Early on Friday 9 March, Chuka Umunna MP’s Twitter account was compromised by a Turkish nationalist hacking group. The hackers described themselves as “the Turkish Cypriot army Ayyıldız Tim” and as a “Turkish cyber army”. The group ‘Ayyıldız Tim’, has been described as a ‘patriotic, nationalist hacker group’, and has reportedly been responsible for many cyber-attacks around the world.

The nationalist group posted pro-Turkey messages in Mr Umunna’s name, including messages of support for the illegal ongoing Turkish invasion of Afrin, Syria (which they described as an “operation”). The messages were immediately deleted when Mr Umunna regained control of his Twitter account.

The President of the National Federation of Cypriots in the UK, Christos Karaolis, sent an email to Mr Umunna to express solidarity with him in the face of this attack on freedom of speech and the basic principles of democracy.

Mr Karaolis added in his email that, “Cyprus has long been the victim of attacks by Turkey” including the illegal invasion and occupation in 1974, and very recently through Turkey’s illegal intrusion into the Republic of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone to block legally permitted drilling attempts by Italian energy company ENI.

 

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