TCC Press Review 13 Dec 2021

Front Page Headlines

Yenidüzen

“Shopkeepers in a dire situation, switching to Euro becomes a must”

Yenidüzen spoke with shopkeepers in Kyrenia about business. All business owners complain about the loss in the value of the Turkish Lira and share the view that switching to the Euro will ease their economic problems. All our expenses are in foreign currency, it would be beneficial to switch to Euros,” they said.

Kıbrıs

Excitement at (political) parties over ‘candidacies’

Political parties identified their candidates for the January 23 early general elections. The Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and the People’s Party (HP) announced their final list of candidates the other day; the National Unity Party (UBP) will share its final list which will include the nominees made by the party assembly today. Democratic Party (DP), Rebirth Party (YDP) and the Social Democratic Party (TDP) held their internal elections and are expected to announce their list of names today as well.

Havadis

The kitchen is on fire

The increase in the foreign currency exchange rates has affected the prices of consumables. The retail prices of all the basic consumables including local and imported products have gone up. The prices for fuel and bottled gas have also skyrocketed due to foreign currencies.

  • Tensions are running high in the political parties – Political parties worked on Saturday and Sunday on identifying their candidates. Interesting results came out.
  • Is Akıncı on the boycott front? – Fourth president Mustafa Akıncı’s supporters on social media are running boycott campaigns. As a result, people also wonder if Akıncı is also part of the campaign or not.

Diyalog

Continuing with the old ones

Only seven of the 50 MPs in parliament are not running for office again. Among those who will not be running again is self-exiled UBP MP Hüseyin Özgürgün who now lives in Istanbul as well as current UBP MPs Speaker of Parliament Önder Sennaroğlu and Menteş Gündüz who did not receive the party’s support. Dr Hasan Topal who resigned from the HP, HP MP Tolga Atakan are also not running. Serdar Denktaş from the DP and Özdil Nami from the CTP are also among those who will not be in parliament next year.

  • He won’t speak It could not be determined where or not the French national who tried to exit the TRNC through the Lokmacı (Ledra St) crossing had entered the country legally.

Avrupa

Turkish Embassy is closely monitoring the candidate lists

The problems in the country have become unbearable… There is no fuel, no medicine but there is plenty of price hikes and coronavirus…But everyone is focused on the elections! The Turkish Embassy, which had been transformed into an election campaign headquarters in the last elections, is also following the developments closely. It is claimed that some of the political party leaders have exchanged opinions on certain candidates with officials at the Embassy. The political parties that had held an election for its final list of candidates have yet to announce it publicly.

Main News

Political parties in the north nominate candidates for upcoming elections

Yenidüzen, Kıbrıs, Havadis, Diyalog, Avrupa
Governance & Power Sharing

OVERVIEW

The agenda in the north over the weekend was occupied with elections taking place within the political parties to elect the candidates who will be running in next year’s early elections.

While the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and the National Unity Party (UBP) nominated their candidates on Saturday, the Rebirth Party (YDP) and Democratic Party (DP) nominated their candidates on Sunday.

The Peoples’ Party (HP) had chosen its candidates on Friday.

The CTP, despite renominating most of its current MPs also added a list of young professionals who were previously active at various levels within the party. A surprise candidate from the CTP is the current Mayor of Dipkarpaz (Risokarpaso) Suphi Coşkun from the İskele (Trikomo) district. Çoşkun is one of the few Turkish origin candidates running under the CTP’s banner.

Well-known human rights lawyer Aslı Murat is also running for parliament from Güzelyurt (Morphou) district. Murat’s candidacy heated the race within the CTP as the district lost one seat in the next elections with her rival current CTP MP Armağan Candan, a popular name within the party also running from the area.

Ödül Muhtaroğlu, former director of the Turkish Cypriot State Planning Office (SPO) and experienced technocrat Devrim Barçın are also new names running for parliament from the Nicosia district.

As for the UBP, the list, for a few exceptions, is mainly made up of the usual suspects. According to the results which were announced on Sunday, current Turkish Cypriot Speaker of Parliament Önder Sennaroğlu and current Güzelyurt (Morphou) MP Menteş Gündüz were not nominated.

The party elected 40 names out of 80 and the remaining 10 candidates will be nominated by the party assembly. Former HP MPs Mesut Genç from İskele (Trikomo) and Hasan Büyükoğlu from Lefke (Lefka) as well as the current president of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce (KTTO) Turgay Deniz are expected to be included in the list of contingent candidates.

The HP’s list of candidates however did not generate as much excitement as the party would have hoped.

In addition to nominating the six MPs from the party, the HP also surprisingly nominated Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s former spokeswoman Berna Çelik Doğruyol as a candidate from the Famagusta district.

Yusuf Avcıoğlu, who waged a war against Rebirth Party (YDP) leader Erhan Arıklı for his mismanagement of KIBTEK (Turkish Cypriot electricity authority) has also been listed as a candidate from Kyrenia District.

Interestingly, almost in response to CTP’s candidate Ödül Muhtaroğlu, the HP nominated his former deputy Mazlum Kortaş from Güzelyurt (Morphou) district.

Democratic Party (DP), Rebirth Party (YDP) and Social Democratic Party (TDP) held their internal elections to identify the final list of 50 names. 87 people had applied to be nominated at the DP, which will elect 40 names only through an election. The remaining 10 names will be nominated by the party assembly.

Former DP leader Serdar Denktaş was also present during the voting to show solidarity with the current leader of the party Fikri Ataoğlu on Sunday.

TDP held its election for candidates on Sunday. Speaking ahead of the voting, party leader Cemal Özyiğit highlighted that “It is time for the TDP” and added that “TDP will shape the future of the country.”

Pointing out to the many problems the north is faced with, Özyiğit said the early elections is an opportunity to change the current failed system. He said the TDP will come to power by adopting “clean politics based on justice, equitable sharing and development.”

The YDP also held its election on Sunday. Boasting of being the biggest party in the north with 8,942 members, the YDP leader Erhan Arıklı spoke about how the party will govern the north when it becomes the ruling party if not the main party in a possible coalition.

However, ironically only a little over a thousand of the 8,942 members voted on Sunday. It was reported that several voters were not allowed to enter the hall where voting was taking place because they did not have safe passes.

The most surprising development of the weekend was the “Road to Independence” announcing its candidates. The movement slash political party had spearheaded the boycott campaign in the previous general elections in the north, this time around, promised an “effective opposition programme” if elected. The party had shared its “opposition manifesto” on November 27.

The Higher Electoral Board (YSK) in the north had identified December 17 as the deadline for the political parties to submit their list of candidates along with the required documentation. The YSK, after reviewing the applications, will announce the final list of approved candidates on December 26.


Police detain more migrants trying to cross south illegally

Yenidüzen
Migration & Citizenship

OVERVIEW

Police on Sunday arrested 17 undocumented migrants who were caught on Saturday as they attempted to cross over to the south illegally. A court on Sunday ordered the migrants to remain in police custody for three days as police concluded its investigation.

The migrants were not present at the hearing as their PCR tests were still inconclusive. The group were captured in Akıncılar (Louroujina) as they attempted to cross through a military area through three rented vehicles.

A person believed to be connected to the incident was also arrested on the same day.

Meanwhile, a man with French nationality was detained by police at the Lokmacı (Ledra St) crossing on Sunday after it emerged he had entered the north without going through official procedures.

The dailies report that the man has refused to talk. It’s not known how he entered the north, whether he passed through a crossing point without presenting documents or walking across the green line. 


Translate »