They sign as “We Are Reporting Group” . It is a citizens' initiative, involving lawyers, activists and businessmen. They claim that in the last elections of the Turkish Cypriots, in October 2020, Ankara intervened with controversial means in favor of Ersin Tatar , the leader of the National Unity Party, who was finally declared the winner of the confrontation.
It is estimated that for three whole weeks before the ballot box, a pre-election group loyal to Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay had set up in Cyprus to support Ankara's elite and to prevent, but also to intimidate Tatar's main opponents, Mustafa Akinci and Serdar Denktash .
Intervention of the Turkish secret services
In a report by the “We Are Reporting Group”, Serdar Dekdas testified that shortly before the elections, some Turkish Cypriots collected money to vote for Tatars. He also claims that Turkish secret service (MIT) officials indirectly but clearly asked him to withdraw his candidacy, while trying to intimidate his followers.
According to Denktash, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had sent a group of 27 associates to Cyprus, and a total of at least 300, possibly 400, were involved in the election campaign. “Interventions by Turkey are not new,” Hernan Eronen, one of the report's authors , told Deutsche Welle. “But this intervention takes on a new dimension when threats are made to candidates, politicians, journalists, but also to their families.”
Everyone who was asked to answer the survey questionnaire confirmed that they saw the same MIT people “at work”. “Ultimately, they helped Tatar reach a one-sided estonia,” said Hernan Eronen.
The report also contains the testimony of Pinar Barut, editor-in-chief of the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Özgür Gazete . “We heard that people from the Turkish government would come to the island for the elections and stay in a specific hotel,” she told Deutsche Welle. “They were members of the Oktay team. Observing their activity, we thought that we should inform our readers “.
Pinar Barut points out that she started coming under pressure as soon as some journalists from her newspaper immortalized in a video a meeting of the people of Ankara with Tatar associates. At first, the Turkish embassy intervened. “We learned that they were pressuring the attorney general to arrest us for disclosing state secrets, then pressuring us to reveal our sources and even sending us an ombudsman, but we refused,” she said.
After that, the ombudsman started threatening that those responsible would be arrested and held accountable for espionage, as soon as they set foot on Turkish soil. For these allegations, which are included in the 45-page report, Ersin Tatar and his office did not want to give further information to Deutsche Welle.
Interventions are a common phenomenon
Journalist Erdal Güven considers that the allegations of the “We Report Group” are true and reminds that there have always been interventions in Ankara since the elections for the leadership of the Turkish Cypriots. “These interventions were known to many, even if few dare to name them publicly,” he points out.
Ahmet Cezen, a political scientist at the University of Famagusta, stresses that Ankara is violating basic principles of international relations by interfering in the affairs of the Turkish Cypriots. “There are international treaties, which have been signed by Turkey, which is a guarantor power in Cyprus,” he said. “This means that Turkey guarantees the territorial integrity, constitutional order, security and independence of the Republic of Cyprus, which was established in 1960.”
For Cezanne, Ankara's behavior is also contradictory, as, as he says, Turkey promotes the so-called TRNC as an independent state of its own free will. “But at the same time, Ankara is constantly interfering, even in the presidential elections. This means that Ankara itself does not recognize this country as independent. How does she expect others to recognize her?
Source: Deutsche Welle
