EXPOSURE OF THE MARITIME ACTIVITIES IN THE OCCUPIED AREAS OF CYPRUS

 

           When I went back to the history, I could find only one Turkish-Cypriot ship-owner, named Ahmet Chavush Osmancik, who was born in 1849 in the island of Creta and was later settled in Limassol. He used to have three big boats and other lighters and he had made a name for his work in the Limassol harbour. Ahmet Chavush and 14 other prominent Turkish Cypriots, among them also the famous Kenan brothers from Larnaca, were imprisoned during the First World War for two and a half years in the Kyrenia Castle by the British colonial government. They were accused of making plans in order to free the Ottoman prisoners of war, who were kept in Karavoulis/Famagusta. (1) When Ahmet Chavush was set free, he bought a big boat and named it as “Osmancik” (the little Ottoman). (2) When he died in 1930, the Greek Cypriot tradesmen and foreigners were among the people, who attended his funeral in Limassol. (3) During the rest of the British administration and after the independence of the island, some young Turkish Cypriots used to work as sailors on ships, owned by the Greek Cypriots or foreign companies. 

After the invasion and the occupation of the 37% of the northern territory of the Republic of Cyprus in the summer of 1974, the Turkish Cypriots got the chance to work in the field of maritime activities.  The Famagusta port was opened on 3rd September 1974 and a Turkish Cypriot Ports Authority was established for the functioning of the ports under the control of the Turkish Army. Besides Famagusta, the ports of Kyrenia and Karavostasi (Gemikonagi) started also to offer services. On 3rd October 1974, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Cyprus issued an Order, which declared the ports of Famagusta, Kyrenia and Karavostasi as closed for all vessels.

The coast line of the occupied part of Cyprus constitutes 50.6% of all the coast line of the island with a length of 396 km. There are four designated sea-ports in the occupied northern part of Cyprus. The principal sea-port is in Famagusta, which is important for cargo transportation. The port has 1,280 metres of quays with drought ranging from 6.7 metres to 11 metres. Some 487,000 square metres of the outer harbour have been turned into an industrial free trade zone in March 1983.

The Kyrenia port is important for tourist and passenger traffic visiting the occupied areas of the island. A new ferryboat port has been constructed in Kyrenia with a depth of 8 metres. There are regular connections to the southern ports of Turkey and less often services to Israel and Syria. The construction of the new tourism port of Kyrenia started in 1983 and it was opened on 16th November 1987 with necessary technical equipment and personnel. It has a capacity for four ferryboats.

In the north of Famagusta port, Gastria (Kalecik-Boghaz) is used as an industrial port, where Cyprus Turkish Petroleum Company and Altınbash Petroleum Company have unloading bays. Boghaz Industry and Mines Company uses these facilities for loading the material from its plaster and cement factories.

Nine miles west of Kyrenia, near Alagadi, there is Teknecik power station, where port facilities are used for unloading fuel oil, which is used for generating electricity since 1976.

At Karavostasi (Gemikonağı) in Morphou Bay in the West, there were facilities of the Cyprus Mining Company for loading copper mine with the help of a 200 m long conveyor, but it is not in use since 1992. In August 2010, it was reported in the Turkish Cypriot press that a new free port will be built there by a company, called “Portisbi”, which rented the plot for 49 years. (4)

99% of all the import and export activities of the Turkish Cypriots are done through maritime lines, involving about 20 companies from the public and the private sectors.

The Cyprus Turkish Shipping Company was established on 12 March 1975 as a joint venture, in which the Maritime Organization of Turkey had 51% of the shares and the Development Bank of the Consolidated Fund of the Turkish Cypriot Communal Chamber had 49% of the shares. This company has at the moment one ferryboat and a vessel for cargo transport, both are registered at the Istanbul harbour and are under the Turkish flag. The ferryboat is named as M/F Bozcaada, which was renovated in 2006 and has a capacity of 315 passengers and sails between Famagusta and Mersin. The other vessel is called M/V Hisar with 7,410 DWT and carries dry cargo from various world harbours.

The Shipyard Famagusta Ltd (previously known as GemYat) is located within the Famagusta port for the maintenance and the repair of the transport vessels. It has 5,500 sqm closed and open areas and three slipways. The company was founded originally by Ramazan Gundogdu, who came from Black Sea region and settled in Famagusta in 1989.

In 2006, 60 fisher-boats, cargo-ships, yachts, ro-ro ships and other vessels were taken care of. Half of them had the flag of the TRNC, 20% of Turkey and 30% of other countries. 65 persons were employed in the shipyard in 2006 and about 500 tons of steel construction was consumed annually. In July 2011 a new pool was bought and it has a capacity of 25,000 DWT.

            TRNC Ship Registry: There were in 1998 a total of 25 ships, 18 of them carrying the flag of the TRNC, 6 the flag of Turkey and one, the flag of Malta. The majority of the ships belong to businessmen from Turkey. These 25 ships had a capacity of carrying 40,710 DWT weight and 2,390 passengers, collecting a venue of 14 million US dollars for the weight they transport. Annual freight expenses of the TRNC was in 1998 30 million US dollars. From the direct revenue of these ships, a total of 42,000 US dollars were cashed in.

            In January 2009, the Union of Turkish Cypriot Ship-owners had 24 members and they were complaining that the number of ships was declining. According to the Annual Report of the Directorate of the Ports Department, the number of registered ships was 44 in 2006, raised to 46 in 2007 and went down to 31 in 2008.

List of ships in service in the occupied areas of Cyprus: (5)

Year       Cargo-ship  Ro/ro  Passenger-ship  Ships for special      Total

  purpose

2006           12             9                      14                9                         44

2007           13             9                      13              11                         46

2008             7             7                        9                8                         31

The Union of Turkish Cypriot Ship-owners demanded among others the reduction of the port taxes and fees, opening of the port services to other private companies, employment of TRNC citizens in the ships with TRNC flags and exemption from customs tax for the material used in the shipyard, reduction of the electricity tariff, issuing certificates by the Ports Authority for the graduates of the local Faculties of Maritime Studies. (6) 

            Cyprus Turkish Dock-workers’ Company was started by a law 6/76 officially in 1976 by the 284 dock-workers, who used to work before 1974 at the Famagusta harbour. No new members were registered since then and in November 1998, there were 98 dockworkers, who shared the whole revenue of the port among themselves. (7) Moreover this company still has the monopoly of handling and storing at the Famagusta harbour and the fees are set by the Ministry of Works and Transport. At the moment, there are only 19 shareholders left and 100-150 dockworkers, who have been working at this company for the last 20-30 years, will be laid off, if the law will be amended and new shareholders will come in from outside the company.

