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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is set to travel to the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on Monday for a two-day official visit. He has said he will deliver good news in the breakaway state.

But the visit could also further stoke tensions with Greek Cypriots and the European Union over the divided Eastern Mediterranean island, already high over Turkish ambitions in the region and its support for a two-state solution to the Cyprus dispute.

On Tuesday, Erdogan will attend an event marking the 47th anniversary of Turkeys military intervention seen as an invasion by Greek Cypriots on the island and will address the Northern Cyprus parliament in a special session.

I hope we will give messages in the best manner possible for the establishment of the world peace for the island and the whole world through the ceremonies [in Northern Cyprus], he said in remarks on Friday.

We have a good step. We have finished the preliminary studies, the Turkish president said, without giving any further details on the issue.

The island of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey militarily intervened in response to a brief Greek-backed coup. Turkey said it acted in accordance with a Treaty of Guarantee, signed in 1960 when the Republic of Cyprus was established, which allows Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom to intervene in disputes.

Since the establishment of the TRNC in 1983, the north has been described as an occupied part of Cyprus by the United Nations Security Council. Only Turkey recognises the so-called TRNC as an independent state.

The Republic of Cyprus, which controls the south of the island and has a Greek Cypriot government, became an EU member in 2004.

Repeated diplomatic initiatives over decades to end the dispute have failed.

A UN-initiated gathering in Geneva last April failed to broker a deal between Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders to resume negotiations stalled in 2017. An Ankara-backed Turkish Cypriot push for a two-state solution to the dispute in Geneva only escalated tensions.

The Greek Cypriot side, and the international community in general, back a federal solution.

Mensur Akgun, a professor of international relations at Istanbul Kultur University, said Erdogan is expected to strongly underline his support for a two-state solution to the islands dispute during his visit.

Turkey has gradually shifted its stance from a federal solution on the island to two-state solution as a settlement could not be found to the dispute on the grounds of the former after decades of talks, he told Al Jazeera.

However, Turkey has not yet put forward a road map to convince the international community and the Greek Cypriot to divert into this direction, Akgun said, adding that this should be the next step on the Turkish side.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday the EU would never accept a two-state proposal for a solution in Cyprus.

I want to repeat that we will never, ever, accept a two-state solution, we are firm on that and very united, and this is what Cyprus can expect, von der Leyen stated during a visit to the island.

The most precious part is unity in the EU, and the knowledge that all 26 member states at the European level are standing by your side, she said, speaking alongside President Nicos Anastasiades.

Akgun said in order to convince the world to accept a two-state solution, Ankara should promote Northern Cyprus as an independent entity and treat the de facto state as its equal.

It should also start talking to the Greek Cypriot side and offer something to them in order to convince them into [agreeing to] a two-state solution, he added.

During his Northern Cyprus visit, Erdogan, as he did in November 2020, is expected to pay a visit to the abandoned beach resort of Varosha, whose Greek Cypriot residents fled during the 1974 Turkish incursion.

In his November visit to the island, Erdogan went to Varosha and said the area would be reopened to the public and that Greek Cypriots would be able to apply at a Turkish Cypriot commission, the Immovable Property Commission, to claim rights to their properties in the resort.

Turkey is also at odds with Greece, another EU member, over energy resources and jurisdiction in the waters in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the countries came to the verge of a military confrontation last year as Turkish vessels explored for hydrocarbons in the region.

Erdogan has repeatedly said Turkey would not cease exploratory activities in the Eastern Mediterranean amid Greek and EU opposition.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter @Um_Uras

Originally posted here:
Turkeys Erdogan visits Northern Cyprus amid tensions with EU - Al Jazeera English

It's been five years since Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed to overcome the coup attempt in Turkey on July 15, 2016 allegedly organized by his old friend, the eccentric cleric in exile, Fethullah Gulen.

Under a two-year emergency rule, Erdogan used all means at his disposal to attempt to wipe away potential hurdles to his ultimate reign. Yet at this moment, Erdogan is more worried than ever about losing his grip on power.

