Cyprus Controversy in Parliament

The speeches of Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Deputy for Mersin, Ertuğrul Kürkçü, and Republican People's Party (CHP) Deputy of Istanbul, Şafak Pavey, came to the fore at the latest session of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) General Assembly.

Ertuğrul Kürkçü emphasized that there were two main problems in Turkey and that it was impossible to advance in any way without facing these topics. He pointed to the Kurdish question and the Cyprus issue as the two fundamental problems.

"We invaded Cyprus"

"This trouble was not brought to us by the European Union or by anybody else. It was us who went there and invaded Cyprus. Now we do not know how to withdraw our military from there", Kürkçü stated.

"We sent battalions and soldiers and tainted the geography of Kurdistan with blood from massacres in order to deny the rights of the Kurdish people. And now we do not know how to come to account with that. We should open a new debate on how to solve these problems. Otherwise, neither the European Union nor any other union can carry any importance for us. What is important for us is solving our own problems".

Kürkçü criticized the "Ankara criteria" presented by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as an alternative to the EU criteria. He also mentioned mass arrests, inequality, rights violations and restrictions of freedom. "We are right at the place where we ran aground", he concluded.

"What we see when we look at the 'Ankara Criteria' are hundreds or even thousands of detainees and convicts sentenced because of their opinions and without reasonable justification, a ten-percent election threshold, inequality and injustice suffered by children and women, the unequal distribution of income and concessions and imperial aspirations emerging as the result of all these".

When Kürkçü mentioned the "invasion of Cyprus", CHP Istanbul Deputy Mehmet Akif Hamzaçebi requested permission to speak. He said, "The intervention of the Turkish Republic in Northern Cyprus as the result of the Peace Movement in 1974and the deployment of Turkish troops was assessed as an invasion. [The military] went there with the aim to prevent deaths and killings caused by the Greeks".

Minister of EU Affairs Egemen Bağış who spoke afterwards on the ministry's budget said he found it grave to call the Turkish army the invader of Cyprus and expressed his sorrow about the situation.

"People were proud of Dersim in the 1930s"

Kürkçü on the other hand reminded the Resolution of the United Nations Security Council in response.

"I am sorry that the minister feels sorry but it was good if he did not feel that sad just because of my words since these words can be heard at all international forums. Resolution No.550 of the United Nations Security Council reads, 'The Security Council is gravely concerned about the further secessionist acts in the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus which are in violation of resolution 541(1983), namely the purported "exchange of Ambassadors" between Turkey and the legally invalid "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" and the contemplated holding of a "Constitutional referendum" and "elections", as well as by other actions or threats of action aimed at further consolidating the purported independent state and the division of Cyprus'"

"A certain part of the people in Cyprus thinks likewise. I invite everybody to remember now the debate on history that we should have had long before instead of proudly speaking here".

Kürkçü also referred to the "Apology for Dersim" by the prime minister and asked, "Who knows how proud the ministers were at the time in Dersim in the 1930s?"

"But now the Prime Minister apologizes on behalf of the ministers of the time. Maybe the Cyprus Operation will be evaluated differently in terms of Turkish history and world history in the future. Then, there will be the need to resort to the Resolution of the UN Security Council and to people who think like me. That is why these opinions are a real shame if they will not be said under the roof of this parliament. This is the place to discuss this issue".

"Government does not approach EU upon values of humanity"

CHP Istanbul Deputy Pavey said in her speech that human values have not met EU standards during the term of the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Pavey indicated that approaching the EU was not considered upon a human axis but upon the ideological benefit since investing in religion brought more votes than advocating for people or nature.

"The government wants us to become a part of the EU just as we are. In other words, the government does not want us to become a part at all. Making laws that are not able to find a response in society is not Renaissance. Real reforms mean to transform the laws according to social values. If the law you made is not being recognized by the society, you do not want to enforce that law".

"There are policies that annul each other and go into different directions. (...) While the first signature under the Declaration on Violence against Women was boasted, the so-called N.Ç Decision was upheld by the Court of Appeals the same day. Another item has been added to the archive of values of humanity that have not been applied.

Related to Cyprus, Pavey said, "Cyprus is the most important key to open our deadlock". (IC/VK)