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Taking advantage of Article 154 of the Criminal Code on ‘Effective Repentance in Bribery Crimes,’ those who reported certain crimes led to the arrest and prosecution of Central Tender Commission Chairman Salih Canseç, followed by Prime Minister’s Office Undersecretary Hüseyin Cahitoğlu… It is claimed that there will be further arrests…
Legislators, acting on the famous saying “There is no proof of bribery” and thinking that it is indeed impossible to obtain proof of bribery, made a provision in Chapter 154 of the Criminal Code entitled ‘Effective Repentance in Bribery Crimes’…
When was this provision enacted? Of course, way back in 2014…
So the question is: why did people wait for 11 years to benefit from a legal provision enacted in 2014?
Or, let’s put it this way: why did no informants benefit from this law for 11 years, and yet, now a large number of informants have come forward?
Of course, it is because bribery cases have increased significantly, reaching extreme levels, and those demanding bribes have taken it too far…
It seems that those giving bribes have reached the point of saying “enough is enough”…
As you know, both the briber and the bribee are guilty, but the legislator, considering that evidence of bribery cannot be obtained, created a system that protects the confessor and punishes the other party.
The aim is to prevent bribery by ‘guaranteeing protection to one of the parties if they confess, thereby paving way for the other party to get reported’. The legal regulation aims to create an environment of insecurity in the world of bribery and to function as a deterrent by spreading the feeling, “I can be thrown under the bus at any moment.”
Yes, I know, your conscience does not accept the fact that one side is protected; yes, my conscience does not accept it either, but that is the law… The assumption is that this is the only way for to act as a deterrent.
This is not a legal regulation unique to us; there are similar practices in many other countries…
The law is not one-sided, i.e. it does not only call on the ‘briber’ to confess, or only convict the ‘public official.’ The law addresses both the recipient and the giver of the bribe, as well as the third party acting as an intermediary…
A call for confession is made to ‘public officials who take bribes, or agree to take bribes’, ‘persons who are not public officials but who give bribes, or agree with a public official on this matter’, and ‘third parties who act as intermediaries in bribery offences, or who benefit from bribery offences’.
Of course, this must be done before the bribery issue is uncovered by authorities and any investigation is launched, provided that the police, or the Public Prosecutor’s Office are informed of the situation…
According to the criteria of Transparency International, the ‘Reports on the Perception of Corruption in Northern Cyprus,’ prepared annually by academics Ömer Gökçekuş and Sertaç Sonan with the contribution of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Cyprus Office, actually demonstrated the disastrous situation in the country.
These reports reinforced the perception that ‘the TRNC has become a country rife with corruption and bribery.’
Those in power occasionally reacted to these reports. They considered them exaggerated, saying they were defaming the country and damaging its image.
However, these reports were based on surveys conducted with businesspeople, and the situation was getting worse every year. Businesspeople complained that they could no longer do business without paying bribes.
The truth of these reports was also revealed by arrests and actual cases that went to court.
The increase in bribery and the involvement of high-level public officials in it is truly sad and worrying.
Whether they are guilty, or innocent will be determined by the outcome of the trial; I am not going to put myself in the place of the judiciary but the involvement of the Prime Minister’s Undersecretary in bribery is not a matter to be taken lightly.
While the Chairman of the Central Tender Commission and the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff were arrested on allegations of corruption and bribery, there has been no satisfactory response from government officials, who are acting as if these events never happened. Even when touching on the subject peripherally, they act as if they do not know those involved, as if they were talking about strangers. Those in government are responsible for the people they appoint; they cannot distance themselves from what is happening so easily.
This article was originally published on 08.12.2025
Source: BRIBERY HAS INCREASED EXCESSIVELY AND MADE PEOPLE SAY, ‘ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.’
