Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 11-06-21

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From: The Republic of Cyprus Press and Information Office Server at <http://www.pio.gov.cy/>

[A] TURKISH CYPRIOT PRESS

[01] Eroglu: the negotiation process cannot last forever

[02] Ozgurgun repeats his allegations regarding the negotiations

[03] UBP AND CTP "MPs" represent "TRNC" at PACE

[04] Kalyoncu says the new "citizenship law" is imposed by Ankara

[05] Hungarian parliamentarians discuss the issue of the so-called isolations on the Turkish Cypriots

[06] First charter flight from Poland

[07] The "TRNC" became an associate member of FILA

[08] Businessmen and the occupied Famagusta "municipality" applied for taking over illegal DAU's "pre-university institutions"

[09] The number of Turkish Cypriots residing in the government-controlled area of the Republic of Cyprus increases

[10] Ancient statue discovered in occupied Salamis

[11] Bells from occupied orthodox churches are stolen

[12] More on "Turkish embassy's undersecretary" who denied a "customs check" in occupied Tymbou airport

[13] ORP will join UBP

[B] TURKISH PRESS

[14] "Obama calls Erdogan on Syria, Libya"

[15] Number of Syrian refugees in Turkey exceeds 10.000

[16] Gul: Assad should transform Syria into a multi-party system

[17] "Turkey expresses reservations about Syrian President's reform speech"

[18] "EU has lost its leverage on Turkey"

[19] "Red Lines War"

[20] Former CHP leader faces a roadblock in his quest to challenge the current party chief

[A] TURKISH CYPRIOT PRESS

[01] Eroglu: the negotiation process cannot last forever

Eroglu statements took place during a meeting he had yesterday with officials from the "Remembrance Society of Martyrs" of occupied Aloa, Maratha and Sandallaris villages. The chairman of the society Ahmet As1
r expressed full support to Eroglu and presented him with a translated English copy of the book "1955-1974 Step by Step Genocide". As1
r also informed Eroglu that they had sent copies of the book to the European Court of Human Rights' Judges and the UN Secretary General.

[02] Ozgurgun repeats his allegations regarding the negotiations

Ozgurgun also repeated the Turkish Cypriot position: "The Greek Cypriot side should abandon its futile expectation that Turkey will recognize it as its collocutor in the talks and should work towards making positive contributions to the process. Only then will it be possible to reach a just and lasting solution to the Cyprus problem."

[03] UBP AND CTP "MPs" represent "TRNC" at PACE

[04] Kalyoncu says the new "citizenship law" is imposed by Ankara

Kalyoncu said that making new "citizens" is tantamount to occupying again the northern part of Cyprus (through population). He noted that the people living in the occupied part of Cyprus are afraid of being annihilated. "These policies are pursued without taking into consideration this fear and worry", he added.

"Those who imposed this law are, of course, pursue to occupy this place from the population's point of view", Kalyoncu said adding that Turkey does this to increase its influence in the occupied part of Cyprus. He noted: "They want the people living here, the people living on these lands not to have a say. All these will happen when Ankara presses the button?"

(I/Ts.)

[05] Hungarian parliamentarians discuss the issue of the so-called isolations on the Turkish Cypriots

Explaining the reasons for their proposal, Marton Gy?ngy?si, an MP with Jobbik and Vice-President of the Committee, argued that the "embargoes and isolations" on the breakaway regime should be lifted and alleged that the accession of the Republic of Cyprus into the European Union (EU) before "the unification with the TRNC" and an agreement to be reached was "a big mistake". He expressed the view that Hungary should open a trade consultancy office in the occupied area of Cyprus. He also alleged that Turkey should be supported on the Cyprus problem.

Also, according to illegal Bayrak, Andras Drexler, representative of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who addressed the meeting after Gy?ngy?si, said that the Ministry always brings the Cyprus problem on the agenda at the EU meetings, but it is still early to take such a proposal before the Hungarian Parliament.

In the voting that followed, the proposal was rejected with fourteen votes against, three in favour and one abstention.

(I/Ts.)

[06] First charter flight from Poland

According to the paper, the charter flights between Warsaw-Ercan (occupied airport of Tymbou), which will continue every Monday, are organized by cooperation of Citron Travel in Poland and Akmina Travel Club in the occupied area. It is also reported that "this charter flight has succeeded, once more, to break the embargoes". Officers from Akmina Travel Club thanked the so-called Turkish ambassador in the occupied area Halil Ibrahim Akca, the self-styled minister of tourism Unal Ustel and his self-styled undersecretary Sahab Asikoglu for their contribution to the implementation of these charter flights.

