TURKISH
CYPRIOT AND TURKISH MEDIA REVIEW
C
O N T E N T S
No.
67/16
12.04.2016
1.Interview
by Akinci to Deutsche Welle: “This opportunity for a solution
should not be missed”
2.
Akinci: “The aim of this visit is to reflect Turkish Cypriots’
desire to build a new future as one of the two equal people in the
island”
3.
Talat says that the convergences are increasing in the Cyprus
negotiations
4.
Ozersay estimates that “early elections” will take place in the
occupied area of Cyprus before the end of the year
5.
“Varosha is on the European Investments’ Bank’s agenda”
6.
The Egyptian FM to visit Turkey for the OIC summit
7.
Turkey reveals official figures on the number of Syrian refugees in
Turkey
8.
Turkish columnist condemned the EP and the Greek Cypriots for the
context the EP’s 2016 progress report on Turkey
1.Interview
by Akinci to Deutsche Welle: “This opportunity for a solution
should not be missed”
According
to illegal Bayrak television (12.04.16), Turkish
Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, in statements this morning from
Germany where he attended a live televised program on Deutsche Welle
television channel,
said, inter, alia that a
solution in Cyprus is important for the region and the European Union
and therefore he wanted to cooperate with all EU countries.
Asked
on a question regarding Turkey’s EU negotiations process and the
effect the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has on politics in
“north Cyprus”, Akinci said that he was working to reunite the
island with the Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades and added
that although Turkey always supported the Turkish Cypriot side, the
two leaders in the island are responsible for a solution.
“The
Turkish Cypriot people have always received the support of Turkey and
have not faced any hardships and don’t expect to face any hardships
in the future either”, said Akinci.
During
the interview, Akıncı referred to the 2004 Annan Plan referendum
that was held on the island and noted that although the majority of
the Turkish Cypriots voted in favor of the plan, they were not
accepted into the European Union. He added that the Greek Cypriot
side, which had overwhelmingly rejected the plan was unilaterally
accepted in the Union.
Touching
upon the Cyprus negotiations process, Akıncı said that serious
progress was achieved on 6 chapters and even though some problems
remained the issues of territory and guarantees would be taken up
last.
Noting
that alongside a physical division, a mental division between the two
“peoples” on the island exists as well, Akinci said that the
mental division was not something that could be overcome in a short
time as the Greek Cypriot side has to change its belief that it is
the sole ruler of the island.
“They
also have to accept that they must share administrative
responsibilities and this will take time”, added Akinci, pointing
out that it is more difficult to make mental changes than it is to
make physical changes.
Explaining
that there is good chemistry between the two leaders and due to this
it is easier to make progress at the talks, Akıncı said that they
are from the same generation with Mr. Anastasiades
and
expressed the belief that it is the last chance for the current
generation on the island to find a solution based on a federation and
therefore, this opportunity for a solution shouldn’t be missed.
2.
Akinci:
“The aim of this visit is to reflect Turkish Cypriots’ desire to
build a new future as one of the two equal people in the island”
Turkish
Cypriot daily Havadis (12.04.16) reports that Turkish Cypriot leader
Mustafa Akinci said that in Germany “they will explain that the
Turkish Cypriot people are one of the two equal sides in Cyprus”.
In
statements yesterday before his departure to Germany upon an
invitation from the German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier,
Akinci said that he will hold important contacts first in Germany and
then in Istanbul, where he will also attend the OIC’s conference.
Akinci
added: “These visits will be the reflection of the Turkish Cypriot
people’s desire to build a new future within tranquillity and peace
as one of the two equal people on the island and with a mutual
respect to the rights of each side”.
Stressing
that the determination of the Turkish Cypriot people’s political
will continues and everyone should do its part so this
(determination) should not be unreciprocated, Akinci argued: “Within
this framework there are things that the EU must do as the Cyprus
problem has reached an international quality; the Islamic world
should also show the necessary solidarity. The continuation to act
with ‘solidarity to the Turkish Cypriot people’ as it was
mentioned in previous decisions is important especially in the recent
period”.
