If we haven't given up on Cyprus... Where is this state?!

While the government and its partners have declared war on "internal enemies" on all fronts, we have become unable to look at what is happening on the front of external enemies.

You may remember retired Staff Sergeant Oktay Yıldırım, a war veteran who spent exactly 7 years in Silivri during the Ergenekon conspiracy. In a conversation we had recently, he made this interesting analogy because he fought against terrorism for many years:

"Before an operation, we would throw smoke bombs to distract the terrorists and prevent them from seeing their surroundings. The situation in our country is the same right now. What is happening is like throwing consecutive smoke bombs; they want to make us unable to see our surroundings."

While Ümit Özdağ, Ekrem İmamoğlu, municipal employees, and students are being arrested, and the appointment of a trustee to the CHP is being discussed, what are some of the things happening around us that we are failing to see?

Greece, in this year's commemorations of the March 25 "independence anniversary," which symbolizes the bloody rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in 1821, leveled up and paved the way for students of the Naval Academy to curse Turkey and chant the slogan "Cyprus is Greek."

After this scandal, other leaked footage showed Greek soldiers singing songs about wanting to drink the blood of Turks, Albanians, and Kosovars in the mountains, and making threats to occupy Cyprus and Macedonia and turn Hagia Sophia back into Greek territory.

While the Greek government acted as if nothing happened, our government's media practically acted as their defense attorney, claiming that "an investigation has been launched and disciplinary penalties will be given to the infantrymen involved in the incident."

Some writers also gave advice to Greece, asking, "Athens should look into whether the far-right has infiltrated the Greek Army and police. The influence of the fascist ELAM in Southern Cyprus on military schools in Greece should be investigated," and asked whether the capillaries of that parade extended to "Southern Cyprus and ELAM"!..

Let us recall Ankara's attitude.

While officials respond to the slightest word directed at Erdoğan, not a single voice was raised against these insults directed at Turkey. Only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Defense sources made ordinary statements.

Thank God, TRNC Assembly Speaker Ziya Öztürkler said, "Cyprus has never been Greek, and we will not allow it to become Greek... Turkey's guarantee and the Turkish soldier are our red lines," and our hearts cooled down a little.

EOKA IN GREEK SCHOOLS

A few days after that incident, we heard that an organization similar to EOKA, which carried out massacres against Turks in the past and later became a party under the name "ELAM," had been established in the Greek Cypriot side. It was reported that the organization, which calls itself the "revolutionary freedom fighters movement," was founded on the 50th anniversary of our Cyprus Peace Operation last July, launched a "struggle for liberation in Cyprus," and made references to the Morea rebellion.

April 1 was the 70th anniversary of the start of armed actions by this EOKA terrorist organization. Celebrations were held in the Greek Cypriot side, and children marched with EOKA and Greek flags. Cyprus was shown inside the Greek flag. Speaking in front of a Greek flag during the celebrations, Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides said, "It is an honor for me to attend the anniversary of EOKA's founding. Cyprus is still divided due to the Turkish occupation... We must tell and teach our children and the new generation about EOKA's struggle."

Let us assume that Ankara ignores and turns a deaf ear to these scandals because we do not recognize the Greek Cypriot side. But what happened in the Greece of Erdoğan's "friend" Mitsotakis?

While our Minister of National Education Yusuf Tekin is doing his best to open the Halki Seminary, which the imperialists are breathing down our necks about, Greek Minister of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports Sofia Zacharaki issued a circular on March 31 and decided that April 1 should be celebrated in Greek schools for the first time.

In Minister Zacharaki's circular titled "Events to commemorate the beginning of the national liberation struggle of Cypriot fighters (1955-1959) on April 1 in the country's schools"; it was requested that "events be organized to commemorate the designation of April 1 as the national anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus," and in this context, "two hours of the curriculum be devoted to activities such as screenings, reports, and speeches to inform and raise awareness among students about the history of the Hellenic world."

