TURKISH CYPRIOT AND
TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW
C O N T E N T S
No.
96/14 27.05.14
1. Ozersay to visit
France for a series of high level contacts
2. The Slovakian
Foreign Minister satisfied with the participation of the Turkish
Cypriots in the EP elections
3. More reactions on
the EP elections
4. Eroglu: Even if
people immigrate, they never forget their places where they used to
live
5. Siber hailed
Biden’s visit as positive
6. Imam Alemdar
accused the breakaway regime of showing no interest as regards the
mosques in the free areas of Cyprus
7. Illegal university
to open a branch in Moldova
8. Turkish court
orders the arrest of four Israeli generals over the Mavi Marmara
incident
1. Ozersay
to visit France for a series of high level contacts
According to Turkish
Cypriot daily Kibris Postasi Daily News (online, 27.05.14), Turkish
Cypriot negotiator Kudret Ozersay is flying to Paris tonight for a
series of official meetings. The paper reports that Ozersay
was officially invited by the French Foreign Ministry making his
visit the first time that Turkish Cypriots are represented at that
level in France.
Ozersay is expected to
meet with high ranking officials from the French Foreign Ministry.
Aside of his contacts at
the Ministry, Ozersay will give a lecture at the Europe-American
Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday the 28th of May.
According to diplomatic
sources, the fact that this visit to France, which is one of the
permanent members of the UN Security Council, is happening at a
critical time, increases the importance of this visit.
Same sources also
emphasized that France’s invitation came at a time during French
company Total’s application for gas exploration license in several
parcels in Cyprus waters.
According to the paper,
Ozersay met with the French Ambassador to Nicosia last month and
discussed the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling against
Turkey.
Ozersay will be
accompanied by the “head of political affairs” Gunes Onar and
his second secretary Sonat Altuf. The Turkish Cypriot delegation is
expected to return to the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus on
Thursday May 29. Ozersay will be in Cyprus for the negotiators’
meeting due to take place on May 30th.
2. The
Slovakian Foreign Minister satisfied with the participation of the
Turkish Cypriots in the EP elections
Turkish Cypriot daily
Kibris newspaper (26.05.14) reports that Miroslav Lajcak,
Slovakian Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and
Responsible for European Affairs, has expressed his satisfaction with
the participation of the Turkish Cypriots in the European Parliament
Elections held on Sunday, 25 May. In statements to Kibris, Lajcak
was asked yesterday to comment on the allegations that the right of
the Turkish Cypriots to vote was usurped in these elections. He
replied that “if some mistakes have been committed, these should
be investigated and corrected”.
He went on and said: “I
also heard the news on the issue of what happened [with the voting
catalogue for the Turkish Cypriots] and why it happened, but at the
moment it is not my duty to judge or make any statement on this
issue, because I do not possess enough evidence. However, the
decision is very positive from my point of view, because I see this
as a confidence building measure on the way of reunifying the
island”.
(I/Ts.)
3. More
reactions on the EP elections
Turkish Cypriot daily
Kibris newspaper (26.05.14) reports that Kutlay Erk, general
secretary of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) has alleged that
what he called as the “sovereign Greek Cypriot mentality”, which
does not accept the representation of the Turkish Cypriots at the
European Parliament (EP) since 2004, had undertaken many initiatives
to prevent the Turkish Cypriots even from exercising their right to
vote in the status of minority during the recent EP elections.
In statements yesterday,
Erk claimed that the right given to the Turkish Cypriots to
participate in the EP Elections is the same with the right given to
the other minorities and argued: “We should not be too naïve. This
address issue was an effort exerted by the sovereign Greek Cypriot
mentality and even the deep state in order to prevent the
participation of the Turkish Cypriots in the elections. We think that
this is why it was prevented”.
Erk referred also to
the election of the President of the EU Commission and said that his
party is interested in the election of Martin Schutlz, whom he
described as “our friend and comrade”. He argued that
Schultz’s election will have a positive influence on the solution
process of the Cyprus problem as he is a person who knows the
problem.
Moreover, the Turkish
Cypriot negotiator, Kudret Ozersay also commented on his
Facebook account the EP Elections arguing: “We had experienced
and seen in 2004 the extent to which everyone is European and what he
is ready to share and to what extent. They have reminded it to those
of us who had forgotten it during the past ten years”.
