Former Turkish Cypriot leader blasts Turkey's 'one-man regime'

Former Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı said that Turkey's "one-man regime" is dragging both the country and Turkish Cyprus into destruction.

Tuesday October 26 2021 02:42 pm

Duvar English

Former Turkish Cypriot President Mustafa Akıncı said in a Facebook post that a one-man regime was dragging Turkey into destruction, as he commented on a row between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and 10 ambassadors who called for the release of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala.

Akıncı said that Turkish Cyprus was also affected by the crisis in Turkey, adding that Kavala's imprisonment, the imprisonment of pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party former co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş and the practical exile of other opposition opinion leaders was "inexplicable" within any modern norms of law.

"An anti-democratic way of politics that came to the point of exiling 10 ambassadors is doomed to crash into a wall," Akıncı said.

Turkey and its Western allies climbed down from a full-blown diplomatic crisis on Oct. 25 after foreign embassies said that they abide by diplomatic conventions on non-interference, averting a threatened expulsion of 10 ambassadors.

Erdoğan, who said at the weekend he had ordered the envoys to be declared "persona non grata" for seeking the release of a jailed philanthropist, told a news conference they had stepped back and would be more careful.

"Unfortunately, the economic and political crash, as well as corruption, affects Turkish Cyprus too," the former president said.

The only solution to Turkey's current crisis is to create a politics respectful of global norms of law, human rights and democratic principles, Akıncı noted.

The former leader also suggested that the Turkish government should "stop wasting time with impossible formulas" in Cyprus and should cooperate internationally.