TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has complained that the red stripe representing the Turkish component of the new state has been placed at the bottom of the flag approved last week by one of the technical committees involved in the negotiations.

He was joined in his disdain of the new flag yesterday by Bishop Pavlos of Kyrenia, who said it symbolised the fact the plan would turn Greek Cypriots into Turks.

President Tassos Papadopoulos and Greek Cypriot party leaders have accepted the design for the new flag of the United Cyprus Republic, which was publicisied last week. The new flag is made up of six horizontal stripes, starting from the top with blue to represent the Greek element, white, then yellow, the colour of the map of the island on the current Cyprus flag, then another stripe of white and then red for the Turkish component.

But Denktash said the flag was “not the flag of Turkish Cypriot people”. He said he had received complaints from Turkey because the “Turkish red color is at the bottom while Greek blue color is above it”.

“Our flag is both the Turkish flag and flag of our state. There is no reason to change these,” he said. The ‘TRNC’ flag is identical to the Turkish flag with the red and white inverted.

The Kyrenia Bishop was even less impressed than Denktash. “They put the blue on the top to remind us that we are Greek and red on the bottom to tell us that we will become Turks,” he told a television station.

The committee that decided on the flag agreed it should represent both federal states and reflect the ethnic colours of Greece and Turkey whose flags are mainly blue and red respectively.