TURKISH CYPRIOT AND TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW
C O N T E N T S
No. 168/15 04.09.2015
1.Sinirlioglu to illegally visit the occupied area of Cyprus next week
2. Akıncı’s statements on the Aplıki crossing point
3. Daily Sabah’s correspondent in the occupied area of Cyprus gives more details on the property commission and the property court to be established on Cyprus
4. Kucuk provides information on the works of the CMP
5. Ozgurgun repeated his party’s position on the solution of the Cyprus problem
6. Cavusoglu’s conditions for a solution in Cyprus
7. The regime launches investigation regarding the ship full of weapons that anchored in occupied Famagusta port and was retained in Crete
8. The occupied area of Cyprus is involved in the human trafficking in the Mediterranean
9. The water from Turkey will be used as drinking water as of 28 October 2015 and in agriculture as of 2016
10. Akkuyu project’s regional manager resigns citing dangers of nuclear project
11. Turkey renews motion for military operations in Syria and Iraq
12. Erdogan harshly slams the West over terrorism and the refugee crisis; Erdogan discussed with Hollande the crisis
13. Turkish prosecutor launches probe against Hürriyet’ columnist for ‘insulting’ Erdogan
14. Two British journalists arrested on suspicions of having links with the PKK released
1.Sinirlioglu to illegally visit the occupied area of Cyprus next week
According to Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris Postasi (04.09.15-online in English), the newly appointed Turkey’s Foreign Minister in the interim government, will follow the tradition and carry out his visit “abroad” to the “TRNC”.
Sinirlioglu will be illegally visiting the occupied area of Cyprus on 6-7 September. He will meet with the Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, the “speaker” of the “assembly” Sibel Siber, the so-called prime minister Omer Kalyoncu and the so-called foreign minister Emine Colak.
2.Akıncı’s statements on the Aplıki crossing point
According to illegal Bayrak (03/09.15) the Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı met with a delegation from the “Lefka platform”.
The problems experienced in the region of occupied Lefka as well as the issue regarding the opening of the Apliki crossing point were discussed during the meeting.
Stating that the work towards the opening of the Apliki crossing point is continuing, Akinci said that the works to clear the area of mines is expected to be completed by the end of November.
Speaking during the visit on behalf of the “platform”, Mehmet Turkay said that the aim of their visit was to convey to the “president” the problems experienced in the region as well as to share their views on the negotiations process.
For his part, Akıncı noted that there were many problems existing in the region and said that there have been strenuous efforts to open a crossing point in the area. “I had made a promise to you on this issue”, Akinci said.
Reminding that they had reached a consensus with President Nikos Anastasiades during their second meeting towards the opening of the Aplıki and Deryneia crossing points, Akinci added that alternative proposals had been made for both crossing points throughout the process. “A proposal was made to build a second road in Aplıki but later we agreed to use the old road. There is a similar situation in Deryneia where technical military discussions were held on other alternatives. The technical committees will continue their work in Deryneia and a consensus will be reached in the end”, Akıncı said.
Noting that any road to be opened will be done through a mutual agreement and consent, Akinci stated that the roads will open through a consensus at the end. “The political will is there and we will do whatever is necessary” Akıncı said, adding that de-mining work is still continuing in the Aplıki region.
“The mine clearance teams are expected to complete their works in the Aplıki region by the end of November and other construction works are expected to be finished by the end of this year. Therefore, the process will proceed and will be finalized for Aplıki” Akıncı said.
Stressing that a special importance should be attached to Lefka, he added: “Lefka which is an important region for the tourism sector will attract more tourists after the opening of the Aplıki crossing point”.
Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot daily Haberal Kibrisli (04.09.15) under the title: “Lefka’s shores should stay to us”, reports that during their meeting with Akinci, the representatives of the “Lefka platform” submitted to him a text stressing the need for the shorelines of Lefka and the areas around to stay “into the boundaries of the Turkish Cypriot founding state”.
Stating that the 2004 Annan plan version which was submitted to a referendum envisaged that Lefka’s shorelines would be included within the boundaries of the “Greek Cypriot founding state”, the representatives of the “platform” supported that if such is the case, then their “compatriots” who live in “Lefka, Gaziveran, Kalochorio Lefkas, Peristeronari and Ampelikou” will not have any rights to speak.