It was reported recently in the press that a bill was presented to the Council of Ministers of the TRNC, which envisaged the selling of the shares of the Cyprus Turkish Dockers’ Company. A Jewish-Turkish Maritime Company, named “Arkas Denizcilik” and based in Izmir, had already bought the shares of a cover-company, called “Portisbi”, which rented three months ago a strategic place with 10,000 sqm in the Famagusta Free Port and Zone for 25 years and which had paid 2 US dollars per sqm. It was reported that the Arkas Maritime Company, which transports cargo containers to the occupied areas of Cyprus will be buying the shares of the Dockers’ company as well. (8)  

Since 2003 the Cyprus Turkish Dockworkers’ Company provided services mainly outside office hours and complaints arouse from the ship-owners that they have to pay every year 500 thousand US dollars for the overtime work at the harbour and the customs.

Distribution of the amount of the weight and the flag of the ships coming to the seaports of the TRNC in 1997 (2003) (9):

Port                 Flag         No of Ships      Weight (tons)      % of the weight

 

Famagusta      TRNC             633              316,804                   53.99

                        TR                  296              169,622                   28.90

                        Foreign           121              100,410                   17.11

                        Total:           1,050 (1,397) 586,836 (370,414) 100.00

___________________________________________________________________                  

Kyrenia           TRNC                21               28,048                   39.08

                        TR                      33               43,720                  60.92

                        Foreign                -                      -                          -

                        Total:                 54               71,768                 100.00

___________________________________________________________________

Teknecik         TRNC                  -                   -                               -

                        TR                        7                54,703               38.41

                        Foreign                 6                87,714               61.59

                        Total:                  13              142,417             100.00

___________________________________________________________________

Kalecik           TRNC                  -                     -                          -

(Petroleum)     TR                       62             134,345                96.73

                        Foreign                 2                  4,543                  3.27

                        Total:                  64             138,888               100.00

_______________________________________________________________

Kalecik           TRNC                 60               124,857                 50.92

(Plaster and     TR                      34                 86,066                  35.10

Cement)           Foreign                2                   4,543                  13.98

                        Total:                106               245,193                100.00

____________________________________________________________________

TRNC Total:   TRNC               714               469,709 tons            39.63

                        TR                     432               488,456 tons            41.22

                        Foreign              141               226,937 tons            19.15

                        Total:              1,287            1,185,102 tons          100.00

 Yacht harbours:

Kyrenia’s old harbour, which up until 1988 was also used by the ferryboats to Turkey, is now being used as a yacht harbour. After the opening of the new touristic harbour, one mile to the east of Kyrenia, all ferryboat traffic has been moved there. The old customs and excise building in the old harbour was completely renovated and redecorated early in 1990 and turned into a yachting centre. (Depth of the port, 3.2 metres) Similarly all moorings were equipped with water and electricity outlets. About 100 yachts and fisher-boats can take shelter here and it belongs to the Evkaf Administration.

There is another marina in the new tourism harbour of Kyrenia, which started giving services in 1996, owned by Gem-yat Delta Marina Ltd. It has a space of 7,500 sqm with 75 berths in the sea and 80 on land.

            There is another possibility for yacht mooring in the harbour of Famagusta, in a special section for yachts and fisher-boats. However, this place lies within the commercial harbour and is therefore likely to be noisy and bothersome to all those, who would rather have a peaceful setting for their mooring. Plans exist for turning the lagoon between the commercial harbour and the Palm Reach Hotel into a yacht harbour.

Those sailing around the eastern Cape of Cyprus, (Zafer Burnu, Cape Andreas) will find another place of anchorage in the fishing harbour of Yeni Erenkoy (Yialousa), which is located on the Karpaz Peninsula in the north-eastern tip of Northern Cyprus. Since Summer 2011, the region’s first-ever luxury marina is called Karpaz Gate Marina and it is owned by Karpaz Bay Resort Ltd, belonging to Jewish and English investors. It offers 300 berths including 15 berths for super yachts and mega yachts up to a maximum of 60 metres in length. Part of the Karpaz Bay Resort, it is being developed to the standards of a first class tourist destination with an expansive 18,000 sqm dry dock for refit and repairs. For yachts sailing to Northern Cyprus for the first time, Karpaz Gate Marina is a recognised port of entry.

The Faculties of Marine Studies in the occupied areas of Cyprus:

1. The Faculty of Maritime Studies of the Near East University in Nicosia was first established in 1996 and gave its first graduates in the year 2000. The Faculty of Maritime Studies applies four-year degree programs in the Departments of Deck, Marine Engineering and Maritime Management and two-year programs in its Vocational School. The initial objective of the Faculty is to train deck and engineering watch keeping officers for the Merchant Marine Fleet; and in addition, to train qualified personnel to meet the demands required for managerial positions. The Faculty of Maritime Studies is collaborating, within a framework of regulations, with the World Maritime Organization and Undersecretary of Maritime Affairs of Republic of Turkey. The Faculty is at internationally acknowledged standards since it provides education through the utilization of latest technologies in accordance with the international laws and regulations. It provides its students with apprenticeship and employment opportunities.

2. The Marine School of the Girne American University in Kyrenia was established in 2007 as Marine school, Department of Logistics and Transportation. At 2010, Deck Department started to function also. In carrying out its mission, Marine School commits to improving Maritime, Transportation and Logistics sector. In today’s competitive environment, the Mariners, Deck Officers and Logisticians who are the graduates of GAU Marine School, are aimed to be fully equipped with technological, language Maritime and Logistics skills. The Techno-park Building, which is an important asset of Marine School, with its various laboratories, provides opportunity for the students to continue their education by transportation and logistics research.

3. Istanbul Technical University (ITU), which was founded in 1773 as the basis of the Ottoman Imperial Naval Architecture, started to build an education and research campus in the TRNC in 2008 in Famagusta. A second campus will be built in Yeni Erenköy (Yialousa). According to the rector of the ITU, North Cyprus was chosen because of its geographical location and the regional and global programs that serve the needs of the Maritime Sector. In the 2011-2012 academic year, a total of 90 students were admitted for the first time in three sections: Marine Transportation and Management Engineering, Naval Architecture and Marine (Ship-mechanics) Engineering and Marine Management Engineering. 30 students were admitted in each section. The language of instruction is in English. The education of students, who do not have a proficient level of English, first undertake a year for preparation. 10% of the students receive a full scholarship quota, 30% in half (50%). A 10% discount will be applied the TRNC citizens.

Other organizations related with Marine Life in the occupied areas of Cyprus:

1. The First Marine Conference of the Ministry of Works and Transport of the TRNC was held in Nicosia in May 1998 and the Final Reports of the Working Groups were published in a book with 187 pages, from where I took some statistics and information.

