Editor: Erdogan urged attack on Turkish Cypriot newspaper

NICOSIA, Cyprus – The editor of a left-wing Turkish Cypriot newspaper says his publication won't be silenced in its criticism of Turkey's policies in the breakaway north of ethnically split Cyprus after a mob smashed window panes and hurled stones and eggs at its offices.

Sener Levent told The Associated Press that Monday's attack was prompted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who urged supporters to "answer" Afrika newspaper for suggesting that Turkey's military offensive into Syria against an enclave controlled by a U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia was a bid to occupy that country's territory.

A headline in Afrika's Sunday edition likened Turkey's action to its military "occupation" of Cyprus' north, where Turkey has kept 35,000 troops since 1974 when it invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece.