FALLING as they did this year on the second day of Ramazan Bayram, festivities to mark the 21st anniversary of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC) yesterday were somewhat more subdued than of late.
But there are possibly other reasons why Turkish Cypriots did not turn up in droves to mark the day with flags and balloons.
“The TRNC has no future,” said Salih Erdener, a Kyrenia restaurateur who said he would not be attending anniversary celebrations yesterday.
“The TRNC can’t go on like this. Perhaps if it had been run better, and perhaps if our leaders had tried harder to get recognition, something might have come of it,” he added.
Asked how many more years the breakaway state would endure, Salih said, “It will last until the day when there’s a solution.”
Of course, ‘official’ celebrations went ahead yesterday despite such attitudes. There were the customary military drive-pasts, fly-pasts, state visitors from Turkey and speeches.
And, of course, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash pledged to continue the battle keep his breakaway state alive.
Appearing on TV, and addressing his viewers as “my enduring people,” he proclaimed: “For those who think our state does not exist, let us shout: ‘We are here. We are 21 years old, and we will continue to be here.”
Predicably, Denktash used his speech to rubbish efforts by the international community to woo the Turkish Cypriots into abandoning the breakaway state.
“They can pat us on the back and say ‘well done’ and expect us to give up protecting our rights, our state, our sovereignty, our independence. We will never give up,” Denktash said.
“We will not abandon our independence for proposals sweetened by pledges on paper,” he added.
Denktash proclaimed the Turkish Cypriot statelet in 1983 just nine years after the island was divided in 1974. It remains unrecognised by any country except its patron Turkey.
In an unveiled attack on the policies of the north’s more reconciliatory ‘government’, which sees a power-sharing agreement with the Greek Cypriots as more desirable than the continuation of the ‘TRNC’, Denktash said: “No one has the right to give up our independence in return for better days and integration with the world”.
“We want peace, but on the foundations of our state and under our flag. We want peace, but at the same time we want to protect our independence,” he added along with a pledge that Turkish Cypriots “will never accept being an appendage to the Greek Cypriot state separated from Turkey’s guarantorship”.
Denktash may have the agreement of his people on the issue of a Turkish guarantee.
Actor Yilsay Ozbudak told the Mail: “It’s not important which flag we live under: it could be the TRNC or the Cyprus Republic for all I care. The important thing is that we are free, there is no war and we don’t have to worry about the future all the time. For this I think bizonality and a Turkish guarantee is important”.
Carpenter Mesut Emre agreed, saying: “For me there are two choices: either we can return to the Cyprus Republic with our rights reinstated as in the 1960 constitution. Or we can declare the Turkish Cypriot State as in the Annan plan”. Both choices include Turkey’s guarantorship.
Despite his strong words, Denktash declared that this year’s anniversary speech would be his last as ‘president’, signalling that despite rumours to the contrary, he will not be standing as a candidate in next Aprils’ ‘presidential’ election.
“Let no one say Denktash has deserted you. I will be here among the people,” he said yesterday.
‘Prime minister’ Mehmet Ali Talat’s anniversary speech differed somewhat from Denktash’s characteristically hardline stance, focussing more on the way forward for the embattled community.
“The day when the Turkish Cypriots are repaid for decades of sweat, toil and sacrifices will be the day when they are integrated with the world,” he said on a pre-recorded message broadcast on Sunday.
“As a people who have experienced isolation we know very well that in today’s world no country, state or individual can live dislocated from the international community and the realities of the world,” Talat added, describing the Turkish Cypriots as a people “walking towards Europe”.
He remained adamant that “no benefits that come the way of our people can replace a real solution to the Cyprus problem” and that, “whatever problems our people have, they always stem from the Cyprus problem itself”.
“We must never lose the site of the need for a solution, but we should never accept living as a minority on our own lands unrecognised and distanced from the rest of the world,” he added.