(DPs)
3.
Talat
says that the convergences are increasing in the Cyprus negotiations
Turkish
Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (12.04.16) reports that former Turkish
Cypriot leader and chairman of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP),
Mehmet
Ali Talat has expressed the hope that a result will be reached in the
Cyprus negotiations by the end of the year.
In
statements in the Turkish city of Aydin where he had a meeting with
its Mayor Ozlem Cercioglu, Talat
alleged that the economic difficulties in the government-controlled
area of the Republic of Cyprus have created an environment which
supports the solution.
Referring to the forthcoming parliamentary elections in the Republic,
he claimed:
“We
are experiencing a slowing down because of the elections in south
Cyprus, but progress is continuing in spite of everything,
convergences are increasing. The most important thing is that
differently to the past years the economic and political conditions
in south Cyprus are creating a community more prone to the solution
to the Cyprus problem.
The Greek Cypriot economy experienced a big shock. Previous
approaches such as ‘the Turkish Cypriots are poor, we are rich, and
we do not want to share our wealth’ have ceased to exist. The
mentality that with the solution the island will attract foreign
investors and thus it will become rich started to prevail and
therefore the conditions seem to be more appropriate.
[…]”
Talat
said that his party supported the Turkish Cypriot leader in the
negotiations and will continue doing so as the biggest party in the
occupied area of Cyprus.
Talat
further alleged that Turkey is offering support on the issue of
finding a solution to the Cyprus problem and expressed his gratitude.
Meanwhile,
addressing a conference on the Cyprus problem at a university in the
same Turkish city, Talat
argued that the energy resources and the approach between Greece and
Turkey will help in the solution process in Cyprus. Replying
to a student’s question on the energy resources, Talat
argued that after the discovery of natural gas resources, the Greek
Cypriots saw that these could be connected to Europe over Turkey and
these developments changed the climate in the Greek Cypriot side.
Talat
also argued that the Greek Cypriot side knows that its economy will
relax with the solution of the Cyprus problem and “thus they will
be able to stir their collapsed economy up and attract foreign
investors”. He concluded:
“Therefore,
conditions have changed. The energy resources, the approach between
Turkey and Greece will help in the solution process. The presidency
is carrying out the negotiations today, but the government crisis is
of course also influencing. I think that the government crisis will
not last for long. It seems that today or tomorrow a government will
be established or an early election will be held […]”
(I/Ts.)
4.
Ozersay estimates that “early elections” will take place in the
occupied area of Cyprus before the end of the year
Turkish
daily Milliyet (05.04.16) under the title: “An
earthquake will be experienced at the ballot boxes”, reports on
statements by Kudret Ozersay, leader of the People’s Party (HP) in
the occupied area of Cyprus, who referred to the efforts exerted for
the establishment of a new coalition “government” between the
National Unity Party (UBP) - the Democratic Party (DP) and the
“independent deputies” and argued that a possible formation of a
new “coalition government” with the participation of the above
parties will be hopeless since, as he supported, “early elections
will take place before the end of the year”.
Stating
that a possible “coalition government” will not represent the
people’s will and interests concerning the “economic protocol”,
Ozersay said that his party supports that the only remedy will be to
hold “early elections”. “In
the near future, an earthquake will be experienced in the country at
the ballot boxes. We observed this very clearly during the visits we
paid recently in several regions and villages”, argued Ozersay and
said that they have information that a bargaining is taking place
already in the “TRNC” on the possible names of “candidates”
that will run in the “early elections”.
(AK)
5.
“Varosha
is on the European Investments’ Bank’s agenda”
Under
the above title, Turkish Cypriot daily Kibris newspaper (12.04.16)
reports that the
European Investment Bank (EIB) is discussing the issue of carrying
out a financial analysis regarding the occupied city of Famagusta and
the fenced off Varosha.
In statements to the paper, Serdar Atai, chairman of the Within the
Walls Famagusta Association (MASDER) and activist of the Famagusta
Initiative, said that a
delegation headed by EIB’s president, Werner Hoyer toured the
occupied port of Famagusta and the within the walls area.
