Turkish prosecutor probes actor over Cyprus comments

A Turkish prosecutor said he had opened an investigation into an actor who said he killed a Greek Cypriot prisoner-of-war during Turkey's 1974 invasion of Cyprus and then retracted his comment.

There has been public anger in Cyprus over the remarks by Turkish actor Atilla Olgac, who said in a television interview last week he shot dead a 19-year-old prisoner-of-war and killed another nine people when he was a conscript during the invasion.

The actor later retracted, saying he had been testing public reaction to a film script he was writing.

The Istanbul prosecutor, Ali Cakir, told Reuters he launched the investigation under the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war, to which Turkey is party.

If evidence of wrongdoing emerges, the dossier will be sent to the International Criminal Court in the Hague, he said.

In the wake of Olgac's comments, the Cypriot government said on Tuesday it will file a case with the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey to clarify the fate of some 1,500 Greek Cypriots who went missing during the invasion.

Cyprus has been ethnically divided since the summer of 1974 when Turkish forces invaded the east Mediterranean island following a brief Greek-inspired coup.

Turkey does not recognise the Greek Cypriot government, which is a member of the European Union, and has troops stationed in a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north.

The Cyprus issue has been one of the main stumbling blocks to Turkey's bid to join the EU, alongside criticism of its human rights record.

About 1,500 Greek Cypriots disappeared during the invasion and 500 Turkish Cypriots went missing in ethnic clashes during the early 1960s.