Recent opinion polls suggest he could not win if a presidential race were to take place today. Behind that loss of support are some stubborn mistakes he has kept making over the last five years the kind of mistakes that tyrants make.

Following the coup attempt, under emergency rule, Erdogan started the widest purge in Turkish political history. Tens of thousands of people military officials, judges, prosecutors, bureaucrats, academics were expelled from their jobs without cause and replaced by inexperienced party loyalists.

Banu Gven

Journalists, authors and members of civil society were sent to prison without any prospect of release. Politicians, including his rivals, had been jailed already.

During these five years, Erdogan called anybody getting in the way terrorists or foreign agents. Torture and maltreatment in police custody became business as usual.

He also used the opportunity of emergency rule to shut down critical voices and media outlets, including the news channel where I was working.Such cruelty is hard to ignore, even for sympathizers of the Erdogan regime.

Erdogan overestimated his foreign policy powers and all of Turkey ended up facing the consequences. What was he thinking, imprisoning American pastor Andrew Brunson and accusing him of having links to the Gulenmovement?

In return for releasing the pastor, Erdogan asked former US President DonaldTrump to extradite Fethullah Gulen, who is still based in Pennsylvania. Instead, Turkey got trade tariff changes and sanctions. The Turkish lira plunged 40% against the dollar withina couple of days.

Erdogan chose his inner circle from relatives, friends or people who would only repeat what he liked to hear. So, nobody could tell him about his mistakes. Those who dared to speak were forced out. And the people who surrounded him built their own networks of nepotism.

The confessions of an ex-mafia boss revealed some of the shady business that has evolved around Erdogan's regime, including blackmailing businessmen by simply threatening to accuse them of being Gulenists.

Erdogan replaced three central bank directors within two years because they did not fully agree tohis monetary policies. Although the economy proved him wrong, Erdogan kept claiming that high interest rates were causing runaway inflation.

Appointing his son-in-law Berat Albayrak as finance minister wasn't a good move, either. Albayrak oversaw the central bank selling off $128 billion to prop up the Turkish lira,yet this could not prevent the currency's steep drop. In the end, Albayrak's resignation was welcomed by the financial markets. However, by that time, it was too late to revive the lira.

Like all tyrants, Erdogan's reaction to diversity is anger, violence or denial at best. Be it a differing political opinion, the pro-Kurdish party, a rainbow flag, students, feminists his police and judiciary were repeatedly ordered to brutally intervene.

Erdogan once called the failed coup attempt "a gift from God," thinking it gave him the opportunity to fully capture the state. Yet he has made another mistake all tyrants invariably make.

Tyrants at some point seem to think that they are invincible, until they face the inevitable: Tyranny is a desensitized, disconnected, terminal system, with its own gravity guaranteeing its destruction like a black hole that shrinks until it ultimately vanishes. Erdogan's attitude after the failed coup attempt has accelerated this process.

It seems as though the president has reached the event horizon the point of no return into the black hole of tyranny.

In 1990, Istanbul-based photographer Ergun Cagatay took thousands of photographs of people of Turkish origin in Hamburg, Cologne, Werl, Berlin and Duisburg. These will be on display from June 21 to October 31 at the Ruhr Museum as part of a special exhibition, "We are from here: Turkish-German Life in 1990." Here he's seen in a self-portrait in pit clothes at the Walsum Mine, Duisburg.

Two miners shortly before the end of their shift in an old-style passenger car at Walsum Mine, Duisburg. Due to a rapid economic upturn in the '50s, Germany faced a shortage of trained workers, especially in agriculture and mining. Following the 1961 recruitment agreement between Bonn and Ankara, more than 1 million "guest workers" from Turkey came to Germany until recruitment was stopped in 1973.

Shown here is the upholstery production at the Ford automobile plant in Cologne-Niehl. "Workers have been called, and people are coming," commented Swiss writer Max Frisch back then. Today, the Turkish community, with some immigrants' families now in their fourth generation, forms the largest ethnic minority group in Germany, with 2.5 million people.

