20 April 2025 - A 22-year-old dead. Uncontrolled fires. Injury causing firecrackers. Damaged property.
Is this the “tradition” we tolerate?
Every Easter, Cyprus turns into a war zone. Tons of wood and other dangerous materials are stacked up uncontrollably in neighbourhoods. Firecrackers explode next to children and unsuspecting civilians. Entire neighbourhoods are threatened by the flames. Cars, bins and properties are burned. And the State? Absent.
It is not innocent. It is violence. It is terror. It is criminal indifference. It is the normalisation of barbarity and this is happening before our eyes. And its semiotics are tragic. It has gone from a tradition to now be an expression of hatred towards symbols and groups of people.
We no longer ask, we demand:
REGULATION and CONTROL of firecrackers.
SERIOUS PUNISHMENT for the use and trafficking of firecrackers.
PROTECTION of life, property and public safety.
An END to hate speech and threats that are called “custom”.