AN UNNAMED organisation in the north has threatened to take action over the jailing of Turkish Cypriot drugs smuggler Omer Tekogul.
Tekogul, 42, from the mixed village of Pyla, was jailed for 10 years by the Larnaca court in March for possession of heroin. The Turkish Cypriots claim he was arrested inside the UN-controlled village where Greek Cypriot police have no jurisdiction.
Turkish Cypriot papers said yesterday that certain people had initiated a movement for the release of Tekogul and that Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash had been receiving signed and unsigned letters containing the threats.
Denktash told reporters some of the letters were signed “the organisation”.
“The state is doing whatever necessary,” Denktash said. “I do not want any incidents. Especially any incident in Pyla will only render our work very difficult.”
Denktash said he had been receiving the letters for the past 10 days. He said all asked for Tekogul’s release and contained a threat of action, which he did not specify.
“I do not know how serious the contents of these letters are,” he said. “I have given the necessary directives to our security organisations to investigate the issue. I do not know whether there is such an organisation. On the other hand it might be a serious thing.”
He said he had recognised some of the signatures on the letters and called on those persons meet with him. “Do not make the situation more difficult with the activities you intend to initiate thinking that you will be helping Tekogul,” he said in a public message to the perpetrators. “We should conduct this business through normal channels. We are not idle regarding the issue. Be patient.”
Denktash also said that writing letters claiming to take various actions was unacceptable and that there was no need for such methods.
“Tekogul was captured through a deceitful plot unacceptable to any judicial authority as a show of force to the Turkish Cypriots of Pyla and to show that the Turkish Cypriots are the source of drug trafficking in the Greek Cypriot side,” Denktash said. “He was harshly punished. We believe that such a treatment would have been invalid in any other court.”
Denktash hinted that Tekogul’s case could be taken to the European Court of Human Rights.
The papers in the north also carried reports yesterday of another Turkish Cypriot ill treated by Greek Cypriot police after he was arrested on drugs charges in 1995.
Ercan Eimez won nearly £10,000 from the Cyprus government after he took his case to the European Court of Human Rights. Eimez is filing another case to Europe because the police officers who abused him have not been punished, he told reporters in the north.
He said the case had not been closed with the compensation and criticised the Greek Cypriot side for not taking the issue further.
Shortly after Eimez was released, the two police officers were promoted. After a public outcry, their promotions were revoked but no other action was taken against them.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