During his three-month photo expedition through Germany, Cagatay experienced a country in transition. Between the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification, Germany was in the process of becoming a multicultural society. Here a demonstrator is seen at a rally against the draft of the new Aliens Act, in Hamburg on March 31, 1990.

The photos provide an insight into the diversity of Turkish-German life. Seen here is the eight-member family of Hasan Hseyin Gl in Hamburg. The exhibition is the most comprehensive coverage on Turkish immigration of the first and second generation of "guest workers."

Today, foodstuff like olives and sheep's cheese can be easily found in Germany. Previously, the guest workers loaded their cars with food from home during their trips back. Slowly, they set up their culinary infrastructure here in Germany, to the delight of all gourmets. Here we see the owners of the Mevsim fruit and vegetable store in Weidengasse, Cologne-Eigelstein.

Children with balloons at the Sudermanplatz in Cologne's Agnes neighborhood. On the wall in the background is a mural of a tree with an excerpt of a poem by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet: "To live! Like a tree alone and free. Like a forest in brotherhood. This yearning is ours." Hikmet himself lived in exile in Russia, where he died in 1963.

At the Quran school of the Fatih mosque in Werl, children learn Arabic characters to be able to read the Quran. It was the first newly built mosque with a minaret in Germany that was opened at that time. People no longer had to go to the backyard to pray.

Photographer Cagatay mingles with guests at a wedding at Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg. In the Burcu event hall, guests pin money on the newlyweds, often with the wish "may you grow old with one pillow"; newlyweds traditionally share a single long pillow on the marital bed.

Traditions are maintained in the new homeland too. Here at a circumcision party in Berlin Kreuzberg, "Mashallah" in written on the boy's sash. It means "praise be" or "what God has willed." This exhibition is sponsored by the German Foreign Office, among others. In addition to Essen, Hamburg and Berlin, it is also being held in cooperation with the Goethe Institute in Izmir, Istanbul and Ankara.

Author: Ceyda Nurtsch

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Opinion: Turkey's Erdogan has reached the event horizon - DW (English)

The presidents of Israel and Turkey agreed to work to improve ties between the two countries,a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans ruling party said Wednesday, according a Thursday report by the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet Daily News.

Erdogan held his first call with Israels new president, Isaac Herzog, on Monday. The conversation between Herzog and Erdogan lasted for 40 minutes and was very positive, according to Herzogs office.

How Israels compromise coalition accidentally ended one racist policy

Hurriyet quoted Omer Celik, spokesman for the Justice and Development Party, as saying that [a] framework emerged after this call under which advances should be made on several issues where improvements can be made, and where steps towards solving problematic areas should be taken. Tourism and trade are areas in which both sides will benefit from cooperation, he was quoted as saying.

Ass for whether the two countries will appoint ambassadors, Celik told the newspaper:It is early yet. They are, of course, being evaluated, in the end, all of these are matters that depend on the steps to be taken.

Meanwhile, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV reported, citing unnamed sources, that Israel has refused a Turkish offer to mediate a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas. According to the sources, Israel would like to see Egypt keep its role as mediator, and opposes Turkish involvement in the Gaza Strip.

Ties between Turkey and Israel have frequently been rocky, and both countries expelled the others diplomatic representative in 2018, when Turkey ordered the Israeli ambassador to return to Israel and Israel told the Turkish consul in Jerusalem, who was in charge of Turkeys ties with the Palestinians, to return to Turkey.

A diplomatic source told Haaretz that although Erdogan has signaled a desire to improve ties with Israel several times in recent years, his blunt statements on the Palestinian issue some as recent as the past week make it difficult for diplomats to discern his intentions.

