THREE Turkish nationals jailed for illegally crossing into the Republic of Cyprus yesterday told a judge that they did because they were curious to see what a European state looked like.
Their line of defence was presented to the amused judge by the men’s defence lawyer during sentencing yesterday.
Ankara residents Unsal Yilmaz, 50, Baskin Kocyigit, 28, and Timur Erkan, 33, attempted to cross into the south on July 14 this year, along with 29-year-old Enver Mamulcu, a confectionary shop owner from occupied Nicosia.
All four men were arrested at the Ayios Dometios checkpoint after Mamulcu presented Greek Cypriot customs officers with three Turkish Cypriot ID cards.
When one of the officers noticed that there were four men altogether, he got suspicious and told them to get out of the car.
It was then that he noticed that pictures on the ID cards didn’t match the faces of some of the men who were in the car.
They were immediately arrested.
Yesterday, all three Turkish nationals pleaded guilty to several charges of illegal entry on the island and identity fraud.
Mamulcu also pleaded guilty to aiding foreigners to cross illegally into the Republic.
Pleading with the judge to show leniency yesterday, defence lawyer Mentes Aziz said Mamulcu had brought Yilmaz, Kocyigit and Erkan into the south to show them what a European state looked like.
“I plead with the court not to look at these men as asylum seekers. These men are businessmen from Ankara who had visited the north and were curious to see what a European state looked like. They had heard all about Cyprus and how it had joined the EU but were unaware of the political situation here with regards to crossing over.
“So the first defendant [Mamulcu] decided to bring them into the free areas so that they could go out for a night on the town and for something to eat.”
Aziz told the court that all four men were married with two children each and that the men from Turkey were also hoping to find some business partners in the south when they had attempted to cross over.
The defence lawyer also brought laughter from the court when he added, “The men from Turkey now know that they are in a European state because the cells that they have been in have air conditioning. And they told me that they don’t even have air conditioning units in their homes.”
Sentencing all three men yesterday, Judge Lemonia Kaoutzani said: “The defendants from Turkey may well have not known about the political situation here but the first defendant, being a Turkish Cypriot, does. The blames therefore has to lie on him.”
The judge then told the defendants that there were other ways to visit the Cyprus if they had indeed wanted to see a European state.
“There are plenty of perfectly legal ways to visit the island if they were curious to see Cyprus. I fail to see how the only way they could see Cyprus is by entering the island illegally and forging their identities.”
Judge Kaoutzani then sentenced each of the men to 45 days’ imprisonment starting from the day that they were remanded on July 15.
