‘Govt’ accused of treating north like ‘spoils of war’ over fibreoptic internet deal

The north’s ruling coalition was accused by opposition political party CTP ‘MP’ Erkut Sahali on Friday of treating the island’s northern third like “the spoils of war” as the debate over a controversial deal which will, if implemented, bring fibreoptic internet to the north, rolls on.

“This group which forms the government sees this country like the spoils of war. They do not see this country as a homeland, they do not feel they owe anything to this place. They look at it as ‘this is the spoil of war, let’s profit from it as much as we can’,” he told Kibris Postasi TV.

The word Sahali used in Turkish for “spoils of war” was “ganimet”, which is derived from an Arabic word referring to wealth, or riches. It carries a heavy Cypriot context, as it was the word used to refer to the looting of properties abandoned by Greek Cypriots in and after 1974 and the use of abandoned immovable property.

In addition to the word “ganimet”, Sahali accused the north’s ‘public works minister’ Erhan Arikli of “acting with a despotic attitude”, before going on to say of Arikli that “a fascist is a fascist”, and that “you cannot expect a democratic attitude from a fascist”.

“They act like fascists when it comes to seeing elements in an agreement signed with another state which even diminish or destroy our own state,” he said.

Of the deal itself, he said it is tantamount to the “nullification of the state’s authority”, and that the ruling coalition had declared that “we cannot handle the communications business, and we have no claim to sovereignty”.

“That is how your status as a state disappears, because you are not investing, you are giving up on operations, you are shirking your supervisory responsibilities, you are not taking measures to protect the commercial sector in price setting, you are saying, ‘do whatever you want and hand it to us in 25 years’ time’,” he said.

The debate over the protocol reached its crescendo on Monday night, when the ruling coalition attempted to pass it through the Turkish Cypriot legislature, but ultimately failed after opposition members undertook a filibuster which lasted almost 19 hours.

That session had initially been scheduled to begin at 10am on Monday, but eventually began eight hours late, at 6pm, before eventually being adjourned after midday on Tuesday, after Sahali had unfurled a black flag inside the chamber.

The deal had been struck between the Turkish government, the north’s ruling coalition, and Turkish telecommunications company Turk Telekom, and will, if passed by the Turkish Cypriot legislature, see Turkish Cypriot taxpayers expend €110 million for the provision of fibreoptic internet infrastructure in the north.

It was published in Turkey’s official government’s gazette last month, with Turk Telekom’s chief executive officer Ebubekir Sahin at the time describing the deal as “a great source of pride”.

However, in addition to the price levied on Turkish Cypriot taxpayers, which had initially been estimated at €26m, the deal has proved controversial as it will give Turk Telekom exclusive rights for the provision of home broadband internet in the north until 2051.

Internet provision in the north is already tightly regulated, with the use of satellite-based internet providers, such as Elon Musk’s Starlink, already a crime punishable by up to six months in prison.

Controversy has also come from the fact that Turk Telekom had stated that it intends to lay its fibreoptic cables in existing tunnels, thus limiting the expansion of internet-based infrastructure in the north.

Additionally, the €110m provided for in the contract does not cover the cost of switchboards and cooling systems, among other pieces of secondary infrastructure which are required to facilitate the operation of fibreoptic cables.

The Turkish Cypriot legislature will next convene on Monday.

Turk Telekom is 60-per-cent owned by Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund and 25-per-cent owned by Turkey’s finance ministry, with the remaining 15 per cent floated on the stock exchange.