By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
In recent years, we have started to read and come across news about the increase in corruption and dirty work more frequently.
A former minister’s ‘bribery’ dispute with the owner of the airport…
A former prime minister’s bank account transactions that led to the lifting of his immunity…
Another former minister’s relations with the owners of a hotel.
Of course, these are the ones that are ‘news’, that is, the ones that have appeared on the agenda.
What about what we don’t hear, what we don’t see?
***
We all see that many of those who are involved in dirty business and illegal affairs are heard left and right, without becoming ‘the subject of news’.
A lawyer friend of mine called me and said, “If you only knew how much money is circulating in these networks”…
Actually, isn’t this situation a bit strange?
Why is it that what a lawyer, a journalist, or Aunt Ayşe sitting in her house can hear is not heard by those who are in charge of big institutions?
Illegal activities that are known by everyone but are not properly investigated.
Is there an ‘invisible hand’ that prevents these situations from being uncovered? To put it more clearly, are there people in every institution whose job it is to look out for such types involved in dirty businesses?
For example, we see and hear that crimes committed by some civil servants working in, for instance, the teller departments of state institutions, or those whose job involves money handling of some sort are brought to the courts.
So, where are the supervisors, managers, ministers of these civil servants?
Of course, I am not trying to portray anyone who has committed a crime as innocent, on the contrary, I am trying to point out that there may have been some high-level accomplices at the time these crimes were committed.
***
It may be the ambition to earn money the easy way, and the inability to make a decent living that brings things to this point, but no justification should lead anyone to corruption, or theft…
Because every time news of corruption and irregularities breaks out, it undoubtedly has negative repercussions on society.
If it is a state institution where such illegal activities are taking place, the distrust in that institution reaches the maximum level.
If the offences are taking place in the private sector, an environment of distrust is created in that line of business.
Let’s put it this way, it is not difficult to argue that there is a serious amount of money circulating in this country.
This money, which smells bad, sometimes appears in the real estate sector, sometimes in the betting sector, and sometimes in relation to casinos.
Is it all dirty, does it all belong to the mafia? No! Of course, I cannot make such a claim.
However, have you ever thought about who the owners of some luxury apartments, recently bought but standing empty, are? Why and with what kind of money were these apartments bought?
This strange and massive movement of money, of course, creates an environment of mafiaisation and insecurity, which is the worst of all.
There are many accounts of those who want to disrupt this network, being silently threatened, or rewarded with bribes…
It is precisely for these reasons that people are now starting to look at everything with scepticism, and follow every issue by saying, ‘I wonder’.
***
While the movement of money in the accounts of a former prime minister is the subject of a court case, no one can touch the gambling barons who build huge hotels with casinos.
I wonder for how long the bribery and cronyism in business allegedly happening in the casino-hotel-politics triangle, which started two, three governments earlier, will be investigated?
Illegal permits, illegal land transfers, floor plan permits, attempts to change urban planning schemes of the state…
Should we write more clearly? For example, will those who offered bribes be prosecuted just as much as the politicians who allegedly took those bribes?
Not only that: What do you make of the meetings between business people and politicians in various meyhanes [tavernas]?
Have you ever thought about what some groups that meet openly and publicly, and even invite media bosses to these meetings are trying to do?
All these incidents and this dark environment, which is seen and heard by many people, undoubtedly alienates ordinary citizens from the land they live in.
And while this dirty environment further encourages those who pursue dirty deeds, it also disrupts the struggle of patriots who love their country, alienates ordinary tax-paying citizens from their state.
A test has been at work in this country for many years now.
Those who keep repeating the ‘homeland and nation’ narrative and try to hide their dirty deeds under the flag, in short ‘right-wing parties’, are in a serious relationship with Turkish holders of capital that have their eyes on Cyprus…
Take a look at the allegations of corruption, or irregularities we have experienced in the last twenty years…
The tangle of relations between Turkish capital that has come, or intends to come to the island to build a hotel (casino), and the right-wing politics of Turkish Cypriots…
The Turkish Cypriot right, which holds the bureaucracy in its hands, has used the means at its disposal in its relations with Turkish holders of capital for years…
Land transfers, favours and more…
Is everyone dirty?
No, I don’t claim that, but think about what we have been through recently, and analyse it from that perspective.
You will see that within the right-wing parties there are individuals and groups who have serious relations with peculiar circles.
There is money on one side, bureaucracy on the other…
There is the TRNC on one side, motherland on the other.
There are favours on one side, and bribes on the other…
