Cyprus PIO: Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 17-03-21

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

[A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS

[01] Turkish Cypriot Platform calls on the Turkish voters to support "no" in the 16 April referendum

[02] Arikli claims that the Turkish settlers are not equal represented in the "institutions"

[03] "Cyprus Turkish football federation" was not invited at the Football Summit in Istanbul

[04] Survey shows "no" vote is in the lead in Turkey's referendum

[05] "A common vision for a way out of the Cyprus conundrum"

[06] Cavusoglu to hold contacts in Washington D.C

[07] Turkish-Korean consortium to build Turkey's largest solar plant

[08] Luxembourg invites Turkish banks to open branches

[09] Report: At least 4,000 foreign convicts in jail in Turkey

[10] Tolun on the occupation regime's "tourism sector"

[11] Archeological site unearthed in occupied Akanthou area

[12] Turkish Cypriot firms were represented in "The International Food and Drink Event" in London

[A] TURKISH CYPRIOT / TURKISH PRESS

[01] Turkish Cypriot Platform calls on the Turkish voters to support "no" in the 16 April referendum

The United Cyprus Party (BKP), the New Cyprus Party (YKP), the Turkish Cypriot Primary School Teachers' Trade Union (KTOS), the Solidarity organization, the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association, the Revolutionary Communist Union, the Eastern and Southeastern Cultural Association, the Free Women Academy, the Nicosia-Keryneia-Famagusta Students' Initiative, the Nicosia-Keryneia Laborers' Initiative, the Refugees' Rights Association and Cag-Sen trade union are participating in the Platform.

In statements during a press conference yesterday, Sener Elcil, general secretary of KTOS, said that Turkey has been occupying Cyprus since 1974 and added: "The developments in Turkey do not only influence the northern part of the island, they concern the future of the entire island".

Izzet Izcan, chairman of the BKP, said that fascism has risen from the dead in Turkey. "The fundamental rights and freedoms are being threatened. Our call on the voters living in this country is to vote 'no'", he added.

(I/Ts.)

[02] Arikli claims that the Turkish settlers are not equal represented in the "institutions"

Arikli argued that the YDP was established for a "just representation", adding that the political system in the "TRNC" (Translator's note: the breakaway regime in the occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus) is corrupt. It is a system, which is based on consuming than on producing. It is a system based on exploiting Turkey".

Noting that the YDP is the party of those who are victims and oppressed in the society, Arikli added that if the Turkish origin citizens are mainly within this situation in the society, then without any doubt the YDP is the party of the Turkish origin citizens (translator's note: Turkish settlers who move to the occupied area of Cyprus after the Turkish invasion to Cyprus in 1974).

Explaining that there are two reasons for establishing the party, Arikli said that the first one are the chronic problems, which cannot be solved by the political parties which have created them and the second one is the additional problems of the Turkish origin citizens, who "arrived" in the occupied area of Cyprus from Turkey after 1974.

Claiming that one of the most important problems of this segment of society is the "problem of representation", Arikli argued that this segment is not represented sufficiently at the "legislation", "executive" and "judiciary". He explained that there is not even a single "judge" or "attorney general", who is Turkish origin citizen, although there are a lot of lawyers inside this segment of society. He also argued that although this segment of society consists the 40% of the whole population in the occupied area of Cyprus, it can only be represented the maximum with two "deputies" in the "parliamentary".

Noting that since 2003 only three political parties – CTP, UBP, DP - have been in power, Arikli claimed that these parties do not have differences in mentality or ideology and noted that their mentality is based on how they will exploit Turkey.

(DPs)

[03] "Cyprus Turkish football federation" was not invited at the Football Summit in Istanbul

The paper reports that three days passed regarding the agreement of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), which had participated at the UEFA regional meeting in Cyprus, with the Cyprus Football Association (CFA) for the candidacy for the UEFA Executive Committee. The paper further writes that at the Football Summit, which was held this time in Istanbul, the "TRNC" and the "Cyprus Turkish football federation (KTFF)" was not invited again.

Neither the chairman of "KTFF" Hasan Sertoglu nor the Turkish Cypriot Football Clubs Union was invited at the summit, which was inaugurated by Turkey's President Erdogan.

(DPs)

[04] Survey shows "no" vote is in the lead in Turkey's referendum

The number of the registered voters inside and outside the country is 58 million 266 thousand 349 persons. The number of those who said that they would not vote reaches 9 million 905 thousand 279 persons.

