A life dedicated to the Cyprus cause!

Today is the anniversary of the passing of Rauf Raif Denktaş, the Founding President of the TRNC and the greatest leader the Turkish nation has seen since Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

I had the chance to meet with him dozens of times from 1991, when I began my career in journalism, until his passing.

I conducted numerous interviews. I was present at the official and private dinners he hosted for journalists arriving from Turkey. In all of these, I learned a great deal about diplomacy, recent history, and even human relations, as much as I did about the Cyprus issue.

He would not throw the ignorance of fresh reporters who found the opportunity to ask him questions in their faces; instead, he would explain the Cyprus issue with the demeanor of a teacher, calmly, or as the fashionable term of recent times goes, “as if explaining it to Bilal.” Moreover, he never resented this. According to Denktaş, the more someone knew, the more they could contribute to the national cause.

He had three versions of the Cyprus issue that he would explain to those who came to visit him. The long one started from 1571, when Cyprus was conquered. The second version came from the leasing of the island to the British following the 1877-78 Ottoman-Russian War to the present day. The third version covered the period after the 1959-60 London and Zurich Agreements.

Depending on how interested the person was, Denktaş would explain it patiently, tirelessly, and clearly. I believe that most Western diplomats learned the Cyprus issue from Denktaş.

To me, besides being a statesman, he was a magnificent leader of opinion. His outlook on life was focused on struggle and achieving results. Even if he retreated in any “positional warfare,” he was a man of the cause who could not be mentally captured. He had dedicated everything to this cause. I remember him saying once, “I sacrificed my son for Cyprus.” It was no secret that the death of his eldest son, Raif, who he lost in a traffic accident in 1985, was suspicious. But hearing it from his own lips affected me very deeply.

I last met him shortly before he left office. Beyond the weight of all those years, he was saddened by not having been able to sufficiently explain what kind of trap was being set for both the Turkish Cypriot people and Turkey with the Annan Plan.

He did not get angry at the “yes be annem” (yes, my mother) supporters who advocated for unification with the Greek Cypriots; on the contrary, he pitied them. They did not know what it meant to have an independent homeland.

After the political Islamists came to power in Turkey in 2002, they had written off Denktaş. At that time, the AKP needed the support of Western-collaborator “intellectuals” to hold onto power, and the political support of the EU and the US to gain legitimacy.

To gain this support, they did not hesitate to put Denktaş in their crosshairs. I personally witnessed how Denktaş was worn down both politically and as a human being.

When Abdullah Gül was Minister of Foreign Affairs, he told the journalists waiting for him at the door of the Ministry, “Enough is enough, we have to save Cyprus policy from Denktaş's monopoly.”

What was truly sad was that those who talk big about nationalism today did not stand up for Denktaş at all during that period.

I also witnessed diplomats who, after retiring, found a place in the opposition camp, but who, while in authorized and influential positions at that time, immediately fell into line with the AKP after the 2002 elections and looked down on a hero like Denktaş and tried to give him orders.

Denktaş literally hated political Islamists and saw the AKP as the greatest misfortune to have befallen Turkey. But he thought that this period was temporary for both Turkey and the TRNC, and he believed that reason would sooner or later prevail among the Turkish people.

Although he was the leader of right-wing politics in Cyprus for years, I had asked him several times openly where he stood on the political spectrum. Because AKP supporters and the Western-collaborator crowd, who tried to pass off identity politics as democracy, could easily accuse Denktaş of being a “fascist.”

But Denktaş saw himself on the left of the political spectrum.

He had openly said, “I am a social democrat.”

Being a social democrat did not prevent him from defending his national cause to the end.

I know that he spoke with many foreign journalists throughout his life. There was almost no foreign colleague of mine who met with him and was not impressed.

There is probably no one else who could explain the Cyprus cause better with his magnificent English spoken with a Cypriot accent. Even Richard Holbrooke, the golden boy of US diplomacy at the time and the so-called architect of the Bosnian peace, was left speechless in front of Denktaş.

Former President Derviş Eroğlu was by Denktaş's side in the moments he passed away. In an interview I conducted while working at Cumhuriyet newspaper, I had asked him to describe those moments in order to record them in history. I remember the tears falling from my eyes onto my notebook as Derviş Eroğlu spoke.

With his photography, his jokes, his attachment to life, and more importantly, his dedication to the Cyprus cause, he will remain in the most exceptional corner of our memories and our hearts.

I remember him with respect and gratitude.