By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
We left the famous UBP [National Unity Party] Congress behind.
Let me say at the beginning what I will say at the end, this congress will lead to political chaos, crisis, pain…
Why is that?
Let’s think together.
***
We had the chance to watch the congress on the spot and breathe that air in.
In our conversations with many UBP members and interviews with UBP politicians, we always tried to ask the same thing!
What is the difference between the candidates?
If I were an UBP member, why would I vote for Hasan Taçoy, or Ünal Üstel?
No one gave a clear answer.
For example, if Hasan Taçoy is elected, will there be a shift to full-day education?
If Ünal Üstel is elected, will such and such steps be taken in public health policies?
What we understand from the answers given is that they are no different from each other.
The only difference is their own circles, their own men, that’s all.
Doesn’t the phenomenon you call UBP voter, or UBP member, already imply a person who takes interest-driven steps?
***
Why does a person become an UBP member?
Or, why does one root for Ünal?
Or, worst of all, why would any citizen root for Juju? [Editor’s note: Reference to Fatoş Ünal, chairperson of the UBP Women’s Branch in Kyrenia]
What is the political explanation for all of this?
What is the political reason behind the fact that tens of women adore sister Fatoş and act as if they respect her?
For example, if sister Fatoş is elected, what will change in the country?
What are her thoughts on public health issues, what steps will she take in the economy?
Do we know? Or do they have such opinions?
I don’t think they do.
This is the crux of the matter.
‘UBP member’ as a phenomenon literally means someone who is self-interested.
***
If you want to divvy up the TRNC’s public resources, if you want to get jobs, vaccines, tenders and favours from the state, you become a member of the UBP.
You embellish your rhetoric with some nationalist words, you fake gratitude to Turkey and mind your own interests.
This is what it means to be a member of UBP.
They have no political ideas!
They do not have any ideas.
Nor do they have an ideal…
Their only concern is to grab the resources coming from Turkey in this poor, extralegal structure called TRNC.
We felt this in our bones during our observations and conversations in the hall where the congress took place.
***
These eyes have also seen those who approached us, ranted and raved at the UBP administration, and then shouted ‘Prime Minister Ünal’ only two minutes later…
And those who couldn’t vote because of the chaos, and left the hall saying ‘F… them and their parties’…
What else should I say, or write?
The other day we watched a feast of disgrace.
There was a member of parliament on the [party] council who was being investigated for a forged diploma!
Fatoş Ünal, who strutted all day long with a clear influence on the voters, also has an ongoing forged diploma investigation.
In the midst of this chaos, we handed the microphone to Hasan Taçoy.
Taçoy said, ‘This congress has definitely been rigged.’
And then what?
Are you going to carry on with the president of this shady election?
He spoke in circles.
There is no need to make very big, or long political analyses.
This congress will keep UBP in power for at most one more year, then the dissolution will begin, the political crisis will grow and the country will go to elections.
As I made this observation, I thought of the speech made by Ersin Tatar—who is in the presidential office—in the hall…
The person who is the President of this country taunted CTP [Republican Turkish Party] at the UBP congress…
While thinking about these things, I saw UBP members attacking each other with curses that involve each others’ ‘entire families’, fighting, punching, shouting, yelling, screaming…
Together, we have seen the poor people of the poor structure that is TRNC… And there were thousands of them!
UBP members elected a prime minister with six thousand votes; they elected the head of the country with a population of thousands with various sorts of interventions, distribution of public resources, favours in employment, rewards in tenders, bribery, and all sorts of pressure…
They called it a ‘congress’, they called it ‘democracy’, they called it a political party.
What we experienced and what they made us go through was actually a snippet of the country.
Self-interest, state opportunities, corruption, irregularities, meddling and more…
What we experienced the other day was a huge freak show.
And they called it a congress, that’s all…
Source: “I ROOT FOR ÜNAL”
