What the papers say
MONDAY, which saw protests in Lefkoşa over a headline in Afrika describing Turkey’s operation in Syria and its 1974 intervention in Cyprus as an “occupation”, was described as a “shameful day” by Havadis editor Başaran Düzgün.
In an article published on Tuesday, entitled “Is this what the Reis [Chief] wanted?” — a reference to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — Mr Düzgün said that there had been “ugly scenes . . . that are foreign to our culture”.
He wrote that “everybody knows that the ‘invasion’ stories of Afrika are not new” and that “everybody also knows that it will oppose everything that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan does”.
Mr Düzgün said Afrika had become an “expert at drawing attention to itself even at the most critical of moments, at the sharpest of bends” but that “even if we are angered by it, we ought to approach the matter through the prism of a culture of democracy”.
“Afrika newspaper expressed an opinion,” he continued. “It may be criticised and demonstrations may even be held. In the past similar demonstrations were held outside Havadis newspaper.
“But everyone has to say ‘No’ to lynch attempts and damaging newspaper premises.
“We have to prevent acts of vandalism. . . Yes the police, which under the laws ought to have prevented this, did not carry out their task.”
Mr Düzgün revealed that one of his reporters, Hüseyin Ekmekçi, had been among those who had shown the “common sense” to prevent the “delirious demonstrators from attacking President Akıncı”.
He said that events that then unfolded at Parliament, where MPs were being sworn in, were “even more shameful”.
Mr Düzgün wrote that turning Parliament into an “arena of demonstration and moreover climbing the roof and waving an extreme nationalist flag should not be approved and ought to be condemned”.
He then said that the release by police of a demonstrator “in a red jacket” who had “first attempted to damage the building [in which Afrika is situated] and who then climbed on to the roof of the Parliament building” was the “biggest shame of them all”.
Turning to Republican Turkish Party (CTP) MP Doğuş Derya, who had made statements condemning Turkey’s military operation in the Afrin region of northern Syria, Düzgün accused her of preferring to use “clichéd slogans instead of ideas to express herself”.
He said that Ms Derya was “not the only one” in the CTP who held such views and said if the “opinion of the CTP is that ‘the bloodsuckers have started to invade Afrin’ than they have to adopt a resolution on this and declare it . . . without resorting to any disguise.”