2008 Australian Open Controversy
Two days before his third-round match against Australia's Lleyton Hewitt at the 2008 Australian Open, a video posted on YouTube almost a year earlier made headlines in the local media. The video shows the 2008 fifteenth seed at a barbecue hosted by his Greek Australian fans in Melbourne in early 2007. In it, Baghdatis is seen holding a flare chanting, among other things, pro-Cyprus slogans such as "Turks out of Cyprus" twice, with the Hellas Fan Club, a group which was later at the centre of a clash with police. A representative of the local Turkish Cypriot community referred to the chant as a "racist attack" and a "straight-forward provocation of our community", and called for the player's expulsion from the tournament and Australia, though no such action was taken.
Supporters of Baghdatis said he was not calling for Turkish Cypriots to leave Cyprus, but rather an end to Turkey's military occupation since 1974. In a statement issued through his manager, Baghdatis said he was "supporting the interest of my country Cyprus, while protesting against a situation that is not recognized by the United Nations".
Read more about this topic: Marcos Baghdatis
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