The latest gifts for the TRNC from Motherland

AMID the echoes and scenarios of “good news for Cyprus” which attracted a lot of attention, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seemed to have brought the entire Motherland government with him and carried out a magnificent TRNC landing.

Erdoğan had come to the TRNC on various dates before but he never had the particular enthusiasm of his latest visit.

With everyone waiting with general interest and curiosity, he announced his good news in his address to the Parliament. . . In the process of rooting the TRNC state, a Presidential Palace in the form of a complex and a new Parliament building are the latest gifts being built for the TRNC from Motherland Turkey.

In particular, the Presidential Palace project has been finalised and brought to the execution stage.

The time to bid farewell to today’s historic Parliament building, which is remembered by many as the “Dianellos cigarette factory”, is approaching.

Those who were fired up about the Maraş opening, the promotion of the TRNC and the proposals for a new administrative TRNC regime, breathed a sigh of relief.

By putting an end to the “federation” in all his speeches, the most important thing is that Erdoğan insists that the thesis of two societies, two equal and sovereign states is internalised as the “only option”.

How can I not mention it? Our country was in the grip of many chronic problems when Erdoğan set foot in the TRNC. Shaken by a serious economic crisis, electricity and telephone communications were cut off in many parts of our country. Even being able to reach emergency health services during the pandemic has turned into a serious problem. And the health services’ nurses and midwives went on a new strike. Bayram Eve traffic was a mess. Idle, nonworking traffic lights. The bazaar became a black market of overpricing especially for Bayram.

While the number of positive Covid-19 cases is increasing and even intensive care units are filling up, there were so many irresponsible people who did not comply with pandemic care and discipline, health professionals were constantly using the lack of patient beds as a warning… Because of our lack of awareness of occupational safety, we are racing towards setting a record for work accidents as seen by the tragedy at Gazimağusa Port. If Erdoğan had been aware that we were hosting him in the midst of all of this, I am sure he would not only have given good news, but also a proper scolding to the short-sighted TRNC political institution that brought the country to this point. Unfortunately, the people in this institution have no skills other than quarrelling with each other and creating populism.

The boycott of Erdoğan and Parliament by the two opposition parties was the event that left its mark on the developments. But there was one detail that could not be overlooked. Those of us waiting for a two-line July 20 message from the Parliament boycotters drew a blank. So they are also boycotting July 20. Then they criticise social division. So who provokes this social division? Everything is out in the open. I write these lines with deep sadness. Were those who recalled that when Erdoğan was Prime Minister he protested and boycotted Denktaş’s speech in the Turkish Parliament in 2004 trying to justify the collective parliamentary boycott of the TDP [Social Democracy Party] and CTP [Republican Turkish Party] with this comparison?

Now, it’s necessary to open the pages of my diary here. Then, as the Parliamentary Speaker’s Private Secretariat Director, a parliamentary officer and as a member of our guest parliamentary delegation, I am a person who was there on that historical day in Turkey’s Parliament in Ankara.

It was the days of the Annan Plan referendum, and Erdoğan and Denktaş were in a serious conflict due to opposing views.

Erdoğan put all his weight behind the acceptance of the Annan Plan and was receiving great sympathy from our Annan Planners here.

On the other hand, Denktaş was strongly opposed to the Annan Plan because it would “destroy the Turkish Cypriot people” and gave important clarifications on this issue.

Although Erdoğan himself did not go to Parliament that day, he did stop anyone from his party from going and did not put forth a party decision on this issue.

Denktaş would not have been able to address the general assembly without the approval of the AKP [Justice and Development Party], which had an overwhelming majority in Parliament.

As the TRNC parliamentary delegation, we were watching the Turkish Parliament’s historical session chaired by Bülent Arınç, one of the heavyweights of the AKP, from the guests’ box.

Denktaş, who was in Ankara at the invitation of then President Süleyman Demirel, gave a speech that resulted in the MPs standing up and applauding him enthusiastically. Denktaş’s entrance was met with a standing ovation and there were of course AKP MPs present there that day who were among those who applauded Denktaş’s speech.

As a special note, I should mention that Erdogan’s Denktaş protest that day was very appropriate and well received by the Annan Planners and Denktaş’s opponents in the TRNC. Today, this event is referenced as part of the parliamentary boycott. What irony!

My observations about this year’s ceremonies are mixed with a different kind of sadness. I’m asking here: why is the modest ceremony in front of the Bülent Ecevit Statue every July 20 by the Sönmezliler Ocağı, who had that statue built there, performed with exclusive and limited participation?

The brave and visionary [Turkish] Prime Minister of the July 20 Happy Peace Operation was Bülent Ecevit. For God’s sake, can history be denied? As part of the official celebration ceremonies, we are waiting for the will to put an end to this institutionalised disloyalty and to include a commemoration of gratitude and respect in front of the Bulent Ecevit Statue, which has been abandoned in Göçmenköy, Lefkoşa. In this show of will, it’s too late.

To Bülent Ecevit, who is known as “Karaoğlan”, the then Deputy Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan and all the political and military officials who led the Cyprus Peace Operation, may their souls rest in peace and their place be in heaven.