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(AK)
3. Daily Sabah’s correspondent in the occupied area of Cyprus gives more details on the property commission and the property court to be established on Cyprus
Turkish daily Sabah (04.09.15-online in English) reports that the paper’s correspondent in the occupied are of Cyprus, Emre Diner, writes the following: “Along with the Property Commission, which is to be created to help with the Cyprus negotiations and go into effect after the resolution, a federal property court is to be established in Cyprus. The court will be the top authority on the resolution of the problems regarding property issues.
Another important turn was attained regarding the issue of property, which is among the six main topics of the Cyprus negotiations. Comprising of three stages, the property issue was split into categories. Now it is time to finalize the criteria and determine the best way to distribute the properties of Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in the new federation with the formation of a property commission. In conjunction with the property commission, a property court addressing both communities on the island is to be composed.
The property court will enable the citizens, who happen to object to the decisions of the property commission, to claim their rights through domestic law. It will issue decisions with the aim of resolving problems and averting possible unjust treatment to property owners. If citizens are not satisfied with the decisions issued by the court, they will have the right to litigate before the European Court of Human Rights.
While the property work groups, composed as part of the negotiations, are endeavoring to issue a series of decisions during the meetings they conduct individually and together, negotiators and leaders are also investing a great deal of time and energy into the issue. Meanwhile, the Greek Cypriots reportedly prefer recompense to exchange and return in the process, and recompense would be demanded more during the normalization process of the new federation, and a stance to lead the decisions in that direction was adopted. When the 6,209 files are submitted to the Immovable Property Commission between March 2006 and September 2015 are considered, it will be shown that the Greek Cypriots mostly prefer recompense for the resolution of the issue of properties they left in the north of the island.
Before 1974, 80% of the land in northern Cyprus belonged to Greek Cypriots. In northern Cyprus, acre is the unit of measurement used in private properties. In this framework, the lands in northern Cyprus consist of 2,400,000 acres, and one acre corresponds to 1,335 square meters. According to the land registry records before 1974, this is the share of properties in Northern Cyprus:
Greek property: 1,550,000 acres
Turkish property: 380,000 acres
Public property: 470,000 acres (mountains, roads)
Property belonging to Turks in northern Cyprus: 450,000 acres
While northern Cyprus built up the Greek lands it seized, the Greeks left the 450,000 acres of Turkish property empty and unused, rendering the land valueless by avoiding infrastructure investment. The Greek Cypriots do not recognize the title deed transactions of northern Cyprus and do not recognize the new owners of the lands that changed hands as current owners”.
4. Kucuk provides information on the works of the CMP
Illegal Bayrak television (03.09.15) broadcast that the Turkish Cypriot member of the Committee of Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) Gulden Plumer Kucuk, has provided information to the illegal BRT about the excavation work being carried out at the site of a military zone (in the occupied area of Cyprus) near the Central Prison in Lefkosia, where the remains of new missing persons were discovered.
Confirming that the remains found in the region belonged to Greek Cypriot soldiers who had died during the clashes in 1974, Kucuk explained that the area where the remains were found was quite wide and added that the excavations are being carried out meticulously.
Kucuk also said that they have been thinking of increasing the number of teams working at the site where around 40 missing persons are believed to be buried.
Pointing out that the CMP currently had 9 teams working in different areas, Kucuk said that 150 more areas should be excavated within the framework of the excavations works planned for 6 months.
Stressing the importance of information provided by the witnesses, Kucuk called on those with information to contact to the CMP.
According to the CMP, there are a total of 2001 missing persons; 1508 Greek Cypriots and 493 Turkish Cypriots.
So far, the remains of 451 Greek Cypriots and 144 Turkish Cypriots have been identified and returned to their families within the framework of excavation, identification and return of the remains project.
The committee has discovered the remains of 969 missing persons at 999 excavation sites until now.
5. Ozgurgun repeated his party’s position on the solution of the Cyprus problem
Turkish Cypriot daily Star Kibris newspaper (04.09.15) reports that Huseyin Ozgurgun, the chairman of the National Unity Party (UBP) stated that his party cannot make concessions on the issues that it considers essential for the solution of the Cyprus problems stating that these are the two founding “states”, the political equality of the two “peoples” and the continuation of the Turkish guarantees on the island.
