Jan 22, 2018

Hundreds of protesters, hurling stones and eggs, demonstrated outside the offices of a Turkish Cypriot newspaper in northern Nicosia after it slammed Ankara's operation inside Syria as an "occupation".

The Afrika newspaper -- which is often anti-Ankara and staunchly critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- wrote on its front page Sunday: "One more occupation from Turkey."

This was an ironic ref

erence to the 1974 Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus which is regarded in Turkey as a "peace operation" but, in the eyes of the international community, led to Turkish troops occupying the northern third of the island.

Around 500 protesters, waving Turkish flags and the flag of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet, gathered outside the offices of the paper, throwing stones, water bottles and eggs which smashed the building's windows.