Finance Minister Berova linked the issuance of the Decree with the Force of Law regarding the budget for the Cost of Living to the 1st April. Oh, this 1st April. It’s both the day of silly pranks and the founding day of EOKA. The fact that this was linked to 1st April really caught my attention.
So, was this equivalence to EOKA’s founding day intended to undermine the peace of the Turkish Cypriot community? Because the Minister himself stated that they carried out this Decree with the Force of Law on 1st April specifically to circumvent the law regarding the Cost of Living. He explained that this step was taken to impose this law—which faced challenges in passing through the Parliament—on the community and the legal order, thereby implementing what they intended. They weren’t sincere in their attempt either. After all, the Prime Minister personally proposed to the unions that were taking action at the last minute to select five representatives and address the issue under the name of a Crisis Committee alongside five ministers. The unions accepted this. Now we must ask this government: Since you were aware of the 1st April move, why did you propose a Crisis Committee to the unions? You dealt a fatal blow to the ground for finding a common ground.
The minister also stated that the 9-month freeze on the Cost of Living was implemented to ensure predictability in society and the economy. He stated that the state budget had risen to 190 billion TL due to the inflationary environment. This is true, however there is missing information because the total budget expenditure has also reached 50% of the Gross Domestic Product. Is freezing the Cost of Living the only path to predictability that the Minister knows of? What about expenditures? The extravagance of official duty vehicles: It is quite interesting that during this government’s tenure, most of the vehicles allocated for state officials have been fitted with private license plates instead of official ones. Thus, these vehicles are used for non-work-related, private, and political purposes without drawing public attention.
So, as the famous saying goes, if the imam does this, what will the congregation do? Why doesn’t the Minister, who is so keen on predictability, prioritize installing GPS trackers on official duty vehicles to monitor their use? Because this is not just about fuel costs. From maintenance to repairs and depreciation, this is a significant category of expense. So why doesn’t the Ministry, so keen on predictability, monitor the incentives and tax exemptions that result in revenue loss, which is essentially an expense? It doesn’t monitor them. Moreover, it goes so far as to issue tax amnesties. Why hasn’t it, at the very least, made it a priority to ensure that the total VAT collected from domestic trade and economic activities is close to the VAT collected from imports?
In short, predictability in budget cannot be achieved solely by cutting salaries and wages because personnel expenses account for 29% of the budget. You cannot regulate this without touching the remaining 71%. Moreover, this 29% has been inflated by the temporary worker hires you made for elections and votes, outside the scope of the Public Service Commission. Now, resorting to legal loopholes through the Public Service Commission to implement salary cuts is wrong. Timing these measures to coincide with the founding anniversary of EOKA, thereby undermining the peace of the Turkish Cypriot community, is even more wrong. The priority is peace at home.
This article was originally published on 02.04.2026
Source: EOKA AND PEACE AT HOME