He went on and added that “a give and take” procedure will take place on the property issue and criticized the Greek Cypriots who visit their houses in the breakaway regime holding the title deeds in their hands. “You do not go holding the title deeds in hand and say ‘this is mine you have to go out of my house’. A fight can occur over this”, he claimed and added that this issue cannot be solved by confronting each other but by compensations. But, he said, the Greek Cypriots do not say that they accept this because for years they were told, during election times, by politicians that they would return to their houses.
(CS)
6. Cavusoglu’s conditions for a solution in Cyprus
Turkish Cypriot daily Halkin Sesi newspaper (04.09.15) reports that Nazim Cavusoglu, “deputy” with the National Unity Party (UBP) and one of the six candidates for the party’s leadership in the forthcoming UBP election congress evaluated the recent developments in the negotiations and claimed that “an agreement must be based on the TRNC”. As he claimed if a solution is not based on the “TRNC” the “people” will reject the solution plan.
Cavusoglu stated that the continuation of the presence of the Turkish army in the island and that a decision that will allow all the settlers who came from Turkey to the occupied areas of Cyprus after 1974 to remain in the island should be a condition for the solution of the Cyprus problem.
(CS)
7. The regime launches investigation regarding the ship full of weapons that anchored in occupied Famagusta port and was retained in Crete
Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (04.09.15) reports that the breakaway regime’s authorities have launched an investigation regarding Bolivian Haddad 1 ship’s cargo, which had anchored in the occupied port of Famagusta and was retained by the Greek authorities in the open sea of the island of Crete because it was carrying weapons.
It is said that the ship anchored in occupied Famagusta port on 18 August and departed without performing any transaction and that two containers full of shell were loaded on the ship in Alexandretta before departing for the Libyan city of Mistrata. However, notes the paper, no information has been obtained as regards the port at which the weapons described as “illegal” had been loaded on the ship.
The so-called director of occupied Famagusta port, Hasan Curcioglu stated that Sabah Shipping, the agent of the above-mentioned ship owed money and for this reason, upon his directions, the ships which have this company as their agent are not allowed to enter into the port. He noted that these directions had not been obeyed and therefore the person responsible was relieved of duty. Curcioglu said that during the ship’s stay at the occupied port, nothing was loaded or unloaded and no information regarding any weapons or ammunition was included in the ship’s cargo manifest.
Curcioglu noted that they are investigating the issue of the place of origin of the weapons and the ammunition which have been retained from the ship.
Meanwhile, Giray Babat, one of the directors of Fimar Shipping, which it is said that is the owner of Haddad 1, told Kibris that he was an agent and that the owner of the ship is El Haddad Shipping Co Company, the headquarters of which are in Alexandria, Egypt. Babat noted that he would make no statement as regards the weapons and the ammunition found on the ship adding that the necessary statements had been made by Alexandretta District officer and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Moreover, Tanju Bilgic, Spokesman of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said that the ship departed from occupied Famagusta port on 25 August and reached Alexandretta from where is left on 29 August.
(I/Ts.)
8. The occupied area of Cyprus is involved in the human trafficking in the Mediterranean
Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis newspaper (04.09.15) reports that while the attention of the world is once more turned to the drama of the refugees who are running away from the war in Syria after the drowning of little Aylan Kurdi in Bodrum, the human traffickers in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus “are not standing idle”.
The gendarmerie [in Turkey] arrested 35-year-old Hasan Elhabta, a “TRNC citizen”, who carried 31 Syrian refugees from the occupied area of Cyprus to Anamur, Turkey. He was arrested together with Muhhammad Buhannaddin Shakayfe and Muhhammed El Muhhammed [both Syrian citizens] in the open sea of Mersin while waiting for a ship to carry the refugees.
Elhabta lives in occupied Famagusta and was arrested many times for the same reason in the past in the occupied area of the island, but he was released on bail. It is said that this time he was paid two thousand dollars from every refugee to carry them from the occupied area to Turkey and Italy.
(I/Ts.)
9. The water from Turkey will be used as drinking water as of 28 October 2015 and in agriculture as of 2016
Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (04.09.15) reports that the project of annually bringing 75 million cubic meters of water from Turkey to the occupied area of Cyprus with pipelines has come to completion. According to Onder Sennaroglu, self-styled minister of agriculture of the breakaway regime in the occupied area of Cyprus, their target is to provide water to the settlements as of 28 October 2015 and cover the entire occupied area of the island by the end of the year. He noted that they will work for giving water for agricultural use in 2016 and that in 2016 the water will be sent to occupied Morfou and other areas. He pointed out that providing water to Morfou area is important, as the producers are facing a problem due to the salinization of the [underground] water. He noted that their aim is to desalinate this water.
