A TURKISH Cypriot writer has come under repeated attack by racist, nationalist and sexist elements in the north after writing a book on a love affair between a Greek Cypriot man and a Turkish Cypriot woman.
The European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) yesterday strongly condemned the repeated threats and intimidation of Nese Yasin, author of the book Secret History of Sad Girls.
“In a split country like Cyprus, we cannot accept that authors and journalists writing about tolerance and cultural dialogue are threatened and intimidated,” said EFJ General Secretary Aidan White. “Press freedom is seriously challenged by this recent development and we can not tolerate intolerance,” he added.
After the book was published in 2002, Yasin became the subject of abuse by ultra-nationalist media in the north and Turkey, more specifically the ultra-right wing newspaper Volkan, which accused her of being a “traitor and a prostitute”.
Yasin told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that backlash to the book had intensified recently, with public comments against her turning into a form of “very open and vulgar sexual harassment”.
“They take extracts from the novel, select them out of context, then distort and present them as part of an autobiography, transforming them into instruments of sexual harassment,” said Yasin, a writer, poet and academic, working for the Turkish Studies Department of the University of Cyprus.
“This harassment has been ongoing for years. When former mayor Kutlai Erk gave the book as a present to schools, the nationalists wanted to attack him for giving ‘pornographic’ material to children. When the Turkish press wrote about it, I got two emails from Turkey threatening me with sexual violence,” said Yasin.
“With Volkan it was more like a social lynching. They would put my photo in the paper and then create an image of me like I was a traitor and a prostitute, as if saying you can do anything you want to her,” she added.
Initially, Yasin did not wish to take a stand against the threats in fear that it would make her more of a victim but the attacks have reached such levels that she now plans to take Volkan to court.
Four weeks ago, Yasin’s brother, also a poet, won a court case against the newspaper for comments made against him. “Since then, they want to take revenge on me. When referring to me they talk about my life, my ‘love affairs’ with Greek Cypriot men and how I will star in the film of the novel while the Greek Cypriot man will be played by the President of the Journalists’ Union,” she said.
“I get a lot of support from the Turkish Cypriot community, Turkish feminist groups and from [Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali] Talat, who spoke out for me and was later criticised in Turkey for doing so. But I feel bad. It feels as if I am experiencing sexual attacks and somebody is watching it.”
Although the hard-line paper has a small circulation in the north, it has the backing of the deep state and the army in Turkey, noted Yasin.
“Rauf Denktash is a columnist for them. His old consultants also write for the paper while one of them is the editor. They are running a campaign of psychological violence against me and I believe they are ordered to do this, to attack people who are pro-peace.
“If the protagonist was a Turkish Cypriot man falling in love with a Greek Cypriot woman, things would have been different. They find it unacceptable that it’s a woman. And because I am a woman, they want to enjoy sexually harassing me,” she said.
Regarding the subject of controversy, Yasin said the book was defined by a “language of innocence”.
“It’s narrated by a Turkish Cypriot adolescent who tells stories to a Greek Cypriot man of the recent history of Cyprus. It’s a political allegory with strong criticism of nationalism,” she added.
Yasin is most known for the poem, popularised by Marios Tokas in a song which goes: “My father says love your country. My country is divided into two. Which part should I love?”
Meanwhile, Volkan showed its dark side in yet another incident. Ibrahim Aziz who wrote an article in Afrika about the recent death of a Greek Cypriot businessman in a Turkish Cypriot jail was threatened that he would have “his legs and hands broken” if he crossed to the north again.