2. The Cyprus Marine Science Foundation: It was established in the TRNC in 2006. It is an organisation aiming to do research relating to marine sciences, marine biology, marine fisheries, freshwater ecosystems, freshwater biology, and aquaculture within and around the island of Cyprus. The Cyprus Marine Foundation has already conducted several research projects related to fisheries in the Levantine Sea.

3. Marine and Fisheries Research Institute: It was established in September 2011 at the Güzelyurt (Morphou) Campus of the European University of Lefke and is actively encouraging research in Marine Sciences and Fisheries. In addition, the institute is currently running a MSc programme on Fisheries Technology and aiming to open other MSc programmes in the near future.

4. During 24th-27th March 2013, Acapulco Resort Hotel in Northern Cyprus hosted the First International Fisheries Symposium. This symposium organisation was a collaboration between European University of Lefke, Cyprus Marine Science Foundation and the World Sturgeon Conservation Society and supported by the Turkish Cypriot Authorities. In all, the symposium attracted a total 280 delegates from a number of different countries including North Cyprus, Turkey, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Iran. Institutions represented at the symposium included Universities, Research Institutes, NGO’s, Government Departments and Fisheries related businesses. Themes covered during the 3 days of the symposium included Demersal and Pelagic Fisheries, Aquaculture, Fishing Technologies and Processing, Conservation, Species Ecology & Reproductive Biology. In addition, there were special sessions on the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEC) and Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Jurisdiction. A total of 145 presentations were given and there were a number of business stands present from North Cyprus Chamber of Industry, YAGA (North Cypriot Development Agency), German businesses, Dardenel Cyprus & Deep Sea. Following the success of this symposium there are plans for future symposia during the coming years.

Notes:

1.      Ali Nesim, Yeni Kibris magazine, May-June 1989

2.      Dogru Yol newspaper, 8.12.1919

3.      Soz newspaper, 26.6.1930

4.      Kibris newspaper, 1.8.2010

5.      Kibris newspaper, 22.1.2009

6.      idem

7.      Kibris newspaper, 8.11.1998

8.      Yeni Duzen newspaper, 30.4.2013

9.      Final Reports of the Working Groups, The First Marine Conference of the Ministry of Works and Transport of the TRNC,  Nicosia, May 1998

(This paper was first presented on 16^th May 2013 at a conference on “Cyprus’s Maritime Tradition: Past, Present and Future”, organized by the Cyprus Centre of the London Metropolitan University)

  

 

AFTER 50 YEARS, IT IS TIME TO TALK NOW

Review of the book “Behind the curtain” by İbrahim Aziz, published by Peri Lihnon Afas, Nicosia, June 2011, 238 pages, with texts in Greek and Turkish.

The date was 29 July 2003, when my Greek Cypriot friend Christos Chattalos visited the office of the Avrupa newspaper, together with his journalist daughter from Berlin. I knew Christos from the days of my study in the German Democratic Republic, end of the 1970’s. It was a good chance to meet him after all those years and talk about the hot developments, during which the anti-Denktash movement was gaining strength.

Chattalos told me on that day for the first time that he knew personally the two Turkish Cypriot advocates, Ahmet Gürkan (38) and Ayhan Hikmet (35), who were having, through his mediation, contact with Derviş Ali Kavazoğlu, the Turkish Cypriot functionary of the AKEL. The contact was started before the publication of the “Cumhuriyet” (Republic) weekly newspaper on the Independence Day of the Republic of Cyprus, 16 August 1960 and it lasted until the murder of the two advocates by the Turkish Cypriot underground organization TMT on the night of 23 April 1962, when the newspaper declared that they would demask the person, who ordered the bombing of the Bayraktar Mosque, in order to undermine the friendship and the cooperation between the two founder communities of the Republic. The bombing and the murders were done according to the partition plans of the foreign powers.

I learned another important detail from Chattalos’s conversation with me that Gürkan and Hikmet were about to become members of the AKEL in a short time, if they were not murdered brutally. I had close friendship with the brothers of both of these advocates, Haşmet Gürkan and Hizber Hikmet and they did not say anything about their AKEL membership and this was a new information for me. Therefore I decided to ask my Turkish Cypriot friend İbrahim Aziz to make a detailed interview with our common friend Christos Chattalos. This was how the ball started to roll and it took Ibrahim eight years until he brought this book out, together with another short interview with one of Kavazoğlu’s friends, Leonidas Paphidis. He wrote an introductory part about Dervish Ali Kavazoğlu, which I shall refer to later on.  The book ends up with some interesting excerpts from the interrogations made by the Investigation Commission for the Bombing of the Bayraktar Mosque.

We have already read from the memoirs of Christakis Vanezos (Turkish edition, published in 2009), related with the two advocates that Vanezos coordinated a meeting between Kavazoğlu and the advocates Ahmet Gürkan and Ayhan Hikmet in the autumn of 1961 (p.18 of the Turkish edition). Now Christos Chattalos gives us more information about these meetings. For those, who are interested in the cooperation of the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot anti-imperialist progressive forces, there are a lot of information in this book, which came into light for the first time with Chattalos’s revelations. We are very thankful to him.

As far as I know, there had been some references to the AKEL membership of the two advocates previously. The first one was  by the Secretary-General of the AKEL, late Ezekias Papaioannou during the party’s 14th Congress in May 1978. The second reference was made by a Turkish Cypriot delegate to the AKEL Congress in 1986, who gave the names of Ahmet Sadi, Fazıl Önder, Ahmet Yahya, Ayhan Hikmet, Ahmet Muzaffer Gürkan and Derviş Ali Kavazoğlu as Turkish Cypriot AKEL members. Apart from these, there was no other written or oral evidence that the two advocates were working illegally within the Turkish Cypriot community as AKEL members.

In the narrative of Chattalos, we read the development of relations between Kavazoğlu and the two advocates, but it is not clear whether they became AKEL members after the approval of Kavazoğlu’s proposal by the party. Maybe their cooperation for the publication of the weekly newspaper “Cumhuriyet” and the foundation of the “Cyprus Turkish People’s Party” paved the way for their membership and maybe it could not be realized, because of their assassination on 23 April 1962. We need to have more official evidence from the AKEL, because even their relatives are not aware of such a membership.    

Gürkan, Hikmet and Kavazoğlu were true believers in the new Republic and they paid the cost of this with their lives. The lesson we took from the political experiences of these pioneers shows us that unless the Cypriot working class will not be able to establish a common internationalist front against the partitionist forces in and out of Cyprus, there will be no lasting solution to the ethnic-national question on our island.

