Renowned ceramics teacher murdered in Turkish Cyprus

LEFKOŞA

A renowned ceramics teacher in Turkish Cyprus has been murdered. 

The body of Hasan Işık Özgöçmen, 53, was found in a wooded area in the İskele district in the north of the island on Sept. 30.

According to a report by Demirören News Agency on Oct. 1, Özgöçmen was strangled.

Police, who launched an investigation into the murder, also found an abandoned car 150 meters away from the body near the coast.

Özgöçmen, who was teaching at the Atatürk Vocational High School, was also an organizer of the 2nd International Vounous Ceramics Symposium.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island’s Turks and Ankara’s intervention as a guarantor power.

The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was declared independent on Nov. 15, 1983. Currently, only Turkey recognizes it as an independent state.

The latest attempt to reunify the long-divided Mediterranean island ended in failure in July 2017 after two years of negotiations.