Cyprus-Forum.com

[Omer Seyhan]

Hakki Atun looting of occupied Greek Cypriot properties reached extremes

Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen newspaper (11.08.10) reports that Hakki Atun, who has served as prime minister, MP, minister, party leader and bureaucrat in the occupied part of Cyprus since 1975, has made very striking statements in an interview with journalist Sami Ozuslu on Kanal Sim television.
Referring to the looting of the occupied Greek Cypriot properties after the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Atun said that looting reached extremes and added: Because they were Greek Cypriot properties, they were demolished and ruined. When I saw the situation of a brick factory at Haspolat I felt very sorry. That beats everything, I said.

Referring to the issue of the Turkish settlers brought to the island after the 1974 invasion, Atun said that 30,000 persons were brought as labour force in the field of agriculture, within the framework of a protocol signed between the then Turkish Prime Minister Ecevit and Ismet Kotak on behalf of the Turkish Cypriots. Atun claimed that their aim was to give land to these settlers and encourage production. He said it was wrong that the Turkish Cypriots, who moved from the southern to the northern part of the island, were not given priority in the distribution of the occupied Greek Cypriot properties.

Atun expressed the view that the reply given by prime minister Kucuk when Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan asked him recently about his salary was not the reply which should have been given. He recalled that when former Turkish Prime Minister Ciller told him and Ozker Ozgur that I can give you as much as I give to Konya, he replied that Konya had been rescued long ago, but Cyprus had not been rescued yet.

Atun referred to a conversation he had with an employee of a hotel in the occupied part of Cyprus who told him that Turkish Cypriots do not work under these conditions. He added that persons for whom he mediated to be employed in another hotel were able to endure only three days there.

Commenting on Atuns statements, Sami Ozuslu writes in his column in Yeni Duzen that from Atuns words regarding events in the period after 1974 we realize once more that these did not happen accidentally.

Ozuslu adds the following: The fact that 30,000 persons were brought from Turkey to Cyprus after the war as labour force in agriculture, the change of the names of the villages, the quick distribution of the Greek Cypriot properties, the speeding up of the inflow of population after 1986, the citizenship policy and other steps were all products of an explicit policy. The policy of partition!

Ozuslu says that those who supported the partition or death slogan have never believed in a solution based on partnership in Cyprus. Therefore, they have never accepted the Cypriot or even the Turkish Cypriot identity and implemented the policy of one Turk goes another Turk comes, he notes adding that Rauf Denktash led the partition mentality.

Ozuslu points out that if a person such as Hakki Atun, one of the top names of the right wing, feels the need to ask how many Cypriots work in a hotel, it means that nothing else remains to be said.

(I/Ts.)

[paliometoxo]

is there anything left to steal after 36 years

[Viewpoint]

is there anything left to steal after 36 years

You cannot steal whats already yours.

[Nikitas]

In this case "Yours" being defined as twice what your share is and can be grabbed by force from the innocent as well as the guilty. Remember this definition, some day it will apply to you when a settler tells you he deserves twice what you get because he liberated you.