TURKISH CYPRIOT AND TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW
C O N T E N T S
No. 128/13 10/07/2013
1.
Eroglu: Cyprus
talks may be launched in the first half of October 2013
2. Aspects of the interview of President Anastasiades to
Milliyet newspaper
3. A joint statement by trade unions accusing Turkey of wiping out the Turkish Cypriots
3. A joint statement by trade unions accusing Turkey of wiping out the Turkish Cypriots
4.
“Election campaign” continues in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus
5.Gezi demonstrations continue
6. Erdogan sues author İhsan Eliaçık
1.
Eroglu: Cyprus
talks may be launched in the first half of October 2013
Turkish Cypriot daily Vatan (10.07.13)
reports that during a meeting with the Young Businessmen’s Association (GIAD),
Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu argued that the Turkish Cypriot side has
always approached the solution plans put in front of them with a positive
attitude, adding that the Cyprus talks may be launched in the first half of
October this year.
Eroglu said that a solution should be
found in order to safeguard that both “people” can live in tranquillity next to
each other, claiming that the expectation of the Turkish Cypriot side is an
agreement. Eroglu described the statement by Cyprus President Anastasiades that
he only sits at the negotiating table with proposals that has the 75 % support
of the Greek Cypriot National Council as wrong, adding that it is impossible to
obtain such support.
On the same issue, according to illegal
Bayrak television (online, 09.07.13), during the meeting with GIAD, Eroglu also
said that a possible agreement should be prepared on a win-win basis by the two
sides in Cyprus and not by others, adding that any solution plan to be prepared
should belong to the two sides on the island and no one else.
“We should not wait for another
resolution plan to be prepared by the UN Secretary-General. A resolution plan
should be prepared by the two parties on the island which will mutually benefit
the two sides and two peoples in Cyprus”, Eroglu argued.
He explained that a solution plan
prepared by others may not satisfy the expectations of both sides, claiming
that the Turkish Cypriot side will maintain its efforts to ensure a peaceful
existence for both peoples on the island.
2. Aspects of the interview of President
Anastasiades to Milliyet newspaper
Under the title “The Turkish grandfather of the Greek Cypriot leader”, Turkish daily Milliyet newspaper (10.07.13) publishes an interview by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and notes that this is the first time the President spoke to a Turkish paper. The newspaper writes that Anastasiades’ father grew up next to a Turkish Cypriot named Ibrahim Sahali who was like a father to him.
Under the title “The Turkish grandfather of the Greek Cypriot leader”, Turkish daily Milliyet newspaper (10.07.13) publishes an interview by the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and notes that this is the first time the President spoke to a Turkish paper. The newspaper writes that Anastasiades’ father grew up next to a Turkish Cypriot named Ibrahim Sahali who was like a father to him.
The paper writes
that Anastasiades told a story about a Greek Cypriot police officer with the
nickname “Risoto” who received a call in 1974 by Ibrahim Sahali asking him to
help his village which was stormed by EOKA members. “Risoto” went to the
village and demanded no one to touch any Turkish Cypriot. “Risoto was my father”,
Anastasiades stated.
The paper writes
that Anastasiades “who voted in favor for the Annan Plan is still of course in favor of a solution”, and notes
that Anastasiades while saying that he is aware that finding a solution is
urgent, at the same time he knows that haste movements must not be made.
He also said
that “a solution on paper cannot be achieved” and added that negative feelings
must be overcome.
Anastasiades
also sent a message to the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan: “Succeeding in the Cyprus problem
will safeguard the solution in the region as well as world peace. We have to
strive for any effort towards this”, he stated.
Referring more
on the solution process, Anastasiades stated that the Greek Cypriot side
firstly focused on the economic crisis. He also said that the Annan Plan
remained in the past and there is no intention the launching of the negotiation
talks to be delayed any further for some months.
3.