I would like here to point out some other thoughts of mine that I had, after reading this book:

1.  When the interviews were finished, I was told by İbrahim that he asked Aydın Hikmet to write a biography of his brother, Ayhan and İbrahim asked me to write Ahmet Gürkan’s biography. Aydın already published his brother’s biography in Afrika newspaper on 29 November 2008 and the slightly shortened version was put now in this book. I had prepared a research work of six full pages about his journalistic and political activities from 1946 up to his death in 1962, but I did not publish it somewhere. Now I am surprized to see in this book that my research work was shortened to 1/3 of the original length and was published without my name as a work of plagiarism by İbrahim Aziz. He also omitted to mention his references to my various books, where I compiled all the material from the Turkish Cypriot newspapers about the history of our working class movement. Furthermore, I had spent eight hours together with him for the editing of the Turkish text of the book.
2. I also found out that there are factual mistakes and wrong evaluations in the section under the title “Derviş Ali Kavazoğlu”, written again by İbrahim Aziz.

“Emekçi” newspaper was not closed by the British colonial regime, “in essence in order to stop the dissemination of the left movement among the T/C community.” The reason was a libel case, opened by the T/C leader and owner of the Halkın Sesi newspaper, Dr.Küçük (literally meaning “small” in Turkish). Emekçi published an advertisement, in which it was written that “A small dog is lost and is being searched for”! Emekçi newspaper lost the court case. The court ordered them to pay 150 pounds as a fine and they had to ask for apology from Dr.Kucuk in Emekci newspaper. Since the publishers did not have this amount of money, Emekci had to stop its publication.

3. It was not the newspaper “Haravgi”, but “Neos Democrates”, which was closed by the British Colonial Government in December 1955. 
4. There were no revolts in some villages in Turkey in 1965, when Kavazoğlu was murdered, so that he would take them as an example of armed rebellion in the style of Castro and Che Guevara. He confused the events of the 1970’s, when some youth leaders started a set of guerilla activities in Turkey.  
5. The author says: “Kavazoğlu and his friends, who were in the path of Marxist ideology and class struggle, were forced to struggle by taking refuge behind Ataturkism.” In fact, the two advocates were social democrats in their ideology and this could be seen in all their articles. In the second issue, the editorial of the Cumhuriyet was complaining that lately a T/C newspaper accused the T/C workers as  being communists and this was described as an hair-raising accusation! The 89 issues of the Cumhuriyet weekly newspaper did not propagate any Marxist ideology, but the rights of the workers and the villagers in line with the nationalist Ataturkist ideology. (see also “Our Path and Ideal”, 16 August 1960, No.1) The newspaper was very happy in supporting the military leaders of the Turkish junta of 27 May 1960.          
6. The author says that Kavazoğlu tried to direct/govern the Cumhuriyet newspaper from behind the scene. In my opinion, this is an exaggeration. It is clear that Kavazoğlu had  cooperated with the two advocates, as they cooperated with Dr. İhsan Ali as well. According to my knowledge, especially Ahmet Gürkan was not a personality, who would be guided from behind.    
7. The author writes that Kavazoğlu, who was the leader of the 1958 generation of T/C AKEL members, was spent out (by the AKEL) and that he would leave dealing with this matter in another research and analysis (see page 14-Turkish text). Later in the deep note No.9, he writes that Costas Mishaulis was given by the AKEL leaders as a companion to Kavazoğlu, when he drove to the place, where he was ambushed and killed.
8. He alleges that Kavazoğlu spent himself and the entire T/C left in his endeavour  of  forming a separate party, which would have brotherly relations with the AKEL, since the AKEL could not be, because of its support for enosis, the one and only common Marxist party of the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots (see page 25).         

Unless the AKEL publishes first-hand information about the activities of Kavazoğlu as the one and only Turkish Cypriot member of the Central Committee of the AKEL and about his  contradictions with the enosis policy of the AKEL, we shall not be able to judge the attitudes of each side. İbrahim Aziz should also write his own memoirs related with his own membership of AKEL and the insight of the policies of the AKEL for the Turkish Cypriots in detail. If there exists a continuation with the Turkish Cypriot Patriotic Union and the Republican Turkish Party as he alleges on page 160 of the Turkish text, then it will be very interesting to read all these details.

I would like to end with the questions put by Christakis Vanezos in his book on Derviş Ali Kavazoğlu:  “Were there negligence by the AKEL Central Committee?  Did this event happen as a result of the carelessness and negligence of the Party Administration? Did he enter this kind of endeavour without the consent of the party? Furthermore, did the policy of enosis, which was supported by the AKEL administration, drag him slowly slowly to an alianation with the party and was he led to base his activities on his personal relations? These questions are hanging in the air and they will stay for a long time like this. Only the Central Committee of the AKEL could answer these questions with full transparancy. This requires a real political virtue. Then Cypriots on both sides will learn the truth.”(p.41)

(The Greek translation of this review was published in the Greek-Cypriot daily “Politis” on 22nd August 2011)

AN OVERVIEW OF THE PAST AND PRESENT OF THE TURKISH CYPRIOT LEFT

 

            During the victory days of the 1917 Revolution in Russia, the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots, the two main ethnic-national communities living in Cyprus, were living under the British colonial regime. The left wing ideas which were disseminating in Cyprus under the direct influence of the Socialist October Revolution were having implications mostly from the ideological currents in Greece. In Limassol a political movement was formed by three G/C in the years of 1915-17 and a newspaper named Pirsos was being published in every two months.

The communist movement demanded at the beginning of 1924 the stop of the payments of the poor villagers to their loans, the establishment of an Agricultural Bank and betterment of the working conditions of the workers by enforcement of a progressive law, reducing the daily working hours from 12-14 hours to 8 hours.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CYPRUS AND THE TURKISH CYPRIOTS

The Pirsos newspaper declared itself in January 1924 as the official organ of the Communist Party of Cyprus (KKK) which was about to be established. The communists started to publish the fortnightly newspaper “Neos Anthropos” staring from 1 January 1925 and they declared on 16 August 1926 the foundation of the KKK officially after a secret meeting. 

The KKK mentioned the T/C in its first programme and demanded the strengthening of the unity of action and the cooperation against imperialism which it defined as the common enemy of the whole people of the island, the Greeks, the Turks and the Armenians alike and it demanded to reduce the ethnic chauvinism.

