All ends well for Cyprus donkey
Four Cyprus residents were allowed to go home yesterday after officials in the Turkish-occupied north imposed a trifling fine on three people who staged a publicity stunt involving a passport-bearing donkey. Greek Cypriots Savvas Christodoulou, 73 and Antis Kyriakou, 55, were arrested on Monday when they crossed the Green Line in Nicosia with the pregnant donkey and presented Turkish-Cypriot guards with a piece of cardboard presenting the beast as a Mr Kypros (Occupation: Laborer). The two, together with Turkish Cypriot Salih Taskent, 44, were charged with «improper behavior» toward the occupation authorities. The donkey was taken care of by a Turkish-Cypriot vet. The three humans were fined just over a euro each, and warned they would have to pay 1,280 euros each were they to repeat the stunt – which was jointly organized by Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot activists in reference to an apocryphal remark by Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash that the island’s only indigenous inhabitants were its donkeys.
