AYKUT, IMMOVABLE RPOPERTY COMMISSION AND THE GREEDY ONES

The Simon Aykut case and other arrests that followed were a source of concern in the society. The reaction to this was like a flash in the pan. Thus, the ruling powers of the South took steps in line with the idiom, ‘the flea bit you, it is time to make a move’. First, they released the ‘soothing gas’ that is “it does not apply to the entire Turkish Cypriot community, it is directed against foreigners.” Then they passed a law in their parliament that criminalises a mass of people, regardless of their origin, whether they may be investing in, or cultivating Greek Cypriot properties in the north…

This far-reaching law gave the executive and the relevant units of the state the right to arrest and prosecute with serious penalties of imprisonment. Then, using this opportunity, they hung it over the head of the society like the ‘Sword of Damocles’. President Mr. Tatar said of Mr. Simon Aykut, “I advised him to move to the South.” In other words, Mr. Aykut became like a ‘yellow cow’ offered to the ‘lions’ [Editor’s note: Reference to an anonymous folk tale whereby a pack of worn-out lions ask a big herd of yellow cows to offer them one cow without objection so that they do not attack the herd, and the cows keep offering one cow to the lions as they keep asking, repeatedly, with the fear that they might get attacked until they are fully consumed, although they were capable of revolting against the lions from the beginning]. Then the ‘Sword of Damocles’ was hung over our heads. So why did these things happen after all this time? One reason is the view of the rulers towards the Immovable Property Commission (TMK). Because they never considered it as a child, or a family member of their own, but as an orphaned child of a distant relative whom they had to take care of out of necessity. Additionally, the anger they felt towards the ‘parents’ who brought him to life exacerbated these sentiments.

The other reason is that they were not bothered so much by the ‘reasons’ that paved way for the formation of TMK but more taken by the ‘end results’ of its presence… Because those ‘reasons’ were deriving from the will of the Turkish Cypriot Community for a Federal Solution based on the UN Parameters. This made the properties in the North valuable. So, they were ‘helplessly’ mesmerized by the ‘end results’, that is, the wealth, which came from it, since they were furious about the ‘reasons’ that gave birth to it. With the aid of these returns, they found themselves deeper in domestic political and ‘emotional’ sentiments, and eventually arrived at the unintelligible policy that is the ‘Maraş Opening’. By combining this with the Two Separate State Thesis, they reached a point where they completely ignored the ‘reasons’ mentioned above. Thus, they reduced the TMK to the status of ‘the child abandoned in the courtyard of a mosque’. The bigots of the South also benefited from this situation to the fullest.

Despite everything, it is not too late. Attention paid and support given to the TMK should grow. At the Summit to be held in March on the way to the solution of the Cyprus Problem, a soft view towards the solution must develop. In addition, an urgent payment plan should be designed for the agreed compensations to be offered by the TMK. It should be ensured that the applications that have piled up are handled rapidly. The issue of resources must be addressed. In addition, the step-by-step transfer of the properties of Varosha and Maronites to the Greek and Maronite property owners, as announced many times, should be prioritized.

These steps will disrupt the games of the zealots of the South to render the TMK completely ineffective in June 2025. At least take the warning of the law passed by the Southern Parliament. Because the chauvinists of the South are not satisfied with one, or two, or three, or five ‘yellow cows’. Their appetite for dispossessing the societies of the South and the North has grown. They found this opportunity only thanks to those who are in love with the ‘end results’.

This article was originally published on 17.02.2025

Source: AYKUT, IMMOVABLE RPOPERTY COMMISSION AND THE GREEDY ONES