According the information we know, the relations of the KKK with the T/C were limited. There were differences of view between the KKK, which demanded first the independence and then autonomy for Cyprus and the G/C nationalists who demanded the union of the island with Greece (enosis). This situation did not help to the formation of an “anti-imperialist front of unity” and the relations with the T/C working people could not be developed because of various reasons. Maybe the most outstanding reason was that there was almost no publication in the Turkish language for the T/C in order to learn the scientific socialist ideas. The influence from Turkey through the linguistic and cultural relations was limited, also because the Communist Party of Turkey was proscribed since 1923 and the Kemalism was the only valid ideology.   

The development of the political and mostly the economical awareness of the T/C working people was possible in the later years due to the activities of the Cyprus Turkish Trade Unions and the Turkish Branch of the PEO. (see Kemal Cankat, The Influences of the October Revolution on the Political Organization of the Working Class of Cyprus, Söz newspaper, 6-13 November 1987)

In the beginning of the 1930’s, the T/C workers had organized themselves in the Construction Workers’ Trade Union and they were active in the first strikes in Limassol. They took part also in the formation of the “Limassol Workers’ Centre”. Moreover, one of them, Hasan Hilmi of Gilan village, was sentenced by the Limassol Court in 1933 because of his “seditious” activities and making “communist propaganda”. (Hronos, Nicosia, 4.10.1933) Yannis Lefkis, one of the founders of the KKK and pioneers of socialist ideas in Cyprus, remembers that a progressive T/C, named Mustafa, who used to work in the Agency of the Hidieval Postal Lines, had translated the constitution of the Limassol Workers’ Centre from Greek into Turkish. He later immigrated to Kemal Ataturk’s Turkey where he worked at the Foreign Ministry. (see Michalis Michaelides, “Cyprus Turkish Working Class and the Cyprus Labour Movement 1920-1963”, in The Cyprus Review, Fall 1993, Nicosia)

As the drought and poorness in Cyprus and the economic crisis in the capitalist world were at their highest point, the masses were turning to the ideas of socialism, the British colonial administration tried to stop the development of the left movement by banning some books and making some changes in the criminal law. After the rebellion of the G/C nationalists in October 1931, the political activities were banned and the constitutional order was ended by abolishing the Legislative Council. In this same year, an article was published in one of the T/C press organs, Soz newspaper, under the title of “Those who leave the herd are doomed to be eaten by the wolf”. From there we understand that there were some left-minded T/C involved in political activities:

“In the last couple of weeks the communists were issuing leaflets in Nicosia as well as in other districts and they invited the handycraftsmen to Bolshevism. We shall not analyse or support the statements issued by the communists; but we shall only deal with those T/C, who had their names among the signatures and we shall explain our view and persuation about this… We do not know them who approached and intermingled with the communists. But whoever they are, they have made us angry with their behaviour and put us in a very dangerous situation… If a few illiterate T/C who could not behave themselves were tempted by the propaganda of the communists and left our togetherness, our community has no deficiency and fault. If there is a fault, it is on those who left us and went astray into the dark lane and we have no doubt that they will be eaten by the wolves because they left the herd.” (13 August 1931)            

THE STRUGGLE OF THE T/C WORKERS IN SEPARATE TRADE UNIONS

When the British colonial administration gave permission again for the foundation of political parties in 1941, we observe that the KKK which continued its activities illegal, kept on its work in the legal field under the name of AKEL (Progressive Party of the Working People) which was formed on 14 April 1941.  

In the Second Congress of the AKEL, at the beginning of 1943, the policy of union of Cyprus with Greece was adopted and this caused the start of difficulties in the cooperation with the T/C both in the trade-union and political movements. That is why, the first T/C Trade Union was already established on 27 December 1942. This first separate trade union organization on the ethnic basis which started with the departure of 12 T/C carpenters from the G/C trade union under the leadership of Niyazi Dagli, widened later by the departure of hundreds of T/C from the PEO under the leadership of Hasan Sasmaz on 13 August 1944. When we came to the year 1945, the number of the T/C organized in the T/C Trade Unions was raised to 843.

            The first press organ of the T/C leftists, called “The Road of the Worker DOES NOT DEVIATE” (İşçinin Yolu ŞAŞMAZ) was published in October 1947. It had the sub-title “This journal defends the political and social causes of the arm and brain workers” and it stopped its publication after the second issue, on the ground that it was “too ideological”. (see Ahmet An, Examples of our intellectual life in the 1940’s, in “Articles on the Turkish Cypriot Culture” (Turkish), Nicosia 1999, p.118)  

            The miners’ strike which lasted 125 days from 13 January to 17 May 1948 was a good example of class solidarity between the G/C and T/C trade unions. Although the newspapers Halkin Sesi and Hursoz which stood close to the T/C leadership supported the strike at the beginning, they withdrew their support later and there was a need to publish a new organ which would raise the voice of the T/C workers. This endeavour was accomplished with the publication of the “Emekci” (Toiler) daily newspaper, the first number dated 19 May 1948. This first T/C workers’ newspaper could appear two days after the end of the strike and it suspended its publication in 1949 for a while and continued its publication later as a weekly. “Emekci” was forced to end its publication after a short while, because of the problems it faced due to its criticisms against the T/C leadership.      

            At the 7^th Congress of the AKEL in December 1951, a resolution was approved saying, “more attention should be given to the Turkish-Cypriot minority which is still under the influence of the chauvinist T/C bourgeosie and the landlords.”

            PEO had started to cooperate with the T/C Trade Unions since the summer of 1948 and in November 1952 decided to open a central bureau for its T/C members. Ahmet Sadi Erkurt, who was the propriator and one of the writers of the “Emekci” newspaper and had been a member of the Central Council of the PEO since 1952, was appointed to the post of its salaried secretary.

            Meanwhile the first copies of the declarations signed by the “AKEL Turkish Branch Administration”

in the Turkish language were distributed among the T/C workers distant as the Galatia village. (Köylü newspaper, 8 November 1954) We reproduce the Greek translation of this historic document in full text from the Halkin Sesi newspaper of 20 October 1954 (No.3228)

            “Turkish Cypriot brothers,

            As the AKEL’ist Turks we talk to you for the first time. Thus you hear for the first time a new voice. This voice that you could not find the chance to hear up to now is the voice of the reality and justice which helps you to solve the misleadings and the “knots” of the colonialists and their collaborators. The reason why we, the AKEL’ist Turks who have shown interest in the real interests of our people and who have been struggling to win and defend these interests, talk in this direction to our Turkish brothers is that the struggle being waged for the people of Cyprus to live free and happy, is the our direct concern as the T/C people. 

