Calling for your support and solidarity

Video:

At former Cyprus Turkish Airways workers’ protest tent
http://www.vimeo.com/26660444

http://www.vimeo.com/26640209

http://www.vimeo.com/26751915

http://www.vimeo.com/26776482

at KTAMS
http://vimeo.com/26813383

Calling for your support and solidarity

Members of political parties including YKP (New Cyprus Party), Trade Union and organization members who gathered to protest the Turkish Prime Minister R. T. Erdoğan’s visit to Cyprus has been subject to unproportional force and arbitrary arrests by police.

On 19 July 2011 at noon, hours before the arrival of Erdoğan, disturbed by the protest banner hanging in KTAMS (Cyprus Turkish Civil Servants Trade Union), the police issued an immediate search warrant. The banner had ‘you give one whereas you take five, then you talk about feeding us’ written on it. During the search, there was constant commotion and assault by the police, who seized all banners and posters that have been and would be used in the protests and strikes. During the search two people, one of which being KTAMS’s executive committee member and the other BES’s (Municipality Workers Trade Union) general secretary, have been arbitrarily arrested.

In the afternoon, the police used disproportionate force so as not to allow the protestors near the road from where Erdoğan would be passing, on his way from the airport upon his arrival. The protestors were pushed 200-300 metres away from the main road and at this time many suffered minor injuries and a protestor holding a sign that said ‘I fought in 1974, America won’ was arbitrarily arrested. It needs to be noted that those that held pro-Erdoğan and pro-Turkey banners were allowed to demonstrate near the road and at the roundabout from where Erdoğan passed.

During the evening hours, despite the peaceful nature of the demonstration, police units have raided the former Cyprus Turkish Airways workers’ protest tent where the Trade Union Platform had called for a demonstration and invited Erdoğan to talk. Police attacked the crowd, indifferent of the age and sex of the people, while they were chanting slogans and holding banners that had ‘Imam’s army shall not pass’ ‘no to imperialist siege, we want neither your money nor package nor servants’, ‘we are not toadies we are real Cypriots’ written on them. Consequently, 6 of the protesters, one of whom is member of YKP Executive Committee and another the Coordinator of Yeniçağ, YKP’s weekly newspaper, have been arbitrarily arrested, whereas 6 more have been hospitalised. Amongst those that were hospitalised include the President of KTAMS and General Secretary of KTOEÖS (Cyprus Turkish High School Teachers Trade Union) and a member of Tel-Sen (Telecommunication Workers Trade Union).

During custody although the lawyers of the 6 arrested in the evening demanded that they are taken to hospital immediately due to various injuries they were inflicted to various parts of their bodies, including their heads, before and during arrest, this was refused. The people detained were released after about20 hours and were charged with offenses of assaulting the police and preventing the police from doing their duty.

We strongly condemn the brutal force used by the police against the protestors, the arbitrary arrests, the infringement of the right to protest and the right of freedom of thought and the rise of fascism and state violence in the northern part of Cyprus.

Murat Kanatlı
Secretary General of Executive Board

22 July 2011


Statement by Güven Varoğlu, KTOS (Turkish Cypriot Teachers’ Trade Union) President
WE URGENTLY NEED YOUR SUPPORT AND YOUR SOLIDARITY!

Because of the 37th anniversary of Turkey’s military invasion on 20th July 1974, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Cyprus.
In order to protest the Turkish Republic authorities’ policies of changing the demographic, social and cultural structure of the Turkish Cypriots, people gathered together in order to make a peaceful demonstration and faced with the terror of the police. Police forces entered KTAMS building by force with the excuse of search warrant and they confiscated the pancards which protested Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Resisting this, KTAMS Organization Secretary Mr. Devrim Barcin and BES General Secretary Mrs. Ayca Soygur Cirali were arrested.
Later on, the police fiercely attacked people who were waiting on the venue of the Prime Minister of Turkey, in order to make their demonstration.
Moreover, at the “boycott tent” of the Cyprus Turkish Airlines, people again, gathered to make their peaceful demonstrations and during their meeting, the police made another brutal attack on the demonstrators accusing another pancard. KTAMS President Mr. Ahmet Kaptan, KTOEOS General Secretary Mehmet Tasker, ELSEN Administrative Board member Hasan Guneser, as well as many other demonstrators were brutally beaten. In addition, Salih Batak, Şevki Yoldaş, Nevzat Hami, Bülent Kurt, Mustafa Keleşzade and Ahmet Cenkler were arrested by the police. During the darkness of night, a pancard on the wall of the building of KTOS were taken away by the police.
This fierce and brutal attack of the police on 19th of July 2011 will be a “black day” in history. We protest these incidents and call upon to have solidarity and support in order for the Turkish Cypriots to continue their honourable struggle despite pressure and violence. We urgently need your support and solidarity.


YKP (New Cyprus Party) evaluated Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the northern part of Cyprus
“It is a tyranny in every way” report statements by Murat Kanatli, Secretary of the New Cyprus Party (YKP) who evaluated Erdoğan’s visit to Cyprus and the experiences during his visit to north Cyprus.
Kanatli, said: “This time, Erdoğan’s visit was not just a simple visit. A tyranny was experienced everywhere and in every way. There was a tyranny in the statements of Erdoğan and several other officials; there was psychological violence and threats in his words and also physical violence against the protesters. The violence was targeted towards the protesters, those who are called marginal groups; which are using their democratic rights. The violence and tyranny appeared not only in the places that Erdoğan was, but in every place in the country…”
Kanatli further said that YKP together with several other organizations will continue resisting against tyranny and violence.
Recalling the incidents which occurred during Erdoğan’s visit between the protesters and the so-called police, Kanatli condemned the incidents and stated further that violence was not only used in the streets, but also it was used in Erdoğan’s statements prior and during his visit to the island.
Saying that the statements made by Erdoğan that he will not give Morfou, Karpassia and Varosha were remarkable, Kanatli also stated that taking into consideration that even Rauf Denktas had accepted the arrangement of the 29% of the territory issue, Erdoğan is much more in favour of the non-solution in Cyprus than Denktas.
Commenting on Erdoğan’s statement that “We will not withdraw the Turkish troops”, Kanatli said that Erdoğan declares that he does not even accepts the subjects being agreed on at the negotiation table in the past. Kanatli stated further that with all these, Erdoğan admits that everything at the negotiation table is ostensive and that it is Turkey and himself that take the final decisions.
Kanatli said that these kind of provocative statements sabotage the negotiation process and called on everybody to go out in the streets and struggle for their communal existence, for peace and democracy.