He
noted that the European officials were impressed by the area, that
more visits will follow and that the bank is willing to grant
credits.
Noting
that the bank officials said that they are seeing that “something
is coming” regarding Famagusta, Atai added: “Eventually
what is coming is after a certain period, but there are a lot of
things we should do during the period until then.
We are aware of this. The leaderships of the two sides have announced
that Varosha
will be returned on the next day after the solution.
Very well, what are we waiting for? The
jobs to be done in a city to be returned should be planned and ready.
The bank officials want to see such a thing to happen from the point
of view of the credit purposes and we want this for not wasting
time”.
Pointing
out that Confidence
Building Measures (CBM) should be implemented in the area, Atai
underlined that as a first step for this a multinational technical
delegation of experts should be granted to possibility of having
access to the occupied fenced off city of Varosha.
“Moreover, these experts should stop by the port and the within the
walls area and even the university area not only by Varosha and
prepare an analysis on the needs for the future and a financial
chart. We have conveyed these to them in the same way”.
Stressing
the importance of technical experts entering into Varosha and start
working the soonest,
Atai said: “We
especially support and the American experts.
The American experts have serious experience in post war areas such
as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. We
support having German experts as well.
Germany has serious experience regarding divided cities like Berlin.
We argue that Famagusta also is a divided city and such experts are
needed here”.
Atai
said that the EIB delegation told them that the financings for 2016
have ended, but if financial resources are to be granted for 2017, a
financial analysis is needed.
(I/Ts.)
6.
The Egyptian FM to visit Turkey for the OIC summit
According
to Ankara Anatolia news agency (12.04.16), the
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry will visit Turkey for the
first time in three years.
The
Minister will participate in the OIC meeting that will take place in
Istanbul during the 14th-15th April with representatives from Iraq,
Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Azerbaijan, as well as leaders from 56
different Islamic countries.
Shoukry
will also meet with the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
The meeting will be the first step towards the normalization of
relations with Egypt.
Diplomatic
ties between Turkey and Egypt broke off after the ouster of former
President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 amid popular protests. Turkey says it
does not recognize the administration of President Abdel Fattah
el-Sisi as legitimate.
7.
Turkey reveals official figures on the number of Syrian refugees in
Turkey
Turkish
daily Hurriyet Daily News (11.04.16) reported that according to
figures from the Interior Ministry’s Directorate General of
Migration Management, Turkey hosts over 2.7 million Syrians under its
temporary protection regime but only some 270,000 stay in camps. The
highest number of Syrians resides in southern and southeastern towns
along the Syrian border, with the striking exception of Istanbul,
home to nearly 400,000 migrants.
Some
2.7 million Syrian migrants are under Turkey’s temporary protection
regime, the statistics revealed, and a total of 2.48 million migrants
live across the country instead of residing in one of the
“accommodation centers” in 10 different provinces.
The
city hosting the largest number of Syrians is the southeastern
province of Sanlıurfa, which is currently home to a total of 401,068
Syrians. While two other southeastern provinces, Hatay and Gaziantep,
host some 300,000 migrants, the surprising runner-up is Istanbul.
(…)Turkey’s
two other major metropolitan centers, the capital Ankara and the
Aegean province of İzmir, attract a comparatively lower number of
migrants with some 60,000 and 90,000, respectively.
The
figures also show that nearly half of Turkey’s Syrian population is
under the age of 19, including nearly 709,000 boys and over 645,000
girls.
The
Ministry’s data also demonstrates how the number of Syrian migrants
increased over the past four years, since the start of the war in
2012. Accordingly, there were only some 14,000 Syrian migrants in
Turkey in 2012, when Turkey mentioned 100,000 refugees as the limit
of its capacity.
This
figure, however, increased fifteen fold in just a year to some
224,000 in 2013 and to over 1.5 million in 2014.
While
the figure stood at 2.5 million by the end of 2015, it rose to over
2.7 million after only the first quarter of 2016.
