Kinderland politics

Many people would remember, Kinderland’s Prime Minister Soyer had sent Finance Ministry people on Asil Nadir’s Kıbrıs newspaper allegations of tax fraud and a lofty fine. Just as the Motherland government was trying to stifle the voice of the Doğan group with a similar charge, the Kinderland’s Soyer hoped to silence the Kıbrıs newspaper which has been very critical of his government. Eventually, Kıbrıs escaped being confiscated after Nadir agreed to a provisional payment plan on the condition that a new investigation was launched into the financial records of the company. The Motherland government could not silence the Doğan group but the Kinderland government at least managed a replacement of the editor in chief of Kıbrıs.

Now, despite the fact that the Chief Prosecutor (who functions as justice minister because there is no justice ministry in northern Cyprus) can launch an investigation against anyone only if there is viable and sufficient evidence, with some staff collected through the Internet, a file containing some allegations based on some notes found by Turkish police in the ambush in Ankara on the house of Osman Özbek and a copy of sections of the second indictment where names of Denktaş and Eroğlu passes, as if the Turkish Ergenekon trial had ended and allegations in the indictment were all endorsed by a court verdict, Soyer demanded an investigation against two most senior politicians of his country with a complaint that they were involved in "gang activity."

Is Soyer plotting to avert a humiliating defeat?

Knowing that prosecutors can launch an investigation against a political party only charges of financial abuse or involvement in violence, Soyer charged the main opposition National Unity Party, or UBP, and other "anti-settlement" were provided 20 million dollars while the UBP alone received some one million dollars in 1998 to support Eroğlu’s candidacy against Denktaş in the presidential elections.

But, why Soyer made such a demand from the Prosecutor’s Office now and not, let’s say, immediately after the second Ergenekon indictment, which like the first one was very much like a thriller, was accepted by the court in March, interestingly three days before the Turkish local polls? Or, why he did not make such an appeal immediately after Özbek’s alleged notes were serialized in the allegiant media in Turkey? Why he, as well as President Mehmet Ali Talat, told reporters only some ten days ago that a judicial case could be opened in the Kinderland only if the case in Turkey concluded with a verdict that would require an investigation in northern Cyprus (which indeed must have been the case)? The answer is quite plain. On April 19 the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus will go to parliamentary polls and though publication of public opinion polls in the last two weeks before the election date is prohibited, polls published before the ban entered into force have all shown that the ruling party might receive as low as 21-23 percent of the vote, while the UBP might get as high as 42-46 percent, the junior center right Democrat Party of Serdar Denktaş may get 12-14 points and the social democratic Communal Democracy Party might receive 5.5 percent vote or so.

That is Soyer’s CTP is on the way out of government, UBP of Eroğlu is coming in. That is, Kinderland’s Soyer might have attempted to distract public attention from the failures of his administration, create controversy around Eroğlu and his party and salvage his Republican Turks’ Party from a disastrous election defeat. Efforts to create a fear empire did not help Motherland’s Erdoğan and his party retreated some eight percentage points in local polls. Will such efforts help Soyer? On the contrary, he victimized Eroğlu and Turkish people always tend to support the victims, not the oppressors. Soyer must have been ill-advised by his allies in the Motherland.