Ersin Tatar, candidate of the traditional right wing Ulusal Birlik Partisi — Nationalist Union Party -(UBP) won the 18th October Presidential election in Northern Cyprus with 51.69% after Turkey intervened in the electoral process. However, the victory was marginal since, even after threats to himself and his voters, Mustafa Akinci received 48.31% of the votes, and a mass movement has been re-ignited against Turkish intervention.
Akinci — the only elected official in North Cyprus openly challenging the Turkish regime.
Mustafa Akinci, a moderate social democrat who speaks in favour of a federation on the island, was elected in 2015 with 60,5% of the vote, the largest share for any candidate on either part of the island (except Archbishop Makarios, the first President of the Republic of Cyprus and Rauf Denktaş, the first president of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Although standing as an independent, he came from the left-leaning Toplumcu Democracy Partici — Communal Democracy Party — (TDP), formerly the social democratic Toplumcu Kurtulus Partisi — Communal Liberation Party — (TKP). In 2015 he won the election with the support of the Turkish-Cypriot left and trade unions. Then, his victory was met with great enthusiasm in both north and south. Within a week of being elected, he was in conflict with the Turkish government as he called for Turkey to cut their funding to North Cyprus.
On several occasions he has disagreed with the Turkish government, something no other President in the North has dared to do. From the first day after his election, he stressed his goal was to achieve independence for the Turkish Cypriot community, describing this as a ‘brotherhood’ with Turkey, rather than the current ‘mother-child’ relationship. anymore —He stressed he would fight for a federation in Cyprus. In 2018 he compared the Turkish invasion in Syria to the invasion of Cyprus, a claim which infuriated Erdogan.
In the last round of negotiations over the national question involving him and Anastasiades, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Akinci was openly disagreeing with the Turkish government’s proposal for a two states solution. This meant that after the collapse of these negotiations in Crans Montana in 2017, the Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot ruling elites sought to change who represented their interests in the negotiations.
The discovery of natural gas in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the Republic of Cyprus has increased the interest of the Turkish regime in the area, and in the negotiations over the national question in Cyprus. Turkey has been excluded by all those deals currently made for the extraction of hydrocarbons from the Eastern Mediterranean. The response of the regime was to proceed with their own drillings and explorations accompanied by warships, and even the signing of an EEZ agreement with Libya.
The actual deposits that have, till now, been found are in the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus. Who will control these reserves and how they will be exploited, not just after, but as the Turkish and Turkish-Cypriot elite demand even before any “solution” is found, is a major issue for Turkey, so they need someone who will best serve their interests during the negotiations.
The Turkish government made it clear at the beginning of this year that it wanted Akinci out. In February, Turkish Foreign Minister Melvut Cavusoglu described him as «unreliable» after he described the prospect of a Crimea-style annexation by Turkey as “horrible.”
Turkey’s intervention on all fronts
Turkish began its open intervention in the election campaign with a provocative visit by a delegation from the Turkish government headed by Erdogan himself and the Turkish-Cypriot premier Ersin Tatar to reopen a water pipe feeding agricultural land that had been closed for repairs since January. During this, they visited Varoshi, a resort town that had effectively been closed since the Turkish invasion. This was organised without informing either the Parliament or Cabinet of Ministers, and in defiance of the Election Commission, which described the visit as infringing election rules. BRT however, the national news agency effectively controlled by the Turkish army aired live footage of the events.
The mainstream media in Turkey rarely deals with Cyprus, but now a propaganda campaign was opened against Akinci. Turkish government officials used fake arguments, claiming that Akinci is a representative of the Greek-Cypriots, preparing to sell the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC0 to them. They even published a map that supported this lie.
Turkish MPs reportedly also visited Cyprus, going from village to village to argue against Akinci, and making promises to those who agreed to vote for Tatar. These promises were said to be accompanied with bribes of 3000 Turkish lira to each voter, approximately 300 euros, or a bit more than the minimum wage. There were even threats to deport some workers of Turkish origin.
At the same time, the Turkish government released the funds it had been promising since May to open a hospital for Covid-19 patients.
Even so, Tatar, even when the votes of the centre and far-right parties were added, did not get a majority of the votes in the first round. So in the week before the second round, the pressure on Akinci supporters was stepped up. Bosses threatened voters with redundancies, forcing Akinci supporters to post support for Tatar on their social media. Even Akinci was threatened if he continued to run for the second round.
Resistance
This fear campaign definitely influenced the result, however the fact that Akinci took 48% of the votes is very significant.