            We should not be viewers at this struggle of the people of Cyprus against colonialism and for a better life, but we should not behave against it. Because we are Cypriots.  The place of the T/C labourers who suffer under the colonial administration like the G/C’s cannot be on the side of the colonialists. The T/C workers live a difficult and hard life as much as their G/C friends under the colonial administration. Our children are raised under the same conditions of food deficiency. The T/C labourers, like the G/C labourers, are faced with the danger of unemployment without being confident of the future. In the times of old-age and illness, the life of the T/C workers and labourers, like those of the G/C’s, are not under the security of any social system by the government. The head of a T/C family, like those of the G/C family, cannot deal with the high cost of living and high rents. The struggle of the T/C and G/C day-labourers are common for the distribution of the properties of the monastries, churches and Evkaf to those who can till it and who are in need of it.  What else, the colonialists keep the Evkaf properties which belong to the T/C commnity in their hands and they govern these properties. Cyprus has become a base of war. Therefore both the T/C and G/C are confronted with the same danger. In case of outbreak of war the atom and hydrogen bombs will not differ between G/C and T/C, G/C houses, schools and churches, as well as T/C houses, schools and mosques will become ashes. Under the colonial administration, both the G/C and T/C are deprived of their most democratic rights of expression and freedoms of meeting and press. At the same time, the administration of  our schools like those of the G/C are in the hands of the colonialists and the culture of our children is adjusted to the interests of the colonialists. The colonialists recognize us officially instead of Turks as Mohammedans and the G/C as orthodox Christians. This means that our pains are common as our struggle for a good life and a happy future is also common. The people of Cyprus wages a just struggle for a better and comfortable life, but the people has to obtain its national sovereignty in order to solve its cases.

            The colonialists use everything in order to secure the help of Turkey and the Cypriot bourgeosie who are the aghas of the farms. Their aim is to weaken the struggle by separating the struggle of the Turkish Cypriot people from the anti-colonial liberation struggle of Cyprus.

            A three-man T/C “delegation” as the bourgeois representatives of the aghas of the farms and as the friends of the colonialists went to London and to the United Nations and asked for the continuation of the colonial status of Cyprus in order to serve this effect. It is very interesting to stress on the answer of the three-man delegation to the question of a journalist at the United Nations and this answer is a proof of our allegation.

            “The question put to the “delegation” by the journalist was: “If the majority of the population in Cyprus was T/C, then what would you ask for?” The answer of the “delegation” was: “Again we would ask for the continuation of the status quo.” That means, if we were the majority, we would not ask for the union of Cyprus with Turkey, but for the continuation of the British administration. There can be no other way of defending the friendship with the British and its colonialism. It is obvious with this answer that the delegation wants only to blow the movement of freedom of the people of Cyprus.

            The real interest of the T/C is not with the colonialists, but with the other brother people of Cyprus. The road of these gentlemen that they follow is the road of the colonialists. They do not have any relation with the embarrassments and pains of our people. They live comfortably under the colonial administration.

            The future and the happiness of the people of Cyprus cannot be found in the colonial administration. The suspicion which was made up skillfully by the colonialists and their local associates (With the liberation of Cyprus, the Turks will be under national oppression and they will suffer) was created especially in order to separate the T/C from the G/C in their struggle for liberation and therefore for the success of the policy of the colonialists. 

But our people will not continue to be drugged after this propaganda. Our people can make the difference, like our people of Cyprus do, between the democratic people of Greece who wages a struggle for liberation under the exploitation of the Anglo-Americans and the Papagos government. 

            The just demand of the people of Cyprus for the self-determination is not the change of patron (efendi) for the T/C as our enemies want to demonstrate. This road must be passed by for our social and national liberation under the conditions of peace. For the continuation of this, the T/C and G/C people of Cyprus will struggle for a better future together with the people of Greece.  

            The voice of NAZIM HIKMET, a man of thought, a great poet and a distinguished son of the brother people of Turkey shows us the way.

            NAZIM, in his message of greeting sent to the Turkish people of Cyprus, starts by addressing, “My T/C brothers”, stressing how our brothers in Turkey live under today’s conditions and he continues as follows:

            “…The request of your brothers in Turkey is this: “Give your hands to your Greek brothers who wage a struggle for peace in Cyprus and for liberation, for saving your Cyprus from colonial status, functioning as a military base for imperialism. Fight together with them in the same front.

            In the hands of the enemies of humanity, the island of Cyprus has been turned today into a ship of war, an aircraft-carrier, a ship which will pour death like rain.              

            For turning your green Cyprus into a ship of peace, a ship of life, a ship of friendship between peoples, participate at the struggle of our Greek brothers with your whole strength. Only through this you can help your brothers in Turkey. Only through this, you can be of some help to us, the Turkish patriots who are waging a struggle for the national independence and freedom of Turkey, for the happiness of the people of Turkey and for the world peace. I kiss your eyes my brothers.”

Every T/C worker, labourer, farmer and real intellectual should take his/her share of lesson from this statement of NAZIM. 

            AKEL which is the party of the poor G/C and T/C working people and came out of their bossom, constitutes the security of our free and happy future. Like the workers of Cyprus and their internationalist party AKEL, the Communist Party of Greece, which is the vanguard of the labourers and the working class, a progressive movement and which fought with sacrifice and braveness and lost its most distinguished sons by poring their blood, will not allow oppression and pressure on the other peoples and minorities. It does not have any interest in such a thing.

            AKEL declares now as it did in the past that it will struggle in shoulder with the democratic Greek people in order to secure wide freedom of national, social development, the freedom of language and conscience (autonomy). AKEL is struggling for a better future and happiness for all the people of Cyprus without making difference of nationality and religion. AKEL is not only the party of the G/C, but of all the suffering T/C and G/C, of all the labourers of Cyprus.

            AKEL has proven its sincerity in the practice and the truth in its statements beyond giving only statements that it has been struggling in the field of work in daily life for a better living for all the labourers, without making difference between T/C and G/C.    

            Brothers,

            If our forces are scattered under today’s circumstances, it will only help the colonialists. Therefore T/C and G/C, all the people of Cyprus has to unite their forces. We, the T/C labourers who live, work and suffer together with the G/C labourers, have to enter the struggle at the same front with the other people of the island for the use of our right of self-determination by us, for a better future and happiness, by isolating the divisive elements of the colonialist organs from the people.     

            We invite all the T/C people and even the leaders of all the political parties and other organisations who really deal with the problems of the people to participate at this honourable struggle against colonialism on the way of patriotism. We have to abandon the policy of dividing the two brotherly peoples and participate at the common struggle. As T/C and G/C, our interest and future is in this road.

            LET’S BE TOGETHER AGAINST SUFFERING AND TORMENT!

            LET’S UNITE FOR A HAPPY AND BETTER FUTURE!

