Across the Divide News and Language Services

By Kyriacos Kiliaris Thomas Knudtsen, a Danish citizen from the small town of Stevns, was reunited with his Turkish Cypriot father whom he had never met before with the help of a TV show called ‘Without a Trace’ (Sporlös). Knudtsen, 52, through the Danish TV programme, was able not only to reunite with his father, but also found he has approximately 250 Turkish Cypriot relatives! Searching for his biological father, Knudtsen asked the TV reality programme to help him in his search. He told reporters that his father was a Turkish Cypriot from a village in the Morphou region. A ‘Without a Trace’ team first travelled to London, where his mother had met his father Mehmet Huseyin in a restaurant where he used to work at the time. The DR1 crew, however, were not able to find any trace of Huseyin and decided to expand their search to the north of Cyprus. The Danish reporters went through the civil registry archives in the north, only to come up empty-h...

By Kyriacos Kiliaris Kyrenia residents are not being allowed access to most of the beaches in their region. The reason behind this is that many hotels built on the coast have sectioned off access to the shore in their vicinity and allow entry only to their guests or paying visitors. Earlier this summer, the Cyprus Weekly had spoken to a group organised through Facebook calling itself “Let’s go to the beach for free: beaches belong to the people”, which is challenging these constraints. Meanwhile, the group is not alone in its struggle. Two lawyers, Ozgu Ozkul Ozyigit and Ahmet Said Sayin, have taken on the task of suing the various hotels demanding payment from beach-goers, in order to allow would-be bathers access to the town’s public beaches. The two lawyers say their motivation is the prevailing state of injustice and that they are demanding the application of regulations in the north. “We demand that the authorities do their job – from t...

By Kyriacos Kiliaris Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) search for supporters of the ousted US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, seen as the mastermind behind the failed coup in Turkey on July 15, 2016, has turned into a real witch hunt. A total of 11 people have appeared before a judge over the past four months in operations that have taken place in secrecy, with dozens of people being interrogated. Six were arrested just last week in back-to-back stings in the Famagusta district. Four of those arrested were taken into custody on charges of possessing books propagating positions of the Gulenist movement. They were charged with crimes against the regulations and social order in the north, as they were found “in possession of propaganda material of an illegal terrorist organisation”. The latest arrest took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning in Geungeli (Gonyeli), where the suspect was caught burning books belonging to the Gulenist movemen...

By Kyriacos Kiliaris Latest images showing changes to the Pentadaktylos Mountain range made by the various stone quarries have environmentalists on both sides of the divide fuming. Activists say a “truly frightening” picture is taking shape before our eyes with the erosion of the mountain being visible from afar. The erosion of the Pentadaktylos mountain range caused by the stone quarries in the north is one of the most serious ecological problems on the island, and there seems to be no end to it. Since 1975, a total of 341 such quarries have been licensed, with 56 of them still licensed, and 36 still active. Dogan Sahir, head of the Green Peace Movement in the north, said that the legal framework for these quarries needs updating, as the demand for stone has dropped. “They are destroying the mountain without even knowing what the true quarrying needs are,” argued Sahir. He said the quarries are operating in an unplanned manner without being...

By Kyriacos Kiliaris Turkish Cypriots are witnessing the collapse of their public health system as doctors are departing the public sector one after the other. A total of 14 doctors have resigned over the first seven months of the year, five of whom handed in their notice last month. The en-mass exodus of physicians adds to the already troubled public health sector in the north. Shortages in frontline medication, HIV drugs and of vital equipment such as a CT scanner and respirators are frequent subjects in the Turkish Cypriot media. According to claims by Turkish Cypriot public doctors’ union TIP-IS, following the five medics’ recent departure, departments of the public hospital in north Nicosia had “closed down”. The gastroenterological and children’s dental centres of the Dr. Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital have essentially stopped operation, having been left without a doctor on staff. Strikingly, the gastroenterological centre was forced i...

By Kyriacos Kiliaris The Turkish Cypriot community is in uproar after video evidence of school children being exposed to religious and political propaganda, while on a school excursion and camp at Turkey’s Canakkale, made the rounds on social media and TV. Images of kids being preached to by organisers at the camp site added to the turmoil caused by news of underage children participating in religious lessons run by the mosques in the north. Earlier in May, a significant part of the community had come out against obligatory religious education in the north, following a report by the TC ombudsman who found mandatory religious school lessons to be in violation of the principles of equality and freedom. Reportedly, kids were also exposed to videos containing political propaganda favouring Turkey’s ruling AK Party and the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. According to accusations fired by the Turkish Cypriot secondary education teacher...

By Kyriacos Kiliaris Recent drowning incidents have increased the concerns of public bathers in the region of Famagusta. Bathers are particularly worried over the absence of lifeguards on the region’s beaches and are demanding that measures be taken. According to Turkish Cypriot police records, two people have drowned during the first two months of the summer, while eight more have been involved in near-drowning incidents, with one person still being treated in intensive care. All incidents mentioned in the police reports took place on public beaches. Locals and bathers who frequent the beaches demand that authorities take measures to make public shores safer by posting people who will be able to provide help in cases where swimmers are endangered. Despite the fact that institutions running a beach open to the public are obliged to have at least one lifeguard on watch, over half of the beaches in the Famagusta region have none on duty. Repo...