Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades spared no effort and tried to make best use of the opportunity to close four of the seven border crossings between the southern Greek Cypriot-ruled and northern Turkish Cypriot-run parts of the island.
War is not only military confrontation: It is also about eroding the psychology of the adversary, forcing it to make wrong decisions, or pushing the public opinion of your adversary into such a psychological state of producing uncertainty and confusion while building confidence among your countrymen. Put aside adversaries or the enemies a country might be in hot confrontation with, psychological warfare might be used even among “allies” or “strategic partners” at times of economic, political, strategic and such conflict of interests.
Just few weeks ago people were sharing photographs of glasses of corona beer, joking in a joyful manner not to place the blame of the virus on the beer.
Abandoning clichés, perhaps it’s high time to focus on a key question: Who are the Turkish Cypriots? In all likelihood, the inability to reach a consensus on the precise identity of a Turkish Cypriot is one of the factors contributing to the intractability of the Cyprus problem.
Academics, former and current top bureaucrats and senior government officials from North Cyprus and Turkey met over the weekend to discuss the future of the deserted Varosha suburb of Famagusta.
A very important meeting is slated to convene in Cyprus this weekend. No, that was not the news. A very important meeting on the future of the deserted and fenced Varosha suburb of Famagusta will be held this weekend. Even that was deficient. What’s all the more important is the fact that a very high level meeting hosted by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations (TBB), participated by Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül, Turkish Cypriot deputy premier and Foreign Minister Kudret Özersay will be held in the city, a sprawling tourism center of the past that was turned into a ghost habitation since the 1974 Turkish intervention.
Over the past 41 years in journalism, I had the opportunity to follow closely not only founding President Rauf Denktaş of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), but the entire top cadre of the Turkish Cypriot resistance movement, as well as the almost all senior contributors to the evolution of the Turkish Cypriot society from a community into a nation with a state.
Is it of any use to keep asking “Why are we in Syria?” If it was a mistake or not, that’s an issue that ought to have been closed long ago. It was done. We are in Syria or Syrians are in Turkey.
The upcoming presidential vote in North Cyprus will be some sort of a referendum on what kind of a settlement Turkish Cypriots want on the island. The Turkish Cypriot electoral board has decided that the first round of the presidential vote will be held on April 26 and should none of the candidates receive more than half of the valid votes, the second round of voting will be held on May 3. With the election date coming closer, presidential hopefuls and the political parties, newspapers and businessmen supporting them have intensified efforts to sponsor public opinion polls.