A joint statement by trade unions accusing Turkey of wiping out the Turkish
Cypriots
Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis
(10.07.13), reports that Turkish Cypriot Primary Teachers’ Union (KTOS),
Turkish Cypriot Primary Teachers’ Union (KTOEOS), “Turkish Cypriot State
Workers’ Union” (Cag-Sen), Turkish Cypriot Physicians’ Union (Tip-Is) and the
“Academic personnel of East Mediterranean University’s Union” (Dau-Sen),
in a joint announcement issued
yesterday, said that “the north part of Cyprus, which is considered an EU territory, is under the
administration of Turkey”, adding that this is contrary to the founding
treaties of the Republic of Cyprus as well as to the Geneva Treaty.
In the joint statement, it is said that
the “self-styled governments of the breakaway regime administrate the Turkish
Cypriots with the decisions and the interferences of Ankara governments”,
adding that there is a perception in the occupied area of the Republic of
Cyprus, which defends the integration and the assimilation and this perception
continues to wipe out the Turkish Cypriots, to take their identity and
personality and keep them as hostages for bargaining.
According to the joint statement, the
Turkish Cypriots have been subjected for 30 years now to the same practices
that the ruling government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Turkey’s Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan have implemented to the Gezi Park
demonstrations.
4.
“Election campaign” continues in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus
Today’s Turkish press (10.07.13)
continues to cover the “election campaign” of the Turkish Cypriot political
parties.
Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis (10.07.13)
reports that the leader of the Social Democracy Party (TDP)
Mehmet Cakici referred yesterday to the so-called assembly new faces, adding
that their “candidate list” for the “early elections” includes persons, who
represent Turkey’s people, the Turkish
Cypriots, the people from the Black Sea and
the Anatolia.
Meanwhile, Havadis reported that the
leader of the Democrat Party (DP) Serdar Denktas, during his visit to the
paper, called on the people who won’t go the ballot box because they will
boycott the “early elections”, not to boycott their own future.
5.Gezi demonstrations continue
Turkish daily
Today's Zaman (09.07.13) reports that at least 50 people were detained in
Istanbul and 16 in Kocaeli province on Monday and Tuesday over the continued
Gezi Park protests following the park's eventful reopening to the public Monday
evening.
Istanbul's Gezi
Park was reopened to the
public on Monday following three weeks of beautification work, but it was
closed shortly after following a new protest on Monday evening. Fifty people,
including members of the group Taksim Solidarity and one person who fired a gun
during the incident, were detained in events that started at the park on Monday
evening. On Tuesday, 16 demonstrators who were protesting Monday's detentions
were detained in Kocaeli.
Additionally, 13
of 15 people who were detained on Monday in the province of Izmir
on suspected involvement in violent acts related to the Gezi Park
protests were arrested after their interrogation by police. Another 11 people
in Kocaeli were detained in home raids on Monday morning after having attended
the Gezi Park protests.
On Tuesday at noon, the Taksim Solidarity group
issued a press statement from the Taksim Hill Hotel demanding the release of
their fellow members. The statement also condemned police brutality.
6. Erdogan sues author İhsan Eliaçık
Turkish daily
Zaman newspaper (09.07.13) reports that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan is suing author İhsan Eliaçık over his accusations against the Turkish
leader on Twitter, with the prime minister's lawyers submitting the lawsuit on
behalf of Erdogan on Monday.
The lawsuit read
that Eliaçık accused Erdogan of being a “dictator, a corrupt leader,
provocateur, liar and arrogant” on his Twitter account on June 18 during the Gezi Park
protests. Eliaçık, who promotes an anti-capitalist interpretation of Islam,
also posted on his Twitter account that Erdogan would be toppled by protests on
the street and that his ousting from power could be magnificent. Erdogan is
suing Eliaçık for TL 50,000, claiming that these tweets openly encourage people
to rebel.
Erdogan's lawyers
also argued that through his tweets Eliaçık insulted the personality of the
prime minister and aimed to incite hatred toward Erdogan. The lawsuit reads
that such heavy insults cannot be considered free speech.
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