            AKEL Turkish Branch Department”

            When we came to the end of 1954, we see that there were about 1500 T/C workers organized in the PEO. Meanwhile, the PEO started to publish often for its T/C members often special statements and a monthly “Workers’ Bulletin” in Turkish (Isci Bulteni). It was even planned to publish a weekly trade-union newspaper called “Voice of the Worker” (Iscinin Sesi). When the weekly newspaper “Inkilapci” (Revolutioner) was started to be published on 13 September 1955, they withdrew this plan.

The “Inkilapci” newspaper could be published only 14 weeks and it became the voice of the workers which published articles and news about all the important social and economical subjects of those days. But after the British colonial administration declared on 14 December 1955 the emergency situation, this newspaper was closed together with “Neos Democratis”, the daily newspaper of the AKEL. The AKEL, being the first and then the leftist villagers’, youth and women’s organizations were outlawed and many leftists were arrested and put into prison. As it can be understood from the article under the title “Threat”, published in the last issue of “Inkilapci” on 12 December 2003, the then T/C leadership and its underground organizations sent letters of threat to the publisher team of the “Inkilapci” bearing sentences like “Stop the publication of Inkilapci, you will be killed, your head will be crushed”.     

 

TMT’S POLICY OF OPPRESSION AND THREAT

After the T/C and G/C workers marched together on the 1 May 1958 and stated their decisiveness to wage a common struggle against imperialism and colonialism, the TMT (Turkish Resistence Organization) published a statement and asked the resignation of the T/C workers from the G/C trade-union, the PEO and warned those who collaborate with the G/C that they would be punished. Then T/C newspapers of those days were full of resignations from the PEO. And the first terror action started on 22 May 1958 with the murder attempt to Ahmet Sadi, the head of the Turkish section of the PEO. Later on 24 May Fazil Onder, the editor of the “Inkilapci” newspaper was killed. Other progressive T/C were either killed or wounded in Nicosia and Limassol.

Simultaneously, as Turkey and the T/C leadership continued their policy that the partition would be the only solution to the Cyprus question, the G/C and the T/C left who were against the partition of the island were raising their voices and making opposition. For example the T/C branch of the AKEL told in a letter dated 19 January 1957, given to Prof.Nihat Erim who was in Cyprus during that time, “the Cyprus people, the T/C and G/C, are an indivisible whole and have lived together on this soil since centuries and still live.” They conveyed ideas such as the following: “The idea of partitioning the island is both not possible to implement and not be a form of final solution to the Cyprus question. Because the T/C and G/C peoples do not live in separate areas. It will end up with a problem of displacement of people. The history has taught us to whose interests such events can serve.” (Nihat Erim, Cyprus as I have known and seen, Ankara 1975, pp.55-57)

 

THE PERIOD OF CYPRUS REPUBLIC

The founding of the independent Republic of Cyprus in 1960 which was outside the demands of the T/C nationalists for enosis and of the T/C nationalists for taksim (partition) was the start of a new period. The democrats, who continued their struggle for democracy against the partitionist T/C leadership and who possessed the Republic of Cyprus and published the first issue of the weekly “Cumhuriyet” (Republic) newspaper on 16 August 1960, the foundation day of the Republic, established the Cyprus Turkish People’s Party on 27 September 1960.    

Those circles who were embarrassed by the publications of the “Cumhuriyet” which warned the T/C community, organized the murder of Ahmet M.Gurkan (35) and Ayhan M.Hikmet (33) on the night of 23 April 1962. That was the day when No.89 of the “Cumhuriyet” was published and hinted who was the responsible person from the bombing of the two mosques in the G/C sector of Nicosia.  

This second terror act against the democrats who were opposing the partitionist policy of the T/C leadership put the T/C community into a new period of oppression and fear which was aggravated after the begin of the intercommunal conflict in December 1963. Dr.Ihsan Ali, who was one of the writers of the “Cumhuriyet” newspaper, gave a statement to the G/C “Fileleftheros” newspaper, saying that they would do all they could in order to continue “Cumhuriyet”s publication, but this was not realized.

The murder of Dervis Ali Kavazoglu, T/C member of the Central Committee of the AKEL, in April 1965 together with his trade-unionist G/C friend Costas Mishaoulis, constituted the third wave of terror. From that moment on, the political atmosphere was completely in the monopoly of the T/C leadership.

After the first half of 1968, the intercommunal relations started to soften and the process of negotiations resumed. The T/C oppositional forces started to raise again their struggle. The important milestones were the formation of the Trade Union of the Cyprus Turkish Elementary School Teachers in September 1968 (it will be renamed later as KTOS) and establishment of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP) in December 1970.

 

AFTER THE PARTITION OF THE ISLAND

After the partitioning of the island with the events of July 1974, the T/C concentrated in the north and formed various political parties, trade-unions and associations. The struggles of those in the left-wing of the political spectrum are well-known with their successes and failures. 

If we look at the picture in the last period, we see the following: According to the “1991 Yearbook on International Communist Affairs”, “Although the AKEL was not outlawed  within the T/C community, the party preferred not to be active in the north, because of the difficulties of having contact over the “green line”. 

There are three left-wing parties among the T/C: Republican Turkish Party, Communal Liberation Party and New Cyprus Party… The three left-wing parties defend a federal solution for the Cyprus problem and believe that the intercommunal rapprochment is an instrument. According to the RTP leader, “three left-wing parties are sui generis and one of them copies any party in the south of Cyprus or any other party in any part of the world.” (Information gathered by the author, Thomas W.Adams, from Ozker Ozgur on 6 November 1990)

In the 1990 Yearbook, there is the following assessment of the T/C left:

“If one day the north and the south of Cyprus will be re-united under a “Federal Republic”, it can be estimated that the united voting power of the left-wing parties of the both communities can make the majority votes during a presidential election.”

This fear of the American imperialism formulated in the 1989 Yearbook for the first time and here more openly, explains why the USA follows a confederal solution based on two states and the partition of the island. It also explains the roots of the policy of the T/C leadership who propagates the “enmity for the G/C” and “non-contacting of the two communities”. (A.An, The Outlook of the USA at the T/C left, Sosyalist Gozlem, October 1993, No.:5)

 

LEFT POLITICAL FORMATIONS OF TODAY

It is an interesting to note that all the left wing parties which represent the T/C left on the political plan, do not adopt the past accumulation and the policy of those oppressed and silenced in the 1958.

