve a problem with a perception smaller than the one that created it»

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST POLICE VIOLENCE THIS THURSDAY 12/4, LIBERTY SQUARE/ELEFTHERIA SQUARE

{{tag>Condition:"Needs Translation":"Needs Turkish Translation" "Leaflets" Groups:"Occupy Buffer Zone (Group)" "Decade:Decade 2010-2019" Year:"2012" Areas:Nicosia:"Nicosia (north)" Areas:Nicosia:"Nicosia (south)" Areas:Nicosia Subject:"Occupy Buffer Zone"}}
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Κυπριακό Κινηματικό Αρχείο
Cyprus Movements Archive
Kıbrıs Sosyal Hareket Arşivi
