As you know, the country’s agenda can change every minute. Against this backdrop, DP Leader Serdar Denktaş held a press conference yesterday with a large team. I attended the meeting as well, and there were many points and statements that caught my attention.
At the meeting, Mr. Denktaş announced that they had officially launched the second phase of the We Are Coming movement, and said that if they came to power, they would create a strong North Cyprus that could stand on its own feet within three years. It seems Mr. Denktaş has not finished speaking about the Ercan tender, which was finalized just yesterday and which he had been bringing up for a long time. Here is what Mr. Denktaş has to say on the matter: “Taking growth potential into account, an airport built in a country of our size should cover 60,000 square meters, yet a 152,000-square-meter construction project has been put forward using a project that does not belong to us. As a result of this tender, the state has been made to suffer a loss of 722 million euros in today’s figures, according to calculations by our experts using the “discounted cash flow technique” and based solely on revenue from fees.”
In addition to this statement, it seems that Mr. Denktaş will not let this matter drop. Denktaş, who made quite strong statements about both the Ercan tender and all privatizations, said that if they came to power, they would scrutinize all of the government’s actions, and issued the following warning: “I am warning the government once again, in front of you and all our people: the day we come to power, we will examine one by one all the irregularities and injustices, and all the privatizations involving the country’s public assets… We will correct the irregularities and injustices and cancel all privatizations that do not protect our country’s interests… At this point, no one should expect us to compromise… And no one should take offense… The public assets of this country cannot be handed over to anyone… The children of this country cannot be forced to emigrate so that a few people can line their pockets… The people of this country cannot be subjected to injustice for political gain… No one can destroy the reputation of our state, founded at the cost of so many martyrs, or the trust of our people… We will never allow this…”
It seems that if the Democratic Party comes to power, there will be a thorough review of the Ercan tender and all privatizations, and perhaps the tenders will be canceled…
Another thing that caught my attention at the press conference was Mr. Denktaş’s comments about official cars. Mr. Denktaş said, “When government offices in this country are falling apart, hospitals and schools are crumbling—in short, when all the things that reflect our state’s prestige are in a terrible state—we cannot allow members of the government to drive official cars simply for the sake of prestige. The day we come to power, the official cars will be put up for sale. Perhaps official cars could be considered if the state’s prestige rises to the highest levels, but under these circumstances, we cannot allow it… Like every other citizen, members of the government will use their own cars… No one should expect us to give up this principle…”
Serdar Denktaş, who said, “We are coming to Lefke on October 18,” announced that they had also officially opened applications for prospective parliamentary candidates, then moved on to the question-and-answer session. Meanwhile, one thing in his remarks about the prospective candidacies caught my attention. Mr. Denktaş said the candidates’ applications would be kept confidential. I think even this approach to keeping them confidential says something about the state the country is in. Anyway, that is a topic for another column…
In conclusion, I do not know whether all these things that have been said will come to pass, but what I gathered from the meeting is that if the Democratic Party comes to power, there will likely be a different approach to many issues, from privatizations to official cars. Let’s hope for the best…