09/04/1998, I Hope You Have an Easy Time with It

[moonskin]

STATUS: IN PROGRESS

I Hope You Have an Easy Time with It
Özker Özgür, 9 April 1998

At the stage we have reached there is benefit in revealing the following communication I had received from the Turkish Embassy in Nicosia on 12 June 1989:

"Mr. Özker Özgür

Nicosia Deputy

It has been decided to terminate your right to make use of the Turkish Republic passports reserved for foreign nationals that the Turkish Republic issues as a facility to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) citizens on a discretionary basis.

I request that you expeditiously return to the Consulate Section of the Embassy the Turkish Republic passport you are holding, dated 24 October 1985 and numbered TR-A-223494, which is reserved for foreigners.

Gürsel Evren, Consular Affairs Secretary ".

Upon which I returned my passport together with the following letter to the Turkish Ambassador Ertuğrul Kumcuoğlu:

"Mr Ertuğrul Kumcuoğlu,

Turkish Ambassador to Nicosia

I thank you for the communication asking me to expeditiously return the Turkish republic passport TR-A-223494 reserved for foreigners, in which you give no reason for your action. I want to declare that you cannot suppress my freedom of thought and expression by restricting my freedom of movement. I am returning the passport in question.

Özker Özgür, CTP (Republican Turkish Party) leader ".

Though in the communication sent to me the Ambassador was not giving the reasons for his action, we all knew what they were.

I had published an article criticizing (Turkey's) population policy in North Cyprus. I had emphasized there that the lifting of restrictions (on Turkish citizens) to enter North Cyprus is forcing the Turkish Cypriots to emigrate and that Ankara does not have a right to do such a thing.

After I returned the "Turkish Republic passport reserved for foreigners", Arif Hasan Tahsin Desem also went to the Turkish Embassy and protested the incident by handing back his own similar passport.

Until January 1994 when I became Deputy Prime Minister I could only travel to Turkey by obtaining a visa from the Turkish Embassy.

In taking office, the CTP exerted efforts to bring the (Turkish citizens') inflow into the country under control. But we could neither bring this inflow under control nor find a solution to the citizenship problem. For the population policy was decided upon in Ankara and it was impossible for the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Government to change it.

Nine years have gone by since June 1989 when the Turkish Embassy in Nicosia asked for the return of the "Turkish Republic passport reserved for foreigners". After nine years, in his 4 April 1998 column, Mehmet Ali Birand, one of Turkey's known columnists, described the present situation thus: "Cyprus now faces a major danger. While the Greek Cypriots get richer and richer, the economic stagnation on the Turkish side is forcing the (Turkish) Cypriots to slowly leave the island. After finishing universities, the youth either emigrate to Turkey or, if they find the opportunity, to Europe with no intention of returning again.

In the meantime, there is a steady increase in the number of Turks from Turkey immigrating to the island as they find more opportunities there than in Turkey. (...) A day will come when a genuine Turkish Cypriot will be hard to find and the island will be filled up with Turks from Turkey".

Shall we tell Mehmet Ali Birand 'have you finally waken up to the reality?'

We have been struggling hopelessly for years, we have been crying out 'the Turkish Cypriots are on the verge of annihilation'.

Almost the whole world was about to come crushing down on us simply because we wanted the preservation of the Turkish Cypriots' existence and identity. Our voice was heard neither in Nicosia nor in Ankara.

And now, as if he has discovered America anew, Mehmet Ali Birand is saying "a day will come when a genuine Turkish Cypriot will be hard to find".

Is that not what is wanted, anyway?

The Turkish Cypriots were needed until 1974. They managed to survive until 1974. Their function came to an end with the Turkish military intervention. After that there was not so much a need for the Turkish Cypriots as for a population that could be run according to Ankara's wishes.

The sad thing in this episode is that our own politicians propped Ankara's policy. The longtime president Denktaş is famous for his statement that "those who leave are Turks, those who come in are Turks". The long-serving Prime Minister Eroğlu asserts that "his hometown is Kayseri". The Turkish Cypriots' identity is being despised. A woodcutter cuts down a forest with an ax using an ax-handle that comes from that very same forest.

Ankara's population policy is eradicating the Turkish Cypriots. Now that the eradication of the Turkish Cypriots is well under way, the integration has been placed on the agenda. Those who acted as the handle for the axe are now applauding the policy of integration.

But what is being done by those who claim to be opposed to this process? Oblivious to all this, they are taken up with the preparations for municipal elections. I hope you have an easy time with it.

[moonskin]

This article I found in the internet in English. The article did get published in the Avrupa newspaper, however, I was not able to access the original Turkish version of the article so far.