The charter flight carried 189 travellers from Poland, who were greeted with flowers and folk dances.

On the same issue, Turkish Cypriot daily Halkin Sesi (21.06.11) reports that the initiatives for these charter flights were kept quiet, so the "Greek Cypriot administration" (as they refer to the Republic of Cyprus) not to be in a position to prevent them.

[07] The "TRNC" became an associate member of FILA

According to the paper, as a result of the efforts exerted by Bekir Ceker, chairman of the Turkish Wrestling Federation and Rodika Yaksin, FILA Bureau Member, the "TRNC" has been accepted as a member of FILA and thus participated for the first time at the International Victory Cup which took place in Aydin, Turkey between June 17-19.

As the paper writes, the "TRNC" participated at the Championship with three athletes and under the "TRNC flag".

Speaking on the issue, Bekin Ceker, chairman of the Wrestling Federation of Turkey, said, inter alia, that the young athletes from the "TRNC" have the right to participate to international events. Saying that it was Mrs Rodika Yaksin who has exerted a lot of efforts towards this direction, Ceker said that the membership of the "TRNC" to FILA was accepted during the last meeting of FILA administration board. He further said that from now on, all "TRNC" wrestlers will be able to participate in all international tournaments under their own flag. However, he said, they will not be able to take part to European and World Championships.

Speaking also on the issue, Rodika Yaksi, FILA Bureau Member expressed pleasure saying that this great result was a event of the intensive efforts exerted for a long period of time so that "TRNC" to become a member of FILA.

Commenting on the issue, Omac Basat, "member of the executive board" of the "TRNC Olympic Committee", evaluated as a "great development" the fact that Turkish Cypriots were accepted as members of FILA, after 31 years.

[Tr. Note: According to the website of FILA, www.fila-wrestling.com. Cyprus, Greece and Turkey are affiliated members of FILA while, the "TRNC", Kosovo and Scotland are participating as associated members].

(AK)

[08] Businessmen and the occupied Famagusta "municipality" applied for taking over illegal DAU's "pre-university institutions"

In statements on behalf of the businessmen, Hasan Ince said that their proposal is better than the proposal of Turkey's Doga College. He noted that they received great support by the people in this effort and expressed the view that the process followed for privatization of "DAK" and "DAI" was not correct. He noted that they discussed the issue with the "rector" of "DAU" Abdullah Oztoprak, who told them that they could not file an application because they do not come from the education sector. Ince said that one should not be an expert for being able to administrate an institution and added that this could be done by appointing professionals. "We submitted this proposal believing that we can do this job", he noted.

Meanwhile, Oktay Kayalp, self-styled mayor of occupied Famagusta has sent a letter to the chairman of Evkaf Foundation's administrative council, expressing the readiness of the "municipality" to overtake "DAU's" primary school and college.

Furthermore, under the title "Ready to explode with anger", the paper reports that the trade union of "DAU's" academic personnel, DAU-SEN, is organizing protest activities today against the transfer of "DAU's" college, primary school and kindergarten to Turkey's Doga College. The Trade Unions' Platform and Kamu-Sen trade union are organizing a strike today in occupied Famagusta area in order to express their support to the protest.

However, "DAU's" Students' Council wants this protest to be held another day because a graduation ceremony is planned for tonight at "DAU". "If an activity is held today, they will find us as students against them. The participants in the activity will be responsible for possible unpleasant incidents", the students said.

Turkish Cypriot daily Afrika (21.06.11) reports that the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), the Democratic Party (DP), the Social Democracy Party (TDP) and the New Cyprus Party (YKP) expressed their support to DAU-SEN's protest.

(I/Ts.)

[09] The number of Turkish Cypriots residing in the government-cotrolled area of the Republic of Cyprus increases

According to Moreket, in the last year, 28 persons settled in the village Arodes in Pafos. The aim of the majority of these people is to settle in the government-controlled area for a period in order to be able to sell their property.

Moreket wonders whether these people also got an equal value of property in the occupied area, and whether they are still in the list to get property in the occupied area. He also wonders whether the breakaway regime will just look at this situation.