According to the paper, the target of the regime is for the water to be given in October first to occupied Nicosia area. 52% of the conveyance pipelines on shore have been completed. 38 million cubic meters will be used as drinking water after being treated at a sewage plant to be built in the occupied area of the island. The other 37 million cubic meters will be used in the agriculture.
(I/Ts.)
10. Akkuyu project’s regional manager resigns citing dangers of nuclear project
According to Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris Postasi (04.09.15-online in English) reports in the media said that the Mersin regional public diplomacy and state relations manager of the Akkuyu project Faruk Uzel has resigned. Uzel is arguing that the project is not safe and full of negligence.
Before Uzel’s statement, the Turkish media received an anonymous email that Uzel was sacked for sexual misconduct and fraud. The Akkuyu Nuclear plant company’s lawyer Kaan Keskin announced that the email had nothing to do with the company, causing more suspicion.
Uzel on the 1st of September sent a text message to the press representatives citing the fact that the project carried serious risks to the people and this was the main reason for his departure. His message said that he had received threats and individually explained the threats the project was posing.
11. Turkey renews motion for military operations in Syria and Iraq
Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (03.09.15) reported that Turkey’s Parliament has voted to renew by another year a mandate allowing the military to conduct operations in Syria and Iraq.
The Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Republican's People Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Deputies voted on September 3 in favor of the motion to extend the permit.
The current mandate - which served as a legal basis for recent Turkish strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group targets in Syria and the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in Iraq - runs out in October.
The mandate also allows the government to authorize foreign troops to be based on Turkish soil.
"Armed PKK terror elements continue their existence in Iraq's northern region. It was observed that the number of other terror elements and the threat that they pose has increased significantly in Syria and Iraq ... Turkey which attributes great importance for the territorial integrity, national unity and stability of (our) neighbor Iraq, has to continue its military, political and diplomatic measures and initiatives increasingly against the presence of terrorist groups and the threats they bring in Iraq," the motion read.
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12. Erdogan harshly slams the West over terrorism and the refugee crisis; Erdogan discussed with Hollande the crisis
Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (03.09.15) reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has harshly slammed the West over “insensitivity” amid the growing refugee crisis, while announcing the “joint fight against global terrorism” as a key issue to be discussed during the G-20 Summit in Turkey mid-November.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the B20 conference, a part of Turkey’s G-20 term presidency, Erdogan said: “The European countries that turned the Mediterranean Sea, the cradle of the one of the world’s most ancient civilizations, into a grave, are part of the sin of the death of every single refugee”.
Erdogan’s words came on the same day as a picture of the lifeless body of a three-year-old Syrian boy washed ashore on a beach in Turkey’s Bodrum district on the Aegean Sea hit headlines in national and international newspapers.
“The body of a three-year-old boy who died on a boat carrying refugees in the Mediterranean Sea washed up on our shores. Won’t humanity give an account of this three-year-old child?” Erdogan said.
“What drowned in the sea were not only refugees, but our humanity,” Erdogan said. “These are our values that are being drowned in the Mediterranean. Every single refugee who has become the subject of inhumane treatment on the borders, and who is even sent to death intentionally through sinking boats, is the bitter symbol of this reality.”
Erdogan also repeated his criticism of the current system based on five Permanent Members of the U.N. Security Council, saying this structure ignored issues that it has no direct interest in.
“That’s why we say ‘The world is bigger than five.’ We say ‘the fates of nearly 200 countries cannot be left to the decision of one of these five countries.’ That’s why somebody has to talk about this. Erdogan is being depicted as a ‘bad guy’ in the world media just because he talks about it. I will continue to speak the truth throughout my life,” he added.
“Western powers” are losing their persuasiveness in their statements regarding countries like Iraq, Syria and Libya, Erdogan also claimed.
“Do you know what is being done in these places? ‘There is oil in Libya and Iraq, so let’s seize the oil-wells.’ Isn’t this the situation now? Eighty percent of Iraq’s oil wells are under the control of the West. It is the same in Libya. While all these realities exist, this [international] structure is not acceptable,” he said.