Akinci was the first president, even the first politician in office, to openly report threats by the Turkish regime to make him resign his candidacy. This was seen as a very brave act, those who voted for him saw this as a sign of his determination not to give up. Almost half the population ignored the pressure and threats, and showed they are still willing to fight for freedom of speech and expression, and more, for the reunification of the island by forming a federation.
The movement
On Tuesday 10 of November 2020, thousands of people, angry at the Turkish intervention before, during and after the presidential elections, gathered in Dereboyu, a central road of north Nicosia and walked first to the Turkish Embassy and from there to İnönü Square on a demonstration organised by the “Democracy and Will” platform.
The initiative was taken by seven left-wing individuals on facebook, who decided to challenge the result of the elections. Even though the demonstration was not organised by any political party, many left parties and groups joined the demonstration.
People from every age group, children, teenagers, retired people were there, but it was the youth who very active and passionately were chanting slogans like “Ankara Take Your Hand of our neck”, “Shoulder to shoulder (we fight) against fascism”, “No obedience — freedom”,”no intervention — will”,” “We are not a province of Turkey” “we do not accept an appointed ruler” “Cyprus is secular will remain secular” “this country is ours”.
No picnic over pain
On the 15th of November, the day of the anniversary of the declaration of TRNC, Erdogan announced that he will come to Cyprus to have a picnic in Varoshi, the closed city. Special preparations were made from TRNC to welcome him, for the first time after 1974, roads and part of the infrastructure was restored in Varoshi in order to facilitate the picnic.
Organisations and parties of the left called for demonstrations in Nicosia under the slogan — No picnic over pain. One day before the demonstration the police called the organisers and announced that the demonstration on the 15th had been declared illegal for security reasons, because of the visit of Erdogan on the Island. This news didn’t stop the protests, on the contrary, brought all the parties and organisations of the left that had called for that day together. Even a group of lawyers that has never participated before in any such demonstration came, in order to support any of the demonstrators that could be arrested or harassed by the police.
The added anger caused by banning the protest was reflected in the slogans. No more were they limited to “Ankara take your hand off our neck”, now they included “stop the occupation”.
‘This country is ours’ Platform
After the recent demonstrations the Platform “This country is ours” was reformed. Almost all the left parties and organisations together with CTP and TDP, and the most militant trade unions, that have led great struggles in the past are participating. This is a very good development as for years there has been no organized coordination of all these forces. However, it is important to learn from the mistakes in the past.
The platform was first founded in 2000 against the collapse of the banking system and became the leadership of the movement that managed to overthrow Denktas, allowing for the opening of the checkpoints. However, once the CTP was elected to government in 2005, the platform stopped organizing the struggle. The CTP and TDP were in government for many years after this. However, they didn’t manage to bring any real change in the conditions of the working people or real independence from Turkey. On the contrary, they very quickly succumbed to pressure from Turkey, or showed very limited resistance, saying that there is no alternative. This time, therefore, the platform should not be just an electoral platform, demanding a change of government. It has to aim at a movement that will push any government to fulfil their demands.
The demands of the platform, 20 years after it was first founded remain the same. They are against any political intervention, no matter where it comes from, meaning either from Turkey or from the South. They specify that this also includes the economy, making a priority the struggle for financial independence, and an economy that is based on island based production within the framework of relations based on mutual respect. They fight for the reunification of the island and for a secular, independent, united federal Cyprus, under the parameters of the UN.
These demands, even in general will never be accepted by the ruling elites, whether Turkish-Cypriot, Turkish, Greek-Cypriot or Greek. It is the working people on both sides, as well as in Turkey and Greece that have nothing to lose, but have a lot to gain from recognising the right of self-determination for the Turkish-Cypriots, and a reunified Cyprus with political equality between the two communities.
It is the conflicting interests of the ruling elites, whether on the natural gas or power sharing on the island that actually prevents any solution to the national question. At the same time, in order to change the economy and production so that it serves the interests of the people working and living on the island, independent of Turkey, the European Union, the Troika or whoever tries to impose austerity policies, the movement has to have a programme for the socialist transformation of the society, allowing for the democratic planning of the economy on both sides of the island. All the above has to be discussed together with the Greek-Cypriot working people, the left, the trade unions, in a common front so they become common demands in a common struggle for the socialist transformation of all the island.
The movement in the North is re-igniting the hopes of Greek-Cypriot bi-communalists and the left. Meetings have been organised through zoom between trade unions and the left in order to discuss how they can move forward together. This is a very positive development and has to be continued and strengthened. But this movement has to unite with the movements in Greece and Turkey, to gain their support and solidarity, and to work together to build a sustainable, peaceful united, federal socialist Cyprus in a voluntary and democratic socialist federation of Europe and the whole region.