(…)
8.
Turkish columnist condemned the EP and the Greek Cypriots for the
context the EP’s 2016 progress report on Turkey
In
a commentary under the title: “Does European Parliament not want to
be taken seriously?”, Turkish daily Sabah’s (11.04.16) columnist
Ozan Ceyhun writes that the European Parliament (EP) will vote on
April 14, 2016, the annual report on Turkey, during a session in
Strasbourg where it will ostensibly approve the report.
Commenting
on the context of the reports, the
columnist supports that the EP could not have approved a more absurd
report than the one that is full of unsubstantiated claims, based on
nonsensical biases and contradicts the current realities in Turkey.
The columnist writes also the following:
“If
Europe's radical right-wing – which is unlikely to receive more
than 100 seats in the EP in the coming elections, drafted and
proposed such a report, it would not be surprising. I
wonder if they could possibly present another report harsher or more
unrealistic than the one that is about to be voted on.
This
indicates that some of the Parliament members not only misrepresent
the EU and the values it stands for but also Islam and Muslims and,
consequently, Turks and the Republic of Turkey.
Likewise,
it is not hard to comprehend why the Greek Cypriot members of the EP
appreciate this report. Although two parliamentary seats belong to
Turkish Cypriot members, the Greek Cypriot members of parliament
regard their mission at the EP as the creation of captions related to
Greek Cypriot domestic policies, devoid of any interest in the EU or
the values it stands for.
Their
only priority is to contribute further to the decisions that are made
against the best interests of Turkey, Turkish Cyprus and the Turkish
Cypriots.
Therefore,
those members of the EP endeavor to include baseless content and
unsubstantial materials directed against Turkey in this year's annual
report.
And, they succeeded to a certain extent -- thanks to the coalition
they formed with other dissidents of Turkey in the EP. However,
this year's report could have been utilized as a contribution to the
ongoing reunification negotiations in Cyprus. Unfortunately, though,
the exact opposite has happened. Greek Cypriot EP members tried their
best to include all sorts of articles in the report that hamper the
process in Cyprus. After the Annan Plan, the EP has proven once again
that the Turkish Cypriots have been the only ones sincerely exerting
efforts to come up with a resolution in Cyprus.
Since
it already became obvious in the drafting process of this year's
report that a terrible report was to be issued, the Turkey-EU Joint
Parliamentary Committee co-chairman Berat Conkar and Turkish
Parliament's EU Harmonization Committee chairman, Mehmet Kasım
Gulpınar, co-authored a letter to express their disapproval on the
report draft and sent the letter to the EP rapporteur for Turkey,
Kati Piri, as well as the co-president of the Turkey-EU Joint
Parliamentary Committee, Manolis Kefalogiannis.
But
their efforts were in vain.
It
is evident that Greek and Greek-Cypriot EP members replace EU values
with national interests, which we can understand, to a certain
extent. Piri, however, a Socialist Parliamentarian for the
Netherlands, sided with them rather than serving as an arbitrator
regarding this year's report, which has been a great disappointment.
(…)
The
annual EP progress report on Turkey will serve only one purpose: to
undermine the EU. Harming Turkey-EU relations, which have developed
positively over the recent months, and jeopardizing cooperation,
particularly on the refugee issue, equates to the undermining of both
the EU and Turkey.
We
wonder if the EP members who will approve the report – albeit
likely to undermine Turkish-EU relations -- will achieve their goals
and be ready to welcome the refugee flow into the EU.
They
had better get ready for that.
As
a matter of fact, it seems that the EP, which the European public
does not take seriously, is eager to maintain its view of people,
according to the latest report on Turkey.
Turkey
will not accept this report. Just like last year, it will be possible
to see the report festering in the trashcan. They will be confronted
by the rightful questioning of EU citizens who will raise their
eyebrows if EP parliamentarians – the designated issuer of these
‘trashcan reports’ -- really deserve to receive taxpayer money
from the EU citizens”.
---------------------------------------------------
TURKISH
AFFAIRS SECTION
(AK/AM)
