What the papers say
YENİDÜZEN editor Cenk Mutluyakalı was full of praise this week for the TRNC judicial system which saw prison sentences handed down to six men involved in the “very painful” January 22 attack on Afrika newspaper.
“Two months; four months; six months — it’s not important,” he wrote on Thursday, explaining: “An attack which polluted the right of this society to demonstrate; which sought to trample upon its freedom of expression should have merited a prison sentence. And that is what has happened.”
Expressing the hope that those who “pointed to here from overseas” have “learned that they need to respect the societal values of Turkish Cypriots”, he went on: “We cannot perceive the attack of January 22 as an attack merely against Afrika newspaper. It was an attack against our freedoms.
“It was a day of shame when the police stood and watched the attempted lynching. (And we should not forget there are nine more assailants who have not been ‘found’.)
“With the flag hoisted on the roof of Parliament, a challenge was made and a message of ‘conquest’ relayed. But now these intentions have [seen the perpetrators] put behind bars.”
Mr Mutluyakalı said the judge in the case had reiterated the people’s right to “unarmed gathering” and to protest without prior permission — a universal right which has been lost elsewhere.
“This is a freedom that we need to protect with all our might . . . The same thing goes for the freedom of the press.”
Quoting judge Tacan Reynar as saying “every community that acts with the aim of being a pluralist and democratic society should show tolerance towards those who think differently . . . for the sake of the supremacy of the law and the development of democracy”, the writer added: “The words of [the] judge . . . serve as a lesson to us all. Let’s hope his words will turn into a lesson in human rights and democracy and reach where the wick of tension was lit . . .
“Those who describe the result produced by justice as a message to people with dual nationality are truly on a dangerous path, and are stepping on the poor people they see as a warehouse of votes for themselves.
“Thank God that amidst so much decay we still have modern and discerning judges.”