“I express with sorrow that Western countries do not show necessary sensitivity toward global terrorism that burns many countries, particularly Syria and Iraq,” Erdoğan said, accusing some Western countries of “double-standards.”
“I once again condemn some countries that on the one hand are fighting against a certain terror organization while on the other hand are supporting another one directly or indirectly. It should not be forgotten that terror can turn into a disaster terrorizing the entire world. I particularly invite the West to cooperate against terror with sensitivity,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ankara Anatolia news agency (03.09.15) reported that according to presidential sources on Thursday, French President Francois Hollande said during a phone conversation he had with Turkish President Erdogan that France stands by Turkey in the face of the refugee’s issue.
During a phone call, the two leaders agreed that all countries and specifically the European Union should take the necessary steps to tackle the crisis.
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Hollande said that France would help Turkey more for the refugees and praised Turkey's assistance for the migrants especially for those coming from Syria, the sources said.
Erdogan, on his part, said that Turkey expected the international community to do its part for the crisis, reminding that his country hosted about 2 million Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
13. Turkish prosecutor launches probe against Hürriyet’ columnist for ‘insulting’ Erdogan
Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (03.09.14) reported that a Turkish prosecutor has launched an investigation on daily Hürriyet columnist Ertugrul Ozkok to probe whether he insulted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his latest article.
The chief prosecutor’s office in Istanbul’s Kucukcekmece district said in a written statement on September 3 that the prosecutor acted in his official capacity when a number of websites described Ozkok’s September 3 article as “scandalous remarks and gross insults targeting Erdogan.”
The column slammed by pro-government media websites was a sweeping criticism of the Middle East following the tragic death of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Syrian Kurdish refugee whose body washed ashore a Turkish beach after he was drown with his family en route Greece, sparking global outcry.
In his article entitled “Feel Ashamed, Big Man,” Özkök addressed “the big man who turned the Middle East into the most brutal land in the world ... the so-called Muslim brother who pretends fighting [the dictator] while actually keeping his struggle for hate.”
Although Ozkok did not mentioned any specific name in the article, the prosecutor’s office picked the following phrases as reason for the investigation: “The dictator who thinks his country is the property of his father ...Release your fingers that are clenched for the Rabia gesture ... Unclench your fist clenched by your black politics and let that hands raise for prayer ... Look, my friend, you are the murderer of that kid.”
Citing related articles of the Turkish Penal Law, the prosecutor’s office also made it clear in the statement that Ozkok could be jailed for up to four years and two months. Scores of people have been charged and even arrested, with several being convicted, for insulting Erdogan, since he was elected President in August 2014.
Ozkök responded to allegations as regards his article, saying: “I did not lose control of myself so that I could call the President a murderer.” He stressed reading his next sentence, which was not mentioned in the prosecutor’s statement, was enough to understand whom he called a murderer.
“Look, my friend, you are the murderer of that kid. You are [the murderer], you, the relentless, faithless, merciless neighborhood called the Middle East,” the next sentence read.
Stressing that Erdogan was not mentioned in anywhere in his column, the columnist also said that the other remarks addressing different Middle Eastern figures referred to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and any regional country that “enflamed the war in Syria.”
“I did not lose control of myself so that I could call the President a murderer. I had no such intention. But I feel responsibility to criticize their policies,” Ozkok continued.
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14. Two British journalists arrested on suspicions of having links with the PKK released
Ankara Anatolia news agency (03.09.15) reported that Turkish judicial sources said on Thursday that the two British journalists arrested on suspicions of having links with the PKK have been released, while their Iraqi translator will remain under arrest in Turkey.
The British journalists, Jake Hanrahan and Philip Pendlebury, and their Iraqi translator, Mohammed Ismael Rasool, who all reportedly worked for the U.S.-based global media company, Vice News, were arrested in front of their hotel in Turkey’s southeast Diyarbakir province on August 28.
Rasool, who police said was an international relations student at the Istanbul Fatih University, would remain under arrest after an alleged encryption system used by Daesh terrorist organization, was found on his computer, the sources said.
The journalists were charged with "knowingly and willfully helping an armed terrorist organization without being a part of its hierarchical structure," sources said, without naming the organization that they allegedly aided.
Vice News on its website had denied all charges against the trio as “baseless and absurd”.
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TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION
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(AK/ AM)