Furthermore, Murat
Kanatli, New Cyprus Party’s (YKP) foreign relations’
secretary, expressed the view that the Turkish Cypriots did not
make the necessary registration procedure in order to acquire the
right to vote. He noted that they tried to inform the people
on the issue of the law regarding the participation of the Turkish
Cypriots in the EP elections, but ruling DISY party has issued “a
very bad law”. He said that the YKP had made the necessary
“warnings” but no one listened to them. He added:
“The public opinion
has been manipulated by those who speak Turkish themselves. Both
those who were in favour of the elections and those who were against
it openly gave false information to the community. Some of them
said that everyone would vote, some of them said that no one would
vote. The lists remained in a stopgap way suspended for three days
at the Republic of Cyprus’ district offices and again no one was
very interested about them. The legal statue worked and ended from
the point of view of the Republic of Cyprus. The lists were
shared with Brussels…”
Kanatli also accused AKEL
of not preparing a “correct” law regarding the EP elections and
DISY of passing a law for satisfying both the EU and the Greek
Cypriot nationalists and of leaving it “unprotected”.
Meanwhile, Ahmet
Kaptan, chairman of the Turkish Cypriot so-called civil servants
trade union, has argued that democracy was “seriously injured”
by many Turkish Cypriots’ not being able to vote in the EP
elections because of the excuse of their address. In a written
statement, Kaptan argued that this shows the way by which the
Greek Cypriots see the Turkish Cypriots and the solution of the
Cyprus problem. He said that their demand from President
Anastasiades is to remove the Minister of Interior from his duties
and annul the elections, if all these actions had been carried
out without the President knowing anything about them. If he knew
about them, he claimed, he should resign and decide the annulment of
the elections. He said that the hopes for the reunification of
the island have flourished, but expressed his concerns because the
leaders of both communities are allegedly insincere at the
negotiating table.
Furthermore, Kibris
reports that the leadership of the Turkish Cypriot Primary School
Teachers’ Trade Union (KTOS) has stated that the right of many
Turkish Cypriots to vote had been prevented and added that they
will carry the issue to the Courts in the government-controlled area
of Cyprus and to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In
a press conference at KTOS’ premises in the occupied part of
Nicosia, they invited the Turkish Cypriots who could not exercise
their right to vote on Sunday to apply to the trade union for
demanding their rights.
Meanwhile, Ali Erel,
member of the auditing board of the EU Association and former
chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce, told Kibris that
there should be a separate list for the Turkish Cypriots in the EP
elections and that the EP should “dictate” this to the government
of the Republic of Cyprus for the two seats allocated for the Turkish
Cypriots. Erel argued that the EP could make a rule on this
issue, because Cyprus is a special case (sui generis). He claimed
that the Greek Cypriots will not want to give the two seats to the
Turkish Cypriots by their own will and alleged that in these
elections they pretended that they gave the right to vote to the
Turkish Cypriots, but they did not.
Moreover, columnist
Mehmet Levent writes, inter alia, the following in Turkish
Cypriot daily Afrika (27.05.14) under the title “What we do
to ourselves, no one does it to us”:
“With the
chauvinist, usurping and separatist behaviour of the Greek Cypriot
side [and] thanks to the unbelievable indifference of the Turkish
Cypriots, the EP elections have become a total fiasco from the point
of view of our community. The chance created for the first time
on the issue of defending the two seats which it is said that belong
to the Turkish Cypriots, but their usurpation by the Greek Cypriots
is ignored for ten years was wasted! …
Can you imagine? The
Greek Cypriot side had at the beginning announced the number of our
voters to be 90 thousands. However, when the law for automatically
registering the Turkish Cypriots went to the Parliament, this number
scared them! They reduced this number to 58,637 with unthinkable
tricks and illegal formulas completely full with intrigues! …
Only 1,890 persons out
of these 58,637 could go to the ballot and vote!!! Of course,
we cannot fully know the number of those who even though they went to
the ballot they could not vote because they had been left outside the
list. Even if we assume these were around 3,000, the number of those
who went to the ballot remains close to 5,000. The rest 53,637
persons did not bother even to go to the ballot for such an important
election!!! …”
(I/Ts.)
4. Eroglu:
Even if people immigrate, they never forget their places where they
used to live
Turkish Cypriot daily
Vatan (27.05.14) reports that the Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis
Eroglu, during a meeting with a delegation from the Limassol
cultural foundation headed by its chairman Yucem Rasimoglu, said
that even if people immigrate, they never forget their places where
they used to live, adding that these kinds of organisations and
associations are important.
He noted that the
foundation will keep the culture of Limasol where they used to live
alive in the “TRNC”. He added that the following generations will
try to continue it.