In 2011, in response to a UN report stating that Israel did not violate international law when it forcibly took control of a Turkish Gaza-bound flotilla, Erdogan downgraded Turkeys ties with Israel, recalled its ambassador in Tel Aviv, and expelled the Israeli ambassador from Ankara. In 2016, the two countries signed a reconciliation agreement that included the payment by Israel of $20 million to a humanitarian foundation used for reparations for the families of Turkish citizens who died onboard the flotilla. The agreement led to the appointment of an Israeli ambassador in Ankara, who served for two years before being expelled.m

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Israel and Turkey agree to improve relations, spokesman for Erdogans party says - Haaretz

ERZURUM

Parts of Turkeys Black Sea region hit by flooding and landslides will be officially declared a disaster area, the nations president said on July 17.

Speaking at a hospital opening and inaugurations of other newly completed projects in Turkeys eastern Erzurum province, Recep Tayyip Erdoan said the formal declaration will be announced after the next Cabinet meeting, likely at the start of next week.

The Disaster and Emergency Management Authority said downpours hit northeastern Rize on Wednesday after landslides caused heavy damage in some areas, with a building destroyed in the village of Muradiye.

At least six people died, with two people missing, in flooding and landslides triggered by heavy rain.

Interior Minister Sleyman Soylu came to the region to assess the situation along with Transport and Infrastructure Minister Adil Karaismailolu and Environment and Urbanization Minister Murat Kurum.

Around 5 million Turkish liras ($582,000) will be sent to the region to help recovery efforts.

Investing throughout Turkey

Also speaking on investments in eastern Turkey, Erdoan said the current market value of todays inaugurated investments reached a total of 9.5 billion Turkish liras ($1.11 billion).

We will continue to embrace the full breadth of Turkey, from Erzurum, Diyarbakr, Hatay, and Trabzon to Antalya, Tekirda, Van, and Bursa, and introduce projects and services to every inch of our homeland," said Erdoan, referring to provinces throughout Turkey.

We do this because we love this country with all its colors. Because we love this nation with all its people. Because we have taken on the responsibility to build a great and strong Turkey through the bridge we built from the past to the future, he added.

Erdogan said the determination, unity, and solidarity of the people of Erzurum remained firm and steady despite 40 years of PKK terrorist efforts against it.

Erzurum is one of our cities that showed the most determined stance against the tricks, hypocrisy, and frauds of FET the terrorist group behind the defeated 2016 coup, whose fifth anniversary was marked this week Erdoan added.

In its more than 35-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S., and EU has been responsible for the deaths of at least 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants.

FET and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Glen, orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016 in which 251 people were killed and 2,734 wounded.

Ankara also accuses FET of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.

FETO,

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Flood-struck areas of Black Sea region to be declared disaster area - Hurriyet Daily News

The Panama Papers seemed to suggest that the Prime Ministers two adult children had used flats in London as collateral to secure large scale loans from Deutsche Bank in 2008. These flats were owned by two British Virgin Island companies, one of which Nescoll listed Sharif s daughter, Maryam Safdar, as its only shareholder.

Maryam Safdar produced papers certifying that she was not a shareholder but merely a trustee in the firm, thus attempting to disassociate from the offshore companies.

The problem? The certificate she claimed was issued in February 2006 had used the Calibri font. The controversy eventually led to the dismissal of the Nawaz Sharif government in 2017 courtesy its Supreme Court. He is currently disqualified from contesting elections.

The confluence of power and an inflated sense of self-worth can wreak havoc over a large population, if not checked in time. The good days that Adolf Hitler had promised to Germans, or the change that Benito Mussolini had vowed to bring about, is not very different from what modern heads of states sometimes lead us to believe in the 21st century.

A quote by Hagel comes to mind: History teaches us that man learns nothing from history.

Calibri has had a wonderful run and has unwittingly stirred the hornets nest, has scared despots, and claimed at least one scalp. But it seems likely that its term as Microsofts default font is ending as well. In May 2021, the company announced that it will soon be replacing Calibri with another font as the default on the worlds most popular word processor.

(The author worked for the United Nations in New York and served as UNICEFs Chief of Communications.)

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When a Microsoft font exposed the Turkish President Erdogan and Pakistan's PM Mian Nawaz Sharif - National Herald