By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
You don’t actually need to lose someone to answer the question “How did you know them”
This is valid for those who come and go…
It is!
They come and go…
***
That is what happened to the Turkish Republic’s Ambassador to Nicosia Ali Murat Başçeri.
He came and left.
We won’t remember him fondly.
You may object to using the word “we” but that’s how it is.
Many, and I mean many will not have fond memories of him.
Of course, the issue is communal and political.
The majority will smile at his face…
Or perhaps pretend to like him…
Will not openly say it but will not remember him with affection.
Because he kept on stirring up our house…
Of course, we won’t remember him well…
He robbed us of our say, our dreams, and our will.
***
My first impressions of him, when he first assumed the post, were very good, he was respectful, kind, and gave importance to communication, he had acted then as a true “ambassador”.
But in time, like many of his colleagues before him, he too suffered from “power poisoning”…
He forgot he was an “ambassador.”
He started acting like a “governor.”
He gathered MPs at the White House [Translator’s note: A retreat for high-level military officers at the edge of the Pentadaktylos mountains overlooking Kyrenia], patching up the quarrels between them, saw it his duty to interfere in the will of the Turkish Cypriots, and followed the instructions he received from Ankara.
He set up a government, dissolved one; toppled the Prime Minister, and removed ministers.
***
The Vienna Convention states that “it is the duty of all of the members of the [diplomatic] mission, … to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State. They also have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of that State” …
He blatantly violated this international convention.
***
I don’t know how much of this he did in his capacity as “ambassador”, and how much of it was through his “personal” initiative.
I can’t assess how much of it was part of Ankara’s policies, and how much of it was out of his own ambition.
I hope that he will question himself on his deeds.
I can say, as a Cypriot, as a journalist, as a citizen and as someone who loves this island, “I will not have fond memories of him” …
What did Kaya Türkmen who conquered our hearts say:
“It took me time to understand that Ankara did not want me to be an Ambassador but a governor.”
Başçeri on the other hand liked being a “governor”.
And not just being the governor of the province of “TRNC” …
But being the governor of a “colony” …
***
He too is leaving.
We don’t know if “his successor will be worse than him”
Perhaps he will be.
Both the outgoing and the incoming will probably say, “don’t shoot the messenger!”
Actually, this is Ankara’s long-standing tradition, in Cyprus…
The Turkish Ambassador Ercüment Yavuzalp, as he wrote in his memoirs, had summoned Mr Zeka who was running against Dr Fazıl Küçük in the 1968 elections for Vice President, telling him to “withdraw”.
Years later he shared this in his memoirs.
Will Başçeri write his own memoirs someday?
***
You can easily replace the words “Ambassador” or “Başceri” with the word “Ankara” when reading this column.
It won’t change the reality as to how we have been pushed out of history books, how we have been moulded with nationalist tales, and how we have been made strangers in our homeland where others set the rules.
“We are waiting for your instructions to open the Democracy and Kennedy Avenues as well as the beachfront,” theAmbassador said that day, as he stood bowing and scraping in front of Erdoğan, next to him was Tatar waiting cap in hand, and supposedly there were elections coming up.
I haven’t forgotten, we haven’t forgotten!
***
If half of this column is for the one who is leaving, the other half is for the one arriving…
That’s how it is, they come and go…
No country is ever left to the coloniser!
Unless the people want it…
Unless we want it…
[Photo included showing Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ersin Tatar at a joint press conference, along with Ali Murat Başçeri, joined via video conference by military and local officials situated in Varosha just before work to open the fenced-off town commenced.]
Source: HOW DID YOU KNOW THE AMBASSADOR?
