TCC Press Review 8 July 2021

Front Page Headlines

Yenidüzen

List of banned individuals

Former Presential Press Advisor Ali Bizden’s banned entry into Turkey brings Turkish-TRNC relations back into the spotlight. Bizden was banned from entry into Turkey the other night on grounds he had acted against Turkey’s national security. He was kept locked up in a questioning room for 11 hours at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gökçen Airport. While the Foreign Ministry said that the necessary initiative had been launched with Turkish officials, President Ersin Tatar chose to remain quiet on the issue.

  • The third wave is here; our bed capacity is almost full! Yenidüzen was at the emergency hospital. 97 (Covid-19) cases in the North, 952 in the South.

Kıbrıs

Striking claims!

Elif Pekri, Director of the Tourism Publicity and Marketing Department, resigned from her post with a letter outlining her reasons. She claimed that she had been pressured to sign documents that were prepared before her appointment. KAMU-SEN (Turkish Cypriot Public Servants’ Union) President Metin Atan said “Ms Pekri was asked to participate in act of corruption but she refused it.”

  • “If we make a promise, we will deliver it”Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay came to the TRNC for a two-day working trip. Oktay inspected the ongoing construction of the northbound ring road.

Havadis

Massive outrage against the ban

The entry ban imposed on fourth President Mustafa Akıncı’s communications consultant Ali Bizden generated outrage and harsh criticism. President Ersin Tatar’s and Prime Minister Ersan Saner’s silence on the issue did not go unnoticed.

Diyalog

Red alarm

Nicosia’s central transformer located near the Central Prison is surrounded by dry vegetation and overgrowth raising the risk of fire to alarming levels. A fire could risk the prison as well as the facilities at the nearby industrial zone. There is also highly flammable equipment being stored in a warehouse located within the transformer compound.

  • Important messageVice President Fuat Oktay said, “We are working with all our strength to build a Cyprus which can stand on its own feet and which can produce.

Avrupa

48 per cent who voted for Akıncı have been blacklisted

Ali Bizden who served as communications consultant during Mustafa Akıncı’s term at the palace for four-and-a-half years was deported back to Cyprus after being kept in a room for 11 hours. The police at the Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport also seized Bizden’s ID card, mobile telephone, his money and his back bag.

  • Şener Elcil: Being rescued is worse than occupation.
  • Mustafa Akıncı: I condemn the tyrannical administration.
  • Kudret Özersay: It must be announced who is on the list of prohibited people.

Main News

Opposition up in arms after Akıncı’s press advisor Ali Bizden blacklisted by Ankara

Yenidüzen, Havadis, Avrupa
Human Rights

OVERVIEW

The entry ban imposed by Turkish authorities on former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı’s communications consultant Ali sent shockwaves through the Turkish Cypriot community on Wednesday, reigniting a never-ending debate on relations with Ankara.

Bizden, on his flight back after being deported from Turkey, said he was kept in a room for 11 hours and that Turkish police had seized his back bag, money, and telephone.

He said that he had only been informed of the decision taken on September 8, 2020, as he tried to enter Turkey on July 6, 2021. Bizden added he was denied entry on the claims that he was a threat to Turkey’s national security.

“The real reason is that I have worked as the communications consultant for four-and-a-half years for our President Mustafa Akıncı, who was elected into office with 65 per cent of the votes of the Turkish Cypriot community,” Bizden wrote on social media, adding that “I was told there will be a price to pay for demanding equality, freedom and security for every community living community living on the island.”

Implying that Ankara will continue to punish those advocating for equality, and freedoms, Bizden added that “It is such a pity for Atatürk’s Turkey to consider me as a national security threat.” Bizden also said he has forgiven in advance the Turkish Cypriot officials and others who will try to create excuses for his detention and deportation.

In the meantime, the Turkish Cypriot Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said “the necessary initiatives had been launched on Bizden’s denial of entry into Turkey,” adding that contacts on the issue were is still underway.

Nonetheless, the Foreign Ministry statement failed to convince the opposition or quell its anger. “The Ministry’s statement is only an attempt to sweep the issue under the carpet,” Erdoğan Sorakın, General Secretary of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) said in a post on social media on Wednesday.

Sorakın, directing his criticism to Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu, said, “You should be ashamed of yourself for putting the Turkish Cypriots in such a situation.”

He also stressed sanctioning people’s freedoms based on what they had said and creating a perception that they are guilty was undemocratic and only served to raise tensions within the community.

The CTP leader Tufan Erhürman who also expressed his outrage stressed democracy and freedom of expression are indispensable and irreplaceable principles. “It is vital for the relations between the Turkish Cypriot people, TRNC and Turkey to be shaped within these principles,” the CTP leader stressed, warning that otherwise, new tensions among the community and with Turkey will arise.

