"I cried when the TRNC was established"

[RAFAELLA]

On Erdal Guven’s book on Talat by the Turkish Cypriot papers

Many Turkish Cypriot newspapers report today (03.11.09) about a recently released book titled “Adam, Talat’in Kibrisi” (My Island, Talat’s Cyprus). The book consists of interviews between Talat and the Radikal daily’s newsroom director Erdal Guven, and focuses on the details of Talat’s personal life from his childhood to his marriage and his political career.

Under the title “I cried when the TRNC was established” , Afrika publishes the part of the book in which Talat refers to the establishment of the occupation regime on 15th November 1983: “Discussions were going on with great intensity. The Republican Turkish Party (CTP) frequently published declarations that a separate state is partition, saying no to the division of the island and a separate state. On the night of November 14, the CTP Party Council convened. Before the council’s meeting, Rauf Denktas said: ‘We will declare the establishment of the TRNC tomorrow. Any party that goes against this will be shut down’. We discussed this until 5 in the morning. In the end we held the voting. The decision that came up with 14 to 13 votes, was to support the decision to back the declaration. I, naturally, voted “No” given the circumstances of the day. What’s more, I did all I could so there wouldn’t be a yes vote in the end. I cried when I got home that night, for the first time in my life. I cried because I couldn’t believe how the CTP could do this. What got to me most was the inconsistency we showed. We should have voted no. Then we would have paid whatever consequences there might have been.”

Talat went on and said the following:
“Declaring the KKTC’s establishment was the most wrong thing to do. It was obvious in the international atmosphere of the day that it would backfire against the Turkish side. Because there was the Cyprus Turkish Federal State. The Turkish side, with nationalistic enthusiasm, took a decision that caused it to cut the limb it was standing on. This placed the Cypriot Turks in a difficult position, plus Turkey had to face harsh pressure in the world. It was an uncalculated move, it was not rational.”

He also said, “Coming to our day, the Cypriot Turks want a settlement; they want the EU; that’s why they have chosen me. Let’s imagine now that the TRNC is recognized by the entire world. You can’t have a division as in the old times. What you can have is a federation. A federation that is not established by the signatures of two communities, but by two states. This wouldn’t change the outcome. Wouldn’t we be much more comfortable setting up that federation? We would be. The ultimate result will not be any different from the one we are targeting. We will still have a federal Cyprus.”

Mr Talat went on and added that if there was not for the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), he could not have become “president”. “If the AKP had not changed Turkey’s policy, neither would I have sat in this chair, nor would the Annan Plan be submitted to voting, leave aside to be accepted. Think that in the year 2000 I participated in the election and I received 10%. Five years later I gathered the 56% of the votes”, he stated.

GUNES reports on the same issue under the title “Shame! What kind of president is this?” and writes that Talat says in Erdal Guven’s book that when the occupation regime was established, he was so sad he cried for the first time in his life.

VOLKAN also refers to the issue in its first page noting that Talat stated that he was against the establishment of the “TRNC”.

HALKIN SESI reports on the same issue under the title “Talat: When the CTP said yes to the TRNC I cried”.

http://www.moi.gov.cy/moi/pio/pio.nsf/All/...B3?OpenDocument

[turkkan]

A lot of TC's leftists cried when the TRNC declared its formation including members of my family. At that time these people were in their 20's and belevied strongly that Cyprus and teh world should be run on Maoists principles. Those days are long long gone.

[Kayakiran]

I cried when I was circumsized too. Well, figure out the rest.

[Evropeos]

Talat takes back his ‘TRNC’ tears

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

By Simon Bahceli

TURKISH Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat says he “no longer regrets” the 1983 declaration of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ (TRNC), despite media reports that he cried at the time of its establishment because he believed it would be damaging to his community’s interests.

Revelations about Talat’s opposition to the declaration of the ‘TRNC’ came to light after the publication of a book by Turkish daily Radikal’s Erdal Guven entitled My Island, Talat’s Island.

In it, the Turkish Cypriot leader tells Guven of how he opposed then-leader Rauf Denktash’s plans to disband the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus, which had been established in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion, to make way for the formation of the ‘TRNC’.

Speaking to the Cyprus Mail yesterday, Talat’s spokesman Hasan Ercakica said, “His [Talat’s] view was that the Turkish Federated State expressed the will of the Turkish Cypriots to reunite the island under a federal framework. The formation of the TRNC, he felt, expressed the opposite, that the Turkish Cypriots wanted a separate state.”

Despite Denktash’s clearly separatist aims, Talat now sees the formation of the ‘TRNC’ as a “historical fact”, and one that does not rule out the formation of a new federation between the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities.

“In later discussions, it was decided that the TRNC did not obstruct the possibility of federation, and could in fact form the basis of a federal state,” Ercakica said, adding that this possibility had been demonstrated through the framework of later peace plans devised with the help of the United Nations, such as the Gali set of ideas and the Annan plan.

Despite the shift in Talat’s assessment of the implications of the ‘TRNC’, extracts from Erdal’s book on this aspect of Talat’s political life make interesting reading. One section describes how the Turkish Cypriot leader was devastated by the Republican Turkish Party’s (his own CTP) acceptance of Denktash’s virtual order that all political parties in the north go along with his plan to set up a separatist state.

“Discussions were going on with great intensity. The Republican Turkish Party frequently published declarations that a separate state meant partition and that it opposed to the division of the island,” Guven quotes Talat as saying.

He continues: “On the night of November 14, the CTP Party Council convened. Before the council’s meeting, Denktash said he would announce the establishment of the TRNC the next day. Any party going against the vote would be shut down, Dentash had warned.

“We discussed this until 5am. In the end we held a vote, which resulted in 14 backing for Dentash, and 13 votes against. Naturally I had voted “no”. What’s more, I did all I could to block the declaration. I cried when I got home that night. I cried because I couldn’t believe how the CTP could do this. What got to me most was the inconsistency we showed. We should have voted ‘no’. Then we would have faced whatever consequences there might have been.”

Interestingly, despite accepting today’s existence of the ‘TRNC’ as a historical reality, Talat is quoted by Guven as saying he still believes his views of 26 years ago are still valid.

“Declaring the TRNC’s establishment was the most wrong thing to do. It was obvious in the international atmosphere of the day that it would backfire against the Turkish Cypriot side because there already existed the Turkish Federal State,” Guven quotes and continues: “The Turkish Cypriot side, with nationalistic fervour, took a decision that caused it to cut the branch it was sitting on. This placed the Cypriot Turks in a difficult position, and led to harsh international pressure on Turkey from the international community”.

Link