If those who said that they would not go to the ballot boxes are persuaded to vote, the percentage of the "no" votes will increase to 53,9% and the "yes" vote will remain to 46,1%. According to the survey, 68,5% of those who will not go to the ballot boxes said that they would vote "yes" if they went. 57,5% of those who will not vote described themselves as "social democrat", 67% as "Ataturk supporter", 32% as "secularist", 29% as "Turkish nationalist", 25% as "democrat", 16% "conservative" and 12% "religious".

The survey was conducted during the period November-December 2016 and January-March 2017.

(I/Ts.)

[05] "A common vision for a way out of the Cyprus conundrum"

"Since the start of the last round of Cyprus peace negotiations in May 2015, the two leaders have reached significant convergence on many aspects, and in fact came very close to an overall settlement regarding the internal aspects of the Cyprus problem. The lingering issue that remains is without a doubt the external security and the involvement of the three guarantor powers – Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Given the many high profile public statements on the issue of security and guarantees, designing a formula that would satisfy the five parties – i.e. the three guarantors and the two Cypriot sides – is certainly a difficult diplomatic endeavor. But it is possible so long as the formula is carefully drafted based on an objective, realistic, and pragmatic analysis.

However, so far the positions of the relevant sides - especially the two "motherlands," Greece and Turkey - have been rather maximalist. Until now, each side has engaged in positional bargaining and stuck to their respective opening position in the negotiations. On one side, high ranking Greek officials, such as Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias, have repeatedly publicly stated that Greece does not accept any guarantees. In other words, Greece wants to abolish the Treaty of Guarantee and the Treaty of Alliance. On the other side, Prime Minister Binali Y?ld?r?m and other Turkish officials do not refrain from stating repeatedly that Turkey would not accept any solution without its "effective and de facto" guarantee rights.

The key to solving the security and guarantees issue is to first look at security from a holistic perspective and second, to start designing a solution for the security issue with a common vision that would be endorsed by all the relevant parties involved in the Cyprus conflict. In other words, a holistic security understanding will move the parties away from the hard power oriented win-lose formulation, and open the way for win-win formulations on the security architecture of the future united federal Cyprus.

Combining this holistic perspective of security with a "common vision," is the ideal formula towards both a settlement and consolidated peace on the island. This common vision should aim to create the right institutions in the future united federal Cyprus with the capacity and the resilience to deal with its security problems by itself. The vision should be to create a resilient, united federal Cyprus that would not need any external security-related assistance, unless in cases of an existential threat from the outside.

Our research shows that the Greek and Turkish Cypriots hold opposite views – that is, they are polarized on hard security issues, such as on the matter of troops and guarantees (intervention rights). While the majority of Greek Cypriots do not accept Turkish unilateral intervention rights and Turkish troops on the future united Cyprus federation, the majority of Turkish Cypriots state that they would not accept a federation without some sort of Turkish guarantees (intervention rights) and presence of some number of Turkish troops.

However, the research conducted shows that the security needs and fears of the two communities in Cyprus are not limited to hard security concerns, but also include those related to justice, functionality of the state, economic security, and gender security.

This in fact, highlights the significance of the transitional period in safeguarding the sustainability of an overall settlement. The more self-confident the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities feel about transitional period arrangements, the more secure they will feel about the feasibility and the stability of the overall settlement.

Addressing broader, non-traditional security requires endogenous resilience and internal security mechanisms that are built in the new federal state.

In this way, the focus would be shifted away from zero-sum (win-lose) security narratives to common security needs. It is known that these narratives are fed from historical traumas and fears, whereas common security needs entail preventative measures that can yield more convergences between the two communities. Endogenous resilience should be built through effective and efficient public institutions that can foster civil loyalty and hence, ensure the sustainability of a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus".

* Prof. Dr. Ahmet Sozen is Director of Cyprus Policy Center and a faculty member in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the illegal "DAU" "university".

[06] Cavusoglu to hold contacts in Washington D.C

According to the statement, it is planned that Cavusoglu will hold bilateral talks with U.S. officials in Washington, speak at a think-tank conference and meet with American media representatives between March 21 and 22.

The meeting of coalition Foreign Ministers and senior leaders will be the first full meeting of the 68-member coalition since December 2014.

However, the gathering will not include Russia, Iran and Syria.

Ministers are expected to discuss the U.S.-led anti-Daesh coalition's efforts against the terror group as well as the coalition's next moves amid Daesh's retreat in both Syria and Iraq. (…)

[07] Turkish-Korean consortium to build Turkey's largest solar plant

The Head of the tender commission and undersecretary of the Energy Ministry, Abdullah Tancan, announced that the consortium offered the best bid with 6.99 cents per kWh at the end of the tender, which was held at the Ministry in Ankara.