Eroglu wished a
success to the foundation, claiming that conflicts have not
occurred again in Cyprus. He added that they struggle at the
negotiating table to establish a partnership in Cyprus.
5. Siber
hailed Biden’s visit as positive
Turkish Cypriot daily
Vatan (27.05.14) reports that the self-styled assembly speaker of the
breakaway regime in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus Sibel
Siber, evaluating the Cyprus talks to the Ankara Anatolia news agency
during her contacts in Ankara, said that the visit to Cyprus by the
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was extremely important, adding that
the statements were motivating for both sides.
Noting that Biden did not
make any concrete and clear statement regarding the issue of the
fenced off town of Varosha, Siber said that however Biden said that
the USA will support any compromise reached by the two leaders on the
issue of Varosha.
Stating that the
international community may take a catalytic task on the Cyprus
settlement, Siber said: “However, the leaders of both communities
are the ones who will reach a solution. The increase of confidence
between the two sides will be the most powerful motivator toward a
solution.”
Referring to Biden’s
statement that Cyprus may become an energy leader in the region after
the Cyprus settlement, Siber said that even if the energy sources are
not taken into consideration, Cyprus can contribute great to peace to
the region’s countries.
Claiming that the most
profitable route to transfer energy to Europe is through TUrkey,
Siber said there is also the water issue, adding that in case the
“south” (translator’s note: refers to the Cyprus government)
uses this water, then the oil and gas will contribute positive
towards the solution.
Commenting also on the
call by the UN Convention against Torture to the Cyprus authorities
to pay compensation for the Turkish Cypriot missing persons, Siber
said that the missing persons are a half century pain. Reminding that
the UN continue their work on finding their remains, Siber said that
they expect the Greek Cypriot side to reply positive on this UN call.
6. Imam
Alemdar accused the breakaway regime of showing no interest as
regards the mosques in the free areas of Cyprus
Turkish Cypriot daily
Havadis newspaper (27.05.14) reports that Imam Sakir Alemdar,
“representative of the religious affairs committee” stated that
the breakaway regime has abandoned the mosques located in the free
areas of the Republic.
Alemdar stated that there
are currently 150 mosques registered in the Republic in papers but in
reallity 110 mosques exist. From these only 8 are open and only 4 are
under the responsibility of the “religious affairs committee”. He
said that there is no strategy and no budget by the breakaway regime
for these mosques. “The TRNC abandoned the mosques in the south”,
he stated.
He went on and claimed
that the religious ceremony held recently in occupied Famagusta was
not “legal” because no permission was given by the “religious
affairs committee” or the “foreign ministry”.
7. Illegal
university to open a branch in Moldova
Turkish Cypriot daily
Volkan newspaper (27.05.14) reports that the illegal Keryneia
American University (GAU) decided to establish a branch of GAU in
Moldova.
According to the paper,
following the opening of higher education schools by GAU in UK, USA,
Turkey and Hong Kong, the illegal university decided to open in
Moldova’s capital Kishinev a Moldova American University and a GAU
American College.
The paper writes that
this development took place after the contacts held by GAU
establishing rector Serhat Akpinar with the Moldova Education
Ministry and the Moldova Ambassador to Turkey. In statements
Akpinar said that GAU American Moldova University will start
operation in the academic year 2015-2016.
8. Turkish
court orders the arrest of four Israeli generals over the Mavi
Marmara incident
Turkish daily Hurriyet
Daily News (online, 26.05.14) reported that a Turkish court has
ordered the arrest of four Israeli commanders who were allegedly
involved in the raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship off Gaza in 2010.
The Istanbul 7th Court of
Serious Crimes also decided May 26 to request an Interpol Red Notice
for the arrest of former Israeli Chief of Staff, Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi,
former Naval Forces Cmdr. Eliezer Alfred Marom, former Military
Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlinir and former Air Forces
Intelligence head Brig. Gen. Avishai Levi, who are all being tried in
absentia.
The court argued that an
arrest warrant had become necessary for the legal procedure as the
defendants had neither attended the trial nor responded to an
invitation sent to them through the competent department of the
Turkish Justice Ministry.
None from the Israeli
embassy in Ankara was immediately available to comment.
An Israeli official,
speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, described the court’s
decision as a "ridiculous provocation". "If this
is the message that the Turks want to send to Israel, it was
perfectly well understood," said the official, declining to
elaborate further on what this meant for the reconciliation process.
Turkey’s Foreign
Ministry issued a statement saying “the judiciary process is
ongoing” and “the ruling is being examined by law experts”.
----------------------------------------------------
TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION
