What the papers say
THE controversial subject of loans “from friends” reportedly taken out by the TRNC prime minister was tackled under the headline “Did you find it convincing?” by YeniDüzen editor-in-chief Cenk Mutluyakalı on Thursday.
“One should have very good friends,” he wrote. “Friends good enough so that one can ask for a loan of $700,000. Did you find it convincing? I did not.”
Describing his own experiences of taking out a loan, he continued: “You know the banks. They look at your wage slip first and then they want two guarantors who are civil servants.
“The last time I took out a loan I borrowed 20,000TL to buy a car. The car showroom owner told me, ‘Find and bring two civil servants.’
“The prime minister is saying ‘I borrowed some [money].’ How much is ‘some’? I hope the prime minister wasn’t asked to find two civil servants as well.
“He is saying that he sold property. We don’t know where and how much. In fact he purchased that property with a loan.
“One would have liked him to speak more openly after a silence that lasted for so long.
“I wonder what property it was that he sold? Maybe he is wary of taxes.
“The prime minister is livid that the principle of the sanctity of his privacy has been violated . . . [yet] he himself drags his private life into politics.
“He is trying to say, ‘I did it so that I could get a divorce’, so that if you pursue the matter he will say, ‘This is my private life, don’t go searching in every nook and cranny.’
The writer claimed “neither what is being said nor the figures tally. No matter which way you look at it, you hear the song of inconsistency. People will not believe this — or at most, 35 per cent of them will.
“There are far too many thousands of pounds, dollars and euros around and this country is covered with the blots and stains of them.”
Mr Mutluyakalı said the Premier’s movement of money “dates back two, three years” and he had “kept silent” in the face of questions for two months. “He contemplated for so long and this is what he comes up with: ‘I borrowed.’
“To be honest, we all deserved a more creative explanation.”