ACROSS the globe, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are formed by people who share similar interests or views and feel the need to promote them.
Their aims may range from saving threatened wildlife to protecting women from domestic violence. Some become vast organisations that operate worldwide, like Green Peace; others may have aims specific to the smallest of geographical locations. Governments, not surprisingly, do not always agree with what NGOs do or espouse.
The NGOs in northern Cyprus, however, serve another, quite separate, role.
Because the ‘TRNC’ is not recognised internationally, many links that are formed with the Turkish Cypriot community by foreign governments, intra-governmental organisations and NGOs take place through local NGOs, rather than through the ‘government’. For example, the EU’s main partner in administering and promoting trade between the north and the Republic is the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce, and not the ‘economy ministry’ of the ‘TRNC’. Similarly, teacher-training programmes are not run through the north’s ‘education ministry’, but largely through teachers unions.
Doing business in this way has been the only way in which bodies such as the EU have been able to give expert and financial support to its many projects in the north without reaping the wrath of the Greek Cypriots who would cry foul if the EU tried to hand funds directly to one of the north’s ‘ministries’.
For five years, under the leadership of former, moderate leader Mehmet Ali Talat, this state of affairs was accepted as a necessary evil. It galled political leaders that while the EU talked of funding the “competent authorities”, it contracted NGOs and companies to fix roads, telecommunication systems and sewage works, rather than to the elected ‘government’.
But that ‘government’ did nothing to prevent the funding from coming in. In fact, it was proud of the fact that the international community, and most importantly the EU with its 259 million euros to invest in the north over six years, was helping to upgrade its infirm infrastructure. Talat accepted the slur of non-recognition in the name of pragmatism and common sense.
But things have changed since then. On April 16 this year, two days before Talat was booted out of office, the ‘government’ (now UBP) published a draft law dictating how NGOs would be allowed to operate from now on.
Its publication incensed NGO workers in the north, not only because they had been working on a draft law of their own, but because the new law appeared to be little more than an attempt to curtail their activities.
Bulent Kanol is head of the Management Centre, one of the north’s largest NGOs. He told the Sunday Mail why he thinks the authorities, rather than seeking to improve and amend the associations or NGO law in the north, are simply trying to stand between international support and NGOs.
“Several years ago it was agreed by everyone that the law on associations needed updating,” Kanol says.
As a result of this perceived need, an umbrella group representing 73 Turkish Cypriot NGOs sat down with experts from the EU to draw up a draft proposal for changes in the law. The aim was that the draft as closely as possible resembled EU practices. It was then submitted to the then-ruling Republican Turkish Party (CTP) ‘government’ for appraisal.
“They said they were going to look at the draft, but it somehow just got shelved,” Kanol says. He added that when the National Unity Party (UBP) came into power in the spring of 2009, it too promised to update the law.
“We were told by the new ‘government’ that a review would be taking place soon, and that we would definitely be consulted when the review began,” Kanol said.
However, Kanol and the other NGOs were never consulted, and on April 16 this year the UBP published a “totally new” draft bill – one it had devised itself.
Human Rights lawyer and head of the Turkish Cypriot Human Rights Foundation (KTIHV) Emine Erk said that when the draft bill was first published she suspected it may have been simply “lifted” from Turkish law.
“But this was not the case. Turkey’s laws on associations have been modernised and are harmonised to those in the EU. This is completely their own product,” she said.
But NGOs in the north were not only appalled at how they had been sidelined by the authorities, but also by what had been included in the new bill.
“It has the completely wrong approach,” Erk said. “It is riddled with procedures and bureaucracy and permissions. If you want to communicate with a foreign NGO, you need to get permission first from the ‘foreign ministry’. It’s draconian.”
“They want to be more in control,” Erk said, adding that right wing administrations, like the one now in power, “have always had this paranoia about foreigners coming here and giving away money”.
The ‘government’, Erk says, ultimately fears being undermined by foreign interests that are opposed to its view of the world.
But there is also another possible explanation for the “draconian” approach, and that is that the ‘government’ might itself want to “tap into” funds coming into the north, and particularly those from the EU.
As Erk says, “Perhaps it is an attempt to have a finger in the pie and to get some of it”.
She believes, however, that such a ploy is unlikely to work because the EU could simply stop funding projects in the north if the draft law was implemented.
One reason why the EU will probably object to the draft bill is that it too has spent many valuable man-hours on devising a draft bill in co-operation with the NGOs. The second is that it could make working with Turkish Cypriot NGOs even more difficult than it already has been under the rules currently in place.
“Just count how many times you need to go to the ‘Board of Ministers’ for something,” says Greek Cypriot NGO worker Sophia Loukaides, who believes the sheer volume of bureaucracy that will need to be completed in order for NGOs to operate at all will be a “severely prohibiting factor”.
There are also “vague” clauses referring to “ethics and anything that threatens the existence of the TRNC”, which are deliberately so vague that they can be enacted arbitrarily to close down any association of NGO whose activities they find undesirable, Loukaides adds.
There is also the sense that the authorities in the north seek to keep tabs on just about everything NGOs there are doing.
“They want to know who takes part and who says what at all major meetings,” Loukaides says, adding: “It has the potential to block a lot of bi-communal activities, not least because all international NGOs that wish to work with Turkish Cypriot NGOs will have to be registered by the ‘TRNC government’. Many of them just won’t do that. I feel this can only add to the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community.”
It is expected that the bill will be presented to ‘parliament’ in the near future for ratification.
