Support of Environmentalists to Sener Levent – Call to the Government to denounce the decision of the Turkish court – Turkey “treats the Turkish Cypriots as its vassals”
The Environmental Movement – Citizens' Cooperation expresses its full support to his friend and fellow competitor, as he calls him, Senre Leventafter the decision of a court in Ankara to sentence him to a six-month prison term for two of his articles.
“The independence of the Judiciary, a basic principle of its operation in democratic regimes, is a luxury in dictatorial regimes. Therefore, the recent conviction of the activist Cypriot journalist Sener Levent by a court in Ankaranot surprising, not least because it wasn't the first. The thread for the new conviction goes back to 2018 and the publication in the newspaper “Afrika” of two articles entitled “We and the Kurds” and “Zorba the Cypriot” (see GTP Overview, 23.8.2024)”, says in a statement of the Movement.
- Sener Levent was sentenced to six months in prison in Ankara for two of his articles
He points out that this news expression of authoritarianism from Ankara, against the Turkish Cypriot community under direct occupation, comes to be added to others that preceded it such as the ban on entry into Turkey to “undesirable” Turkish Cypriots. In this way, he adds, the occupying country shows that it has other ways, besides the presence of the occupying troops and the guidance of a regime directly accountable to it, to impose its will on the Turkish Cypriots by extortion.
“The Environmental Movement – Citizens' Cooperation we express our full support to our friend and fellow competitor Sener Levent and our support in his difficult struggle which seems to be expressing more and more Turkish Cypriots. We call on the Cypriot Government to denounce the decision of the Turkish court which has illegally convicted a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus. The decision of the Turkish court is yet another provocative policy statement that Turkey does not recognize the existence of the Republic of Cyprus and treats the Turkish Cypriots as its subjects”.
What does he have to say about this Mr. Fidan who will be in front of the European Ministers of Foreign Affairs on August 29, asked the Movement concluding.
