By ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ (GREEK) TÜRKÇE (TURKISH)
The northern part of Cyprus is no longer the safe place it was thought to be. We are both importing and creating criminals.
Those who ensured that Ersin Tatar was made community leader (Presidency) in the 2020 Presidential elections by violating the will of the Turkish Cypriot community with Ankara’s intervention, and that the incumbent government came to office with interventions in the functioning of UBP [National Unity Party], did not fail to also design the social life in the country.
They first started with education. First, they destroyed bicommunal projects such as “Imagine” and then they turned a blind eye to the introduction of illegal Qur’an courses everywhere.
They waged a war on teachers and teachers’ unions, and exerted both economic and psychological pressure on them.
They tried to intimidate the teachers’ unions – one of the 3-5 unions putting up a struggle in the field – with pressures and smear campaigns.
Leaving the influx of population from Turkey and third world countries uncontrolled, they inflated class sizes in schools, condemning children to get so-called education in jam-packed classrooms.
Gang-like groups first appeared in schools. Secondary school children started carrying knives in their pockets, seizing pocket money from younger children at school, and beating them up.
In schools where no security measures are taken, a completely different type of generation is growing up in a starkly different culture.
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Then they took over the press. Currently, 90 per cent of the Turkish Cypriot media is in the hands of capitalist groups. These groups are either directly from Turkey, or consist of Cypriot capitalists who fly the flag of AKP [Justice and Development Party].
For example, AKSA [Editor’s note: Turkish power generation company], which is sucking the blood out of the country, bought Kıbrıs newspaper. It is using the newspaper as a means to design the politics of the country.
They know that in a society without a free press, the voices of disadvantaged groups and the masses demanding peace will not be heard.
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They are trying every way to pave the way for Turkish citizens to buy properties. They are working on legislation to grant every Turkish citizen the right to buy up to 80 acres of land and 3 houses.
They are also trying to Turkify all Greek Cypriot properties in the north of the island through the misuse of the Immovable Property Commission.
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The cultural erosion resulting from all of this, coupled with the lack of supervision, leads to numerous crimes such as theft, rape, extortion, murder and bodily harm that adorn the pages of newspapers every day.
In this environment, which has been created in a completely deliberate manner, Turkish Cypriots have no choice but to try to survive economically and socially, without any room left to demand peace and a federation, to talk about the Cyprus problem and put up a struggle in this field.
In other words, in such a period and environment, the demand for peace and a solution on the part of Turkish Cypriots is only heard as a faint echo as they try to live a humane life.
However, it is perhaps the greatest irony that the only way to get us out of this position of being outside the framework of international law and being a sub-administration of Turkey, which is the source of all that has been happening, is a solution on the basis of a federation.
While Turkish Cypriots are facing the loss of their own culture and assets on a daily basis, in which field will they be able to put up an effective fight?
While young people, who are left with no space to live as they wish in the northern part of Cyprus, are emigrating one by one, the so-called federalist left-wing political parties, on the other hand, are only interested in coming to power under the current circumstances.
Those responsible for the isolation of Turkish Cypriots are many. And it is no longer the place it was thought to be.
The Greek Cypriot side needs to hurry up, take more steps to gain the confidence of Turkish Cypriot citizens, and prove that it really wants peace.
Otherwise, it will be too late and it will be a dream for the Greek Cypriot side to find a Turkish Cypriot community it can make peace with.
Source: THE NORTHERN PART OF CYPRUS: A SMALL PROTOTYPE OF AKP’S TURKEY