The tender was conducted in a reverse auction and the ceiling price per megawatt was set at $0.08.

In statements on the issue, Energy Minister Berat Albayrak said that the investment volume of the 1,000 megawatt (MW) solar power plan would exceed $1.3 billion, describing the tender "revolutionary" for Turkey's energy sector and "a highly crucial turning point in renewable energy."

Albayrak also noted that a similar tender would be held in wind energy in the upcoming months.

Turkey plans to supply most of its energy needs from domestic resources and has held its first auction for renewable energy resources for 1,000 megawatts of installed capacity along with a production factory for photovoltaic equipment.

The tender requested locally produced equipment to be used and stipulated that local engineers should constitute 80% of employment in the project.

Kalyon Holding Energy Group President Murtaza Ata said that the project was key on the road to minimizing Turkey's dependency on foreign sources in energy.

"This is not about building a power plant, but also boosting indigenous production in this field. It makes us very excited to create technologies which have not existed within Turkey," he said, as reported by Reuters.

A photovoltaic equipment production factory, which will produce the equipment for the Karap?nar YEKA power plant, will be constructed in the following 21 months after the signing of its tender agreement, as reported by state-run Anadolu Agency.

The solar project in Karap?nar will meet the energy needs of more than 600,000 households and will create around 1,500 new jobs, according to energy officials.

[08] Luxembourg invites Turkish banks to open branches

"We are a significant finance center but there is no Turkish bank in Luxembourg," Schneider said in a Turkey-Luxembourg Joint Economic and Trade Committee meeting in Istanbul.

Schneider added that the trade volume between the two countries was short of its potential and ways should be sought to increase this.

"As a successful country in the logistics sector, we want to establish a solid line and relation in logistics. There are many opportunities to take the situation further. Our national air cargo company is also promoting its activities in Turkey," the Minister added.

Recalling the significance of stability and predictability in investment, Schneider said that people wanting to invest more in Turkey had adopted a "wait and see" strategy. "We are sure that the difficult period between Europe and Turkey will normalize in the following months," he added.

Also, Turkey's Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci in his turn said that the current bilateral trade volume of $200 million did not reflect potential dealings.

"We want to increase it immediately," Zeybekci said, adding that the trade volume might swiftly reach $1 billion in the future.

Luxembourg has $9-billion-worth of direct investments in Turkey; the number of Luxembourgish companies in Turkey is 460.

Zeybekci stated further that 29 Turkish companies had invested $1.2 billion in Luxembourg. Recalling significant export activities in the two countries' relations, Zeybekci said there was a great opportunity for Turkey's Eximbank to receive finance from Luxembourg.

[09] Report: At least 4,000 foreign convicts in jail in Turkey

The foreign convicts are convicted of crimes including prostitution, robbery, hijacking, printing and transferring counterfeit money, drug and human trafficking.

According to the general directorate of prisons and detention houses data, there are at least 197,000 criminals in jail, 4,000 of whom are foreigners.

A majority of the foreign convicts are reportedly Syrians, of whom there are currently 3 million living in Turkey. Istanbul tops the list of provinces where most crime is committed, followed by Bursa, Antalya, Izmir, Kocaeli, Sakarya and Ankara.

(…)

[10] Tolun on the occupation regime's "tourism sector"

According to Tolun, there is a great demand by Turkish investors for investments in the construction sector and especially for bulding new "universities", "hospitals" and hotels.

Tolun further added that many artists, academicians and businessmen are interested to buy residences in the "TRNC".

Tolun further referred to the problems exist in the "tourism sector" in the occupied area of Cyprus and stressed the need for the "government" to implement a stable policy on the "tourism sector". Pointing out that the number of tourists in the free areas of the Republic of Cyprus is much more comparing with the "north", Tolun recalled the "draft bill" they had sent to the "ministry of finance" for the establishment of a "tourism organization" and claimed that if this "bill" is approved, stability in the "sector" will be achieved.

(AK)

[11] Archeological site unearthed in occupied Akanthou area

Tufan Erhurman, chairman of the Republican Turkish Party (CTP), has recently visited the area, inspected the works and was briefed regarding the archeological park which will be constructed there.

(I/Ts.)

[12] Turkish Cypriot firms were represented in "The International Food and Drink Event" in London

The firms represented the occupation regime in the fair as "north Cyprus" with their own stand, which promotes and offers to the visitors several local products such as lemonade, coffee, citrus fruits e.t.c

The fair will close tomorrow, writes the paper.

(AK)

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(AK/ AM)

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