Türkiye's Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz has strongly condemned a recent arson attack on a mosque in the Greek Cypriot administration.
After a Molotov cocktail was hurled on Saturday at the Koprulu Haci Ibrahim Aga Mosque in the city of Limassol, Yilmaz said on Sunday that the act was "a clear attack on human rights, democracy, freedom of thought and belief."
"Communal peace and human values were targeted in this act of arson," he said on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Yilmaz also underlined that the attack was another manifestation of rising anti-Islam sentiments in Europe in recent years.
The attack was also condemned by other Turkish officials and politicians, including the head of the country's Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) Ali Erbas and the spokesman of the Justice and Development (AK) Party Omer Celik.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry has also strongly condemned the early-morning arson attack on Saturday.
"This heinous attack is yet another addition to the past acts against different mosques in the Greek Cypriot Administration," the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"On the other hand, the hatred and intolerance revealed by the said attack indicate how far removed some segments of the Greek Cypriot community are from an understanding of living together in peace, tranquility and tolerance with the Muslim Turkish Cypriots, providing an additional proof that the two-state vision of the Turkish Cypriot side constitutes the only realistic model for the settlement of the Cyprus issue," the statement added.
Source: TRTworld.com