[10] Ancient statue discovered in occupied Salamis

The vice-president of the Salamis Excavation program Prof. Dr Erhan ?ztepe held a press conference yesterday on the course of the ongoing excavation program and its target for 2011. Prof. ?ztepe said that their aim for this summer was to complete the ongoing excavation work being carried on the cooling room of the city's Roman Bath and to open it to visitors. The excavations at the ancient city, which are being carried out by a team of 20 archaeologists, are expected to last until the end of July.

[11] Bells from occupied orthodox churches are stolen

Moreover, Turkish Cypriot daily Haberdar (21.06.11) refers to the church of Panayia Kanakaria in occupied Lythrangomi village and reports that the bell of this church has also been stolen. The paper recalls that the mosaics of the church were stolen and sold abroad. Haberdar argues that a guard is needed for the church, so that the tourists who visit it to be able to enter inside.

(I/Ts.)

[12] More on "Turkish embassy's undersecretary" who denied a "customs check" in occupied Tymbou airport

The "Turkish embassy" in the occupied area underlines in its written statement that it has conveyed a letter to the "foreign ministry of TRNC" so that similar behaviours and implementations towards "embassy's staff" not to be repeated in the future. The written statement pointed also out that "diplomats" have the right not to be subjected to control at airports "customs checks" as they are considered as "diplomatic agents", according to the Vienna Convention.

Meanwhile, the paper writes that the "Security Forces Command" (GKK) announced in a written statement yesterday that the so-called police have launched investigations towards the incident with the two diplomats carrying in their luggages a large amount of jewellery.

(AK)

[13] ORP will join UBP

Reporter Gokhan Altiner, in his column, writes that, according to confidential sources, the landslide victory of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) had an impact at the ORP. So, this time ORP will participate in the so-called government, and apparently the leader of ORP Turgay Avci will become a "minister". Altiner also writes that it is still under discussion which "ministry" Avci would get and who will get his position in the "assembly".

[B] TURKISH PRESS

[14] "Obama calls Erdogan on Syria, Libya"

"The leaders agreed that the Syrian Government must end the use of violence now and promptly enact meaningful reforms that respect the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people," a White House statement said. Erdogan has traditionally had good ties with the Syrian Government of President Bashar al-Assad, but had been urging him to halt a fierce crackdown on protests which have erupted across his country.

Obama and Erdogan also agreed that it is important to maintain international pressure on Qadhafi for a transition to a new government that will reflect the will of the Libyan people." The two leaders also agreed on the importance of reaching a comprehensive Middle East peace deal, as European and US efforts continue to revive talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

[15] Number of Syrian refugees in Turkey exceeds 10.000

The Syrians are staying in four temporary five-sites set up by the Turkish Red Crescent in Altinozu and Yayladag towns of Turkey's southern province of Hatay. According to the directorate, 1.903 tents were erected in the region while 12.189 blankets were distributed. Among the Syrians, who took shelter in Turkey, there are 2.621 men, 2.634 women and 5.384 children.

[16] Gul: Assad should transform Syria into a multi-party system

"Assad must speak clear and explicit such as: Everything has changed, we are headed to a multi-party system, everything will be restructured in line with the will of the Syrian people and I will lead this transformation" said Gul, who estimates that Assad will be able to control all events right after he finds the will to say this. Also, Gul said that Assad might be saying these subtly, but he needs to say it very openly.

[17] "Turkey expresses reservations about Syrian President's reform speech"

"Assad sounded like he was pushing for a delay on needed reforms, trying to buy some time which Damascus does not have," a source in Ankara told Today's Zaman. "What's more, he did not elaborated on plans about opening up the political process to all groups in Syria, an argument long voiced by Turkey for bringing the growing unrest to a halt," the same source, speaking on condition of anonymity, stressed.

Turkey, Syria's main trading partner and biggest neighbour, has been urging the Syrian leader to swiftly implement reforms as the protests in the country have shown no signs of slowing down. Before Assad delivered the speech on Monday, Ersat Hurmuzlu, an adviser to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, told the Dubai-based Al Arabiya channel on Sunday night that Turkey will be watching closely what Assad tells his people about the reforms. The urgency for the reforms is Turkey's main argument. "The demands in this field will be for a positive response to these issues within a short period not to exceed a week," Hurmuzlu said during the same TV speech on Al Arabiya. [...]

