In the coming days, we will hold very important commemorative ceremonies for our country. We will remember Dr. Fazıl Küçük, the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, and our Founding President, Rauf Raif Denktaş.
Two years ago, together with Mine Çeliker, I prepared an exhibition and a book telling the story of our Founding President’s life through photographs. Those of you who follow us will know this.
During the preparation of this exhibition and book, compiled after an intensive research process drawing on more than 50,000 photographs and nearly a hundred books, we came across some very interesting information. Today, I think it would be appropriate to share a few of these details with you.
Are you curious about when and how Denktaş met Dr. Küçük?
Denktaş recounts the episode in his memoirs as follows: “Dr. Küçük explained the reasons for launching the first issue of Halkın Sesi Newspaper…
It was an article about the efforts that would be made on issues such as the Evkaf, the muftiate, and schools—things I had heard about from my father. After reading it, I sat down and wrote a piece to Dr. Küçük, which was published in Halkın Sesi.
(The piece, published on 10 May 1942 under the title ‘The Aim of the Youth’, ends as follows;) ‘This youth is preparing to fight in order to earn the appreciation of their elders, revive our honorable past, and see a community bound together by deep feelings and strong ties… O great ones of the Turkish Community, whose hearts are burning, consider it a happy duty to these sacred lands to take part in this social mobilization of Turkish youth.’
I began writing for Halkın Sesi frequently. Sometimes the pieces were published under my own name, and sometimes under the name ‘Akın Yılmaz’. After that, Dr. Küçük sent word asking me to ‘come and meet’. So I set out and came to Nicosia. The Doctor and I sat down and talked. I suppose I liked the Doctor’s fatherly manner, and he appreciated the youthful enthusiasm I felt.”
That was how Denktaş met Küçük…
While preparing the book, what affected me most was an article Denktaş wrote after the events of 1963, as 1964 was beginning. Look at what Denktaş was feeling on the first day of 1964: “The happy people of the world, celebrating the arrival of 1964, have still not woken from the deep sleep brought on by the evening’s fatigue!
The wish of all humanity is for 1964 to bring them happiness…
But what about us?..
What will 1964 bring to the Turkish Cypriots, who have been fighting for their lives for days, crushed on the roads of displacement, brutally killed and subjected to massacres? We do not know…
We are in the midst of a struggle. We are on the fine line between existence and annihilation… The meals distributed from the cold-storage facility yesterday gave some relief to people who have barely managed to get by since 21 December…
The first sun of 1964 is rising. The first morning of 1964.
I pray to my God for the Turkish Cypriots: ‘May we not become another Crete. May our children not grow up in captivity, may the call to prayer not fall silent, and may we live in freedom, happiness and peace.’
I am visiting the positions in Nicosia. The fighters have been in the trenches for days. Hungry, tired and sleepless. There is a shortage of food. ‘Do you need anything?’ I ask. ‘We only want guns and ammunition,’ they say. A deep silence reigns in the streets of Nicosia. The clinics are full of wounded people. The sobs and cries of the mothers of martyrs, women and children tear through this silence. They surround me and ask, ‘What will become of us?..’
What will become of us?..
We will be all right… Türkiye is behind us… God will sooner or later teach the oppressors a lesson…”
Because space is limited, I would like to conclude my article by sharing just one more detail. This final detail, too, comes from Denktaş himself and concerns the origin of the surname Denktaş!
“When the Surname Law came into effect in Türkiye, my elder brother Cahit wrote to my father saying that he had taken the surname ‘Denktaş’. He wrote that the name, made up of the words ‘Denk’ and ‘Taş’, meant ‘fair, strong, one who gives people their due’, and that he thought it suited our father. My father was very upset, because he had apparently written to my elder brother earlier, telling him to take the surname ‘Karkot’!...
Since my elder brother did not like that name, he claimed he had not received the letter and argued that he had taken the name ‘Denktaş’ because there was a ‘time limit’. Later, my elder brother would tease us, saying, ‘Say a prayer for me, otherwise your surname would have been Karkot (the name of the stream in Baf).’ If it had been up to me, I would have taken ‘Akın’ as my surname—the name my primary school head teacher, Sarıca, gave me. But no one asked my opinion. So I would use the name ‘Akın Yılmaz’ in some of my articles. ‘Yılmaz’ was my middle name.”
As we remember both our leaders with respect, I wanted you to keep these details in a corner of your memory.
Until we meet again…