Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar on Sunday accused the Greek Cypriots of using sport to underline hackneyed complaints after F1 driver Sebastian Vettel had a Turkish Cypriot flag on his helmet.

Vettel removed the Turkish Cypriot flag from his helmet after the Cyprus Automobile Association complained to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), but Tatar said the move showed the Greek Cypriot administration maintains its hostile attitude towards the flag even in a war environment where innocent civilians are killed and a human tragedy is experienced.

Vettel then replaced the flags on his helmet with a message of support for the people of Ukraine.

Tatar said the Greek Cypriots used sport, a world language, as a tool for their political purposes and old complaints.

“This outdated mentality, which confuses politics with sport and fights for the continuation of unjust and inhuman isolation, can have a positive contribution neither to sport nor to a world humanity living in peace and brotherhood,” the Turkish Cypriot leader said.

“Vettel’s decision of sporting the pseudo-state’s flag on his helmet is unacceptable,” a statement released by the Cyprus Automobile Association had said on Friday.

The flag was in a line with many others around his helmet.

Speaking at the same time about Varosha, Tatar said tourism development is very important for the future of the area and Turkish Cypriots in general.

Despite the pandemic in the last 18 months more than 400,000 people have visited the closed area of Famagusta, he said.

“The opening of Varosha is very important for the future” of the north, he said speaking to journalists at an international meeting in Turkey.

Referring to the Cyrus problem, he said the island had entered a new era, repeating his position that as of independence in 1960, the island has ‘two founding peoples, with equal sovereignty’.