The circular also emphasized that "thanks to these events, high school students will have the opportunity to get in touch with Cypriot history and culture, and to raise awareness about the national effort for the liberation of Cyprus, which is the ancient cradle of Hellenism and which has preserved its identity intact and unchanged for centuries despite geography, history, and so-called conquerors."

Our government's media again took it upon themselves and said, "This decision by Greece caused a reaction"; but for some reason, it did not write about who in Ankara showed what kind of reaction!..

Greek soldiers cursing Turkey on March 25... The commemoration of EOKA on April 1... What happened in between?

On March 27; Greek Education Minister Zacharaki, who issued that EOKA circular, came to "Constantinople," that is, Istanbul, freely... She exchanged views on "important issues of common interest such as education" with Bartholomew, the Archbishop of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is a Turkish institution according to the Treaty of Lausanne, with the title of "Ecumenical Patriarch." She talked about the teachers sent to schools in "Constantinople and Imbros (Gökçeada)"...

Come and ask, "Could Zacharaki have informed Bartholomew about the EOKA circular she would issue five days later?"

These open hostilities towards the TRNC and Turkey probably have no value; the day after the EOKA celebrations, TRNC President Ersin Tatar met with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides in the buffer zone... Our Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also met with his Greek counterpart at the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels and discussed "relations between the two countries and regional developments"!..

A FRIENDLY STAB

Before coming to the biggest scandal, let's refresh our memories a bit.

In 2004, when the AKP brought Turkey into the EU (!) with fireworks, it was made a condition that we sign the Customs Union Additional Protocol to include the new members. This meant that we had to recognize the Greek Cypriot side, which they call the "Republic of Cyprus." While the Prime Minister of the time, Erdoğan, was threatening to veto, a commitment was made with the signature of State Minister Beşir Atalay that "we will sign the additional protocol."

Let's not prolong it; this project could not be implemented due to the reaction of the opposition and national forces. Afterwards, Turkey-EU relations were suspended due to the vetoes of France and the Greek Cypriot side. But the US and the EU never gave up on the "Republic of Cyprus" plan and continued to demand that our guarantee end and the Turkish soldier withdraw from the Island.

The government, after deciding to be "national and local," began to call for the recognition of the TRNC. In this context, the TRNC was made an observer member of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).

While we have been waiting for years for Azerbaijan, with whom we are "two states, one nation," or other members of the OTS to recognize the TRNC, what happened to us?

Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan quietly and consecutively appointed ambassadors to the Greek Cypriot Administration, meaning they recognized the Greek Cypriot side!..

We are not talking about so-called friends under US influence like Qatar or the United Arab Emirates, but countries we consider true friends in the Turkic world.

And Erdoğan, in his Eid al-Fitr diplomacy, also met with the leaders of these countries and celebrated their holidays.

Our curiosity is this:

Did those three countries notify Ankara that they had decided to recognize the Greek Cypriot side, and if they did, what was the response given to them?!

Or did they lose hope in Turkey and not even feel the need to inform us? If so, where did our "world leader country" image go?!

Look at the situation, TBMM Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, who says, "The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus exists and will continue to exist until doomsday," went to Uzbekistan with a large delegation to attend a series of meetings in such an environment and ordered, "We must increase cooperation as the Turkic world," but did not say a single word about this attitude of our "friends" regarding Cyprus.

Moreover, a newspaper of the government presented this operation carried out by the EU in the Turkic world as an "EU opening to Central Asia," is that good?!

Thank goodness, our colleague Sabahattin İsmail, the tireless defender of our Cyprus cause and former advisor to the late Baba Türk Rauf Denktaş, named this "opening" and revealed that "brotherly countries sold the TRNC for 12 billion dollars."

One question to those who turn the country upside down while talking about "state wisdom" and "survival":

If we haven't given up on Cyprus, where is this state?!

Müyesser YILDIZ

April 7, 2025