The Republican Turkish Party (CTP) was formed as a centrist party on 27 December 1970 under the leadership of Ahmet Mithat Berberoglu, a lawyer. After 1974, the left wing youth that graduated from the Turkish universities and returned to Cyprus got the leadership of the party by electing Ozker Ozgur, a secondary school teacher, as the president and Naci Talat Usar, a lawyer, as the secretary-general of the CTP in the 3^rd Ordinary Congress of the party in October 1976. The CTP started to have a clearly pro-Soviet stance on international affairs and it seemed to be often in agreement with the AKEL. Although the RTP was against the declaration of a separate state in 1985, it voted together with the TKP for it and in the following years adopted a more centrist policy, which led the way to the formation of a coalition government in January 1994 with the Democratic Party (splinter from the governing UBP). Mr.Ozgur became the Deputy Prime Minister, but later he lost the power struggle in the party by losing the election in the 14^th Extraordinary Congress and leaving the Chair of the Party to Mehmet Ali Talat in December 1995 who formed the third CTP-DP coalition government which lasted until August 1996.     

The Communal Liberation Party (TKP) was established on 19 March 1976 just before the June 1976 elections and came out as the second largest party after the rightist National Unity Party (UBP). Alpay Durduran was the founding president who had the support of a leftist (Halk-Der) fraction in the party. In 1983 Ismail Bozkurt was elected as the President and Mr.Durduran was the Secretary for Foreign Relations. The TKP experienced a coalition government with the UBP between July 1985 and August 1986. Mustafa Akinci (TKP) was the mayor of North Nicosia between 1976 and 1990 and he was elected as the President of the TKP in 1987 to reorganize the TKP on a social-democratic line.

When Mr.Durduran and his supporters were excluded from the TKP because of ideological differences, they formed the New Cyprus Party (YKP) on 29 October 1989. The YKP was a small left wing party with about 150 members which criticized the Denktas regime sharply and spoke against the interventions of Turkey into the internal matters of the T/C community. The YKP could win only 0.87% of the votes in 1990 and 1.20% in 1993. After Mr.Ozgur and a group of his supporters left the CTP, they joined Mr.Durduran’s YKP and the name of the party was changed into the Patriotic Union Movement (YBH) on 6 September 1998. Izzet Izcan was elected as the leader. The YBH could get 2.51% of the votes in the general elections of 1998. 

Later Messrs.Izcan and Ozgur with some other supporters left the YBH to form the United Cyprus Party (BKP) on 27 September 2002. Izzet Izcan was named as the Secretary-General of the BKP which is centre-left and seems friendly with the AKEL.

            A group of Stalinists, organized around the monthly magazine “The Socialist Truth in Cyprus” which was being published since February 1996 regularly, formed their own party on 26 November 2002 with the name “Cyprus Socialist Party” (KSP) and declared Mehmet Suleymanoglu as the Secretary-General of the KSP.

            Before the general elections on 14 December 2003, the CTP convened an extraordinary congress on 10 July 2003 and changed its name to Republican Turkish Party-United Forces (CTP-BG), opening the way for some leaders of trade-unions to be candidate from the party’s list.

            The TKP, the BKP and the KSP suspended their activities and formed an election party, called “Peace and Democracy Movement” (BDH) under the leadership of Mustafa Akinci on 18 July 2003. It aimed the solution of the Cyprus problem and the EU membership of a re-united Cyprus. A liberal party was formed by the pro-EU businessmen, called “Solution and European Union Party” (CABP) under the leadership of Ali Erel, Chairman of the T/C Chamber of Commerce on 21 August 2003, which led the political group “Common Vision”.

            One has to remember also the big demonstrations of the T/C working people as an expression of their resentment to the existing regime in the occupied areas in Cyprus. First of these demonstrations was organized on 18 July 2000 by 35 organizations under the slogan of “This country is ours”. Almost 10 thousand T/C protested the arrest of some journalists from the Avrupa newspaper who were released just before the meeting. These organisations later formed the Platform “This Country is ours” with the participation of political parties, trade-unions and other professional associations. More NGO’s united to a greater grouping called “Common Vision” under the leadership of the T/C Chamber of Commerce. Both mass organizations aimed at the solution of the Cyprus problem and the EU membership. They organized four big meetings on 21 November 2002, 26 December 2002, 14 January 2003 and 27 February 2003 with the participation of tens of thousands of T/C who wanted to express their will for a quick solution to the Cyprus problem and for the EU membership. 

As the CTP wanted to exploit the mass participation at these meetings into its own electoral advantage in the forthcoming general elections on 14 December 2004, the unity of the T/C opposition was disrupted. On 10 July 2003, the CTP made some changes in its constitution and made it possible to put non-party members to its election list. The party changed its name to CTP-BG (Republican Turkish Party-United Forces). The TKP, BKP and KSP suspended their activities and united their forces on 18 July 2003 under the leadership of Mustafa Akinci by forming the BDH (Peace and Democracy Movement). The businessmen of the T/C Chamber of Commerce who helped the formation of the “Common Vision” and could not agree with the policies of the CTP, decided to form their own party called CABP (Solution and EU Party) on 21 August 2003 under the leadership of their chairman Ali Erel. All the three parties came together in September and signed a protocol in which they decided to get rid of Mr.Denktas before the negotiations restart on the basis of the Annan Plan.                

            Although the CTP complained to the Supreme Court, the TKP to the European Council and the YBH to the European Court of Human Rights about the citizenships given to the mainland Turkish settlers before the elections took place, there was no reference to this factor after the elections of 14 November 2003. Out of the 50 seats at the “TRNC” parliament, the CTP won 19 (35.18%) seats, the BDH 6 seats (14.13%). The CABP could not win any seats (1.97%) while the YBH boycotted the elections and did not participate.

The CTP forgot all its promises and did not even meet its protocol partners to review the situation after the election and formed a coalition government with Denktas Junior’s DP (7 seats with 12.93%), cooperating for the fourth time. The UBP (National Unity Party) of Dr.Dervis Eroglu, which governed the TRNC all along except a few years, formed the opposition front with 18 seats (32.93%) in the “TRNC” parliament. 

All the left wing T/C political parties today support a solution to the Cyprus problem and the EU membership within the framework of the Annan Plan. Unfortunately, no other alternative to this plan is in discussion on both sides of the partition line. The CTP is supporting more or less a liberal policy with most of the progressive T/C trade-unions under its influence. Its previous left-wing social-democratic positions are represented today by the BDH and the YBH. There is no T/C party which supports parallel policies with the G/C ones, since the re-unification under the umbrella of the Republic of Cyprus is not propagated by the T/C left-wing parties, except the YBH, some columnists and independent personalities at the moment.

It is a burning necessity to unite the Cypriots of all ethnic origin for an independent, re-united and federal Cyprus.

 

(This article was serialized in Greek language in 6 issues of the “Ex Iparhis” journal, published in Nicosia, No.47, November 2003, No.48, December 2003, No.49, January 2004, No.50, February 2004, No.51, March 2004, No.52, June 2004)