Ustel blames Greek Cypriots for shootings in north

Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel said that a recent string of shootings in the north is the fault of the Greek Cypriots.

“There are attempts to portray the TRNC as an unsafe country. These claims originate from the Greek Cypriot side. The Greek Cypriot side is the one supplying weapons to young people and directing them towards the TRNC,” he told journalists.

On this front, he said that in recent months, there have ben a total of 16 shootings in the north, and that “arrests were made within 24 hours of all of them”.

“The majority of these arrested were 19 or 20 years old, and a 16-year-old was used in the most recent incident,” he said, in reference to the shooting of two men at the Uluhan car dealership in the northern Nicosia suburb of Omorphita.

He added that “the police responded quickly and effectively to the incidents”, and that as such, “the security forces demonstrated a successful performance”.

In addition, he said he has been in consultation with the Turkish government regarding the incidents, and that “measures have been taken to question individuals aged between 18 and 37 years old upon their entry to the country”, while “precautions are being implemented to prevent entry to individuals with any criminal record”.

The issue of shootings in the north returned to the fore at the beginning of this month with the shooting at the Uluhan car dealership, with the Turkish Cypriot police continuing their investigation into the matter.

Many believe the incidents to be linked to underworld activity, while the shooting at the Uluhan dealership provoked disquiet among many local residents.

Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci warned that “our cities … our workplaces, our lives are under threat”.

“In our country, which is filled with cameras everywhere, mafia thugs roam freely with weapons in their hands. Money laundering flows right before our eyes. In this tiny region where the banking system is entirely under control, it is impossible for these things not to be detected,” he said.

He added that the Turkish Cypriot community “needs courageous people … people who will cut off their pipelines and not surrender to the huge sums of money they feed”.

To the north’s ruling coalition, he said, “get out immediately, you have handed the country over to the mafia”, before warning, “get out, because the snake you nurtured will bite you, too”.

Earlier, in response to a previous wave of such incidents last year, Turkish Cypriot opposition political party CTP ‘MP’ Sami Ozuslu had suggested that the north be renamed as the “hitman’s paradise of northern Cyprus”.

“If you have the authority, I would like to request that we change the name of the TRNC to the ‘hitman’s paradise of northern Cyprus’, let it be on the records,” he told the north’s ‘parliament’.

“This is the situation we are currently experiencing.”

In Turkish, the acronym “KKTC”, for “TRNC”, is unchanged if “Turkish republic” is exchanged for “hitman’s paradise”.