Turkish analysts also expressed reservations about Assad's speech. According to Professor Veysel Ayhan, an expert in the Center for Middle Eastern Strategic Studies (ORSAM), the speech shows that Assad started to recognize the reform needs and heed to legitimate demands of the opposition.

[18] "EU has lost its leverage on Turkey"

He also said the European Commission's recommendations would be taken on board to the extent that they reflected universal norms and gave the example of the death penalty (which Turkey abolished in 2004). "Whether or not you want to join the EU, it's a good thing to abolish the death penalty. But in the absence of any clear perspective of accession, there is no reason why Turkey should align its legislation toward narrow EU standards. To put it simply, the EU has lost its leverage on Turkey," Kuneralp said.

Kuneralp noted that the EU would have little say if the scenario came to be when commenting on EU's concern that Erdogan would increase presidential powers. "Even if we were to shift to a presidential-style system, there is at least one European country that already has such a Constitution. And I am not aware of anyone in the EU telling France it doesn't meet European standards," Kuneralp explained.

[19] "Red Lines War"

[...]

CHP: Let the first three articles remain

However, the opposition parties have already started to outline their red lines. CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu responded to Erdogan by saying "our door is open." But he is reported to have informed his close associates that he does not favour the amendment of the first three articles and the adoption of the presidential system and remains distant to the calls for education in the mother tongue.

The CHP put forward the condition that the "unitary state structure" be maintained when reforms are made in the local administrations and that reforms must not be limited to only one region. Meanwhile, it called for the removal of YOK (Supreme Education Council) and the special courts and insisted on changes in the structure of the Administration of Religious Affairs and the Constitutional Court.

MHP: Two languages cannot be accepted

In a statement to daily Milliyet's Fikret Bila, MHP leader Devlet Bahceli assessed his party's position on the Constitution as follows: "We have red lines. As far as we are concerned, these are also the red lines of the Turkish Republic. We can outline them under three subheads: Introduction of the Constitution, first three articles of the Constitution, proposal of articles that would create division in Turkey, such as those that call for democratic autonomy." [...]

BDP: Political status for Kurds

BDP independent deputy from Diyarbakir Serafettin Elci explained the conditions under which the party will agree to participate in the work on the new Constitution to daily Taraf. He focused on three basic articles. Elci said: "Those who want the solution of the Kurdish problem must realize the following: The Kurds want to have a political status, a new system must be adopted for decentralization, a system that will create an opportunity for self-governance, an opportunity must be created for self-governance, in every area and that education in the mother tongue is one of the inalienable demands of the Kurds.

AKP: We will not give in to threats

The Government has reacted to the red lines of the opposition parties. AKP deputy parliamentary group leader Suat Kilic said that they will seek to reconcile their differences because of the structure in the Parliament and noted: "An effort will be made for reconciliation with the CHP, MHP, and BDP. An effort will be made to agree on common denominators. But, nothing can be achieved if red lines and banned and untouchable areas are maintained. A commission must be set up to create a broad basis for agreement through reconciliation. Nevertheless, we will not give up the new Constitution just because of the red lines and threats."

[20] Former CHP leader faces a roadblock in his quest to challenge the current party chief

The duo's attempts, however, are being hindered by their own internal regulations that require 651 signatures to be gathered in 15 days in order to hold an extraordinary convention. Baykal and Sav are expected to launch the signature campaign on Wednesday. The internal regulations that stand as roadblocks to the duo's path were adopted in 2008, when Baykal reportedly asked Sav to find a method to prevent the opposition within the party from rivaling the party administration. It is these very regulations that give party members 15 days to gather the necessary signatures. If they start collecting signatures on Wednesday as expected, they will need to submit the signatures by July 5.

Baykal and Sav have not been on speaking terms since Baykal resigned and Sav turned his back on him to support K1
l1
?daro
lu, resulting in further disagreements that caused Sav to separate from K1
l1
?daro
lu, too. The duo recently reconciled after their right-hand men met to discuss the extraordinary convention. "The party assembly must be renewed. The upcoming period will shape up by Wednesday at the latest. The target is to get the 651 votes needed to change K1
l1
?daro
lu's surrounding staff, with G?rsel Tekin the first in line to go," a close staff member to Baykal said. TURKISH AFFAIRS SECTION http://www.moi.gov.cy/pio

EG/

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