Tuesday, 26 July, 2022
The man who oversaw the national lottery which mistakenly printed images of Greek Cypriot Eoka fighters on the tickets, has been fired by Prime Minister Ünal Üstel, Yeniduzen reported. Hüseyin Cahitoğlu, Chairman of the General Board of the Prime Ministry Sports Department was also dismissed and replaced by Berhan Ongan.
Osman Uzun who apologised for the error was replaced by Turgut Sunalp after the ensuing uproar when the mistake was spotted.
The lottery authority recalled thousands of unsold tickets in a sweepstake draw scheduled for August which had been issued to commemorate the battle of Tylliria/Kokkina in 1964, when Turkish planes bombed Greek Cypriot positions surrounding Turkish Cypriot enclaves.
The EOKA fighters shown in the original image, were hoisting a captured Turkish flag outside a chapel in the Kyrenia mountains in April 1964.
Prime Minister Üstel said, “This could not be tolerated, necessary interventions were made in this regard. We are taking every precaution to ensure that such an incident does not happen again”.
Following the outcry, President Ersin Tatar said, “It is inexcusable to use the picture of the EOKA members in the photograph on the ticket”.
