Press Releases

Monaco Shown the Red Card over Football Discrimination - 23 February 2006

London, 23 February 2006: Two dozen supporters from human rights group Embargoed! braved the freezing weather in London today to stage a demonstration opposite Monaco’s Consular Office in South Kensington. The lunchtime protest was called following the Monaco Government’s decision to pressurise its Football Association into cancelling last week’s friendly football match between representative teams from Monaco and North Cyprus.

The Embargoed! demonstration received widespread support from Turkish Cypriots, including the Cyprus Turkish Football Association and the North Cyprus Sports Minister Özkan Yorgancıoğlu. Additional support came from Jean Luc Kit, President of the Observatoire Mondial des Foot-Balls, and UK Liberal Democrat MEP Baroness Ludford, who sent the group a message of support, regretting that she could not join them for the demonstration as she had a prior European Parliament commitment.

The small but vocal group of Embargoed! demonstrators were armed with banners bearing slogans such as “Monaco: Play Fair” and “Keep Politics Out of Sport!”, and they waved red cards with the word “Non!” at the Consulate building. They even adapted a popular English football song, “North Cyprus FC, we’re by far the greatest team the world has never seen!”, which drew the interest and smiles of passers-by.

The peaceful protest concluded when Embargoed!’s Campaigns and Communications Officer Ipek Ozerim briefly met with Mr. Ivanovic (the son of the Consul-General) to hand him a symbolic gift of a football covered in graffiti calling for an end to the football embargoes, together with letters addressed to Jean-Paul Proust (Monaco’s Minister of State), Rainier Imperti (Council of Government – Exterior) and Ivan Bozidar Ivanovic (the Consul General). Mr. Ivanovic thanked Embargoed! for their good-natured protest and said he would relay their messages to the relevant persons.
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Notes to editors

1. Photographs from the demonstration are available on request from Embargoed!

2. Turkish Cypriot footballers have been banned from international football for the past fifty years as a direct result of the political conflict in Cyprus.


About Embargoed! – www.embargoed.org
Embargoed! is an independent human rights group campaigning for the immediate and unconditional end to all embargoes against North Cyprus. The group was launched on 4 March 2005 and aims to play an active role in raising awareness about the isolation of North Cyprus and lobbying world leaders and institutions to restore the fundamental political, economic and social rights of Turkish Cypriots.

Contact Embargoed!:

• Telephone/fax: + 44 (0)20 8279 8561
• Email: mail@embargoed.org;
• Post: Embargoed! Suite 205, 14 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 1JY

Press Enquiries:

Ms. İpek Özerim: T: +44 (0)777 623 0466 / +90 533 876 3166 E: ipekh@excite.com



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