Karpaz protesters march to TRNC Parliament gates
KARPAZ protesters converged on Parliament and ministries yesterday after calling off a march from the peninsula on Wednesday when protesters fainted and one man collapsed. Yenierenköy Mayor Emrah Yeşilırmak had headed flag-waving protesters on the initial 24km leg of a planned five-day march in scorching temperatures “for the future of our youth and the Karpaz region”.
But they changed tack after reaching Ziyamet when Salih Cil Muskuri was taken to hospital with heatstroke.
The Bafra beach road junction was blocked by the protesters’ bus before being removed early on Thursday morning, when Mr Murskuri was also allowed home.
Mr Yeşilırmak told Cyprus Today: “We are deeply upset and have decided with the 28 muhtars to camp outside the ministries of the Interior and Transport and Public Works and the Prime Ministry . . . until we get results.”
The fresh protest began yesterday morning with marchers heading first to Parliament and then to the Transport and Public Works and Interior ministries and the Prime Ministry, where they met Premier Ersin Tatar.
Mr Yeşilırmak declared earlier: “We are coming for our rights and I invite everyone in the capital to support us.
“We want to scrap the 2004 Karpaz Decree for new town planning rules, a local hospital, a university project, a new road from Gelincik to Kaleburnu and to renew the İskele-Karpaz and Zafer Burnu [Cape] roads.
“The Karpaz donkey problem must be solved and the state should write off years of municipality staff social security and Provident Fund debt.
“We simply cannot pay it and there are not even local offices for us to do so.
“We need support for tourism, the restoration of our monuments and a sustainable plan for a region which cannot support itself as development and investment have been frozen for more than a decade.
“The Karpaz Decree profits politicians and their friends or safeguards former Greek Cypriot properties, not the environment. Our youngsters are leaving.”
Mehmetçik and Büyükkonuk mayors Cemil Sarıçizmeli and Ahmet Sennaroğlu voiced their support but Dipkarpaz’s Suphi Coşkun was in Turkey and a municipality spokesman confirmed that neither a representative nor the local muhtar had attended the march or yesterday’s protest. He commented: “We have been saying this for 30 years. A pharmacy has only just opened in the village, let alone a hospital. The protest was organised at short notice by the Yenierenköy mayor without enough consultation.”
Former Dipkarpaz/Yenierenköy mayor Özay Öykün added: “I support our mayor. The government is renting land to foreigners and I can’t develop or sell my own land because of the Karpaz Decree. Tourism Minister Fikri Ataoğlu promised to help us. It was all lies. We cannot even build homes for our children.”
Over 10 years ago, the then mayor challenged government: “I told them that since everyone cares so much about the Karpaz, give us plots in the capital for our youngsters instead if we can’t build here. I never got a reply. All they were interested in was lining their own pockets. The municipality is two million TL in debt and politicians have deceived us for 45 years.”
Yenierenköy was originally settled by Turkish Cypriot refugees from the coastal enclave of Erenköy, now a war grave and military site surrounded by South Cyprus.