Protesters chant slogans outside the Cypriot Parliament against a vote on a plan to seize part of depositors' bank savings. Cypriots want to avoid treading in Greece's footsteps. Photo / AP
As the drama unfolded in the Parliament building in Nicosia yesterday, thousands of protesters assembled in nearby Lena Stylianou Square to express their disgust at the situation Cyprus finds itself in.
Chanting "Troika get out!" the demonstrators were kept several hundred metres from Parliament by riot barriers and lines of
police.
Amid the crowds, Marina, a 44-year-old housewife, said she wanted Cyprus to avoid retracing Greece's footsteps: "We want a referendum, the Government must fall and allow us to decide on what we want."
Her friends agreed. "Look at what happened to our neighbour [Greece], we don't want to become like them."
Kostakis, a 60-year-old public servant, also roundly rejected European help. "We prefer to help our country by lending our money straight to the state. They can return it in a few years with interest - it beats becoming a colony of the Troika."