Erhürman also called on Tatar and Ertuğruloğlu to provide explanations that will satisfy the Turkish Cypriot community. He also asked the Turkish Cypriot officials to get in touch with their Turkish counterparts on the issue without further delay.

People’s Party (HP) leader Kudret Özersay also harshly criticized current Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Ertuğruloğlu for not doing anything about Bizden.

Özersay noted that it is normal for countries to create “a stop-list” of people who would be denied entry into the country however it is the Turkish Cypriot officials’ responsibility to coordinate with Ankara to ensure that no Turkish Cypriot is made to suffer.

He also recalled that when he was serving as foreign minister, Turkish officials wanted to question certain Turkish Cypriot academics however such moves were not allowed. “We do not know the reasons as to why Bizden was not allowed to enter Turkey however if the reason behind it is his previous job or his political viewpoint, this is not acceptable nor is it democratic,” Özersay said.

He added that to prevent people from entering Turkey just because they criticize those in power is a disturbing notion.

Özersay also underlined the importance of safeguarding Turkish Cypriots right of passage as Turkey was the Turkish Cypriots’ only access point to the world. “Tatar and Ertuğruloğlu must sit down with Turkish officials to clarify the rules, procedures and reveal who will be denied entry and who will not in order to avoid similar cases in the future,” Özersay stressed, adding that lack of clarity will only lead to harming relations between the two countries.

Social Democratic Party (TDP) leader Cemal Özyiğit also slammed Tatar for keeping quiet on Bizden and what he had to endure.

In a social media post, Özyiğit said that Turkish Cypriots were regularly subject to anti-democratic practices and this issue could not be reduced to an isolated incident concerning only one individual. “It must be known we will continue to defend with determination our right of freedom of expression, our political will and human rights and will continue to wage a struggle for self-governance,” Özyiğit said.

He also said Tatar should be ashamed of the current anti-democratic measures. General Secretary of the Turkish Cypriot Teachers’ Union (KTÖS) Şener Elcil commenting on the issue said that Turkish officials have reached a point where they are branding our patriots as terrorists.

He added that they were interfering in every issue in the north under the pretext of being a guarantor nation. Stressing that there is only a ‘puppet regime’ in the northern part of the island, Elcil argued Turkish Cypriots’ secular, democratic attitudes and their respect for human rights and freedoms has caused a disturbance in the AKP (Justice and Development Party) regime, which is leaning on bigotry, fascism and zealotry to remain in power.

“One of the three guarantor nations Turkey, which was given the responsibility to protect the territorial integrity of Republic of Cyprus and reinstate constitutional order on the island, is clearly abusing its authority,” Elcil stressed, adding that not only the AKP is pushing Turkish Cypriots to annihilation by colonizing the island, the AKP has also shown they do not like the Turkish Cypriots a bit.

“We are very curious to see the statements to be issued on this issue by Tatar and the government who at every opportunity talk about sovereignty,” Elcil concluded.


Oktay: Our position on the Cyprob is very clear & will not change

Yenidüzen, Kıbrıs, Havadis, Diyalog, Avrupa
Negotiations Process

OVERVIEW

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay on Wednesday hit back on the latest remarks made by EU officials, stating that Ankara’s position against those who perceived Turkish Cypriots was clear and would not change.

Speaking in Nicosia on Wednesday before meeting with Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ersan Saner, Oktay said Turkish Cypriots had gained their freedom on July 20, 1974. “July 20 is the date when Turkey ruined the Greek- Greek Cypriot ploys to achieve their dream of Enosis and transform Turkish Cypriots into a minority,” Oktay said, arguing that the Greek Cypriots have been occupying and seizing the island since then.

“They will never succeed,” Oktay said, adding that the Turkish Cypriots are an equal community on the island. Also speaking Prime Minister Ersan Saner said “The TRNC will become stronger as long as it acts in harmony and collaboration with Turkey,” adding that it is also the Turkish Cypriot government’s responsibility to protect the Turkish nation’s interests and rights in the Blue Homeland.

Touching on the negotiations process, Saner said the Greek Cypriot side’s irreconcilable attitude is obvious and is seen by all. “There is a problem of occupation on the island and that is Greek Cypriots occupying the Republic of Cyprus in 1963 unilaterally,” Saner said.


Pakistani national caught while trying to cross to the south illegally

Yenidüzen, Kıbrıs, Havadis, Diyalog, Avrupa
Internal Security

OVERVIEW

A Pakistani national was caught by Turkish soldiers on patrol as he was trying to cross to the southern part of the island illegally.

The police officer informing the court of the details of the case said the suspect was detained by the Turkish soldiers in the Haspolat (Mia Milia) area in the early hours of July 3 with a wire-cutter in his hand.

The man told police in his testimony that he wanted to cross to the south with the hope of earning a bigger wage in his voluntary testimony. The Nicosia District Court charged the suspect with illegal entry into a military zone and then released him on bail until the court announces its verdict.


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