‘I’m just saying no’ – conscientious objector who faces jail

Turkish Cypriot Mustafa Hurben is not a rabble rouser, but quietly steadfast in his refusal to take up arms

 While attempting to imagine what interviewing a Turkish Cypriot conscientious objector would feel and sound like, I pictured a loud and rambunctious presence railing against the system and refusing to go quietly into the night.

The setting, too, set my expectations. I met him in the village of Templos, outside Kyrenia, so named for its former status as a headquarters of the Knights Templar.

Mustafa Hurben, however, is in fact more of a thinker than a shouter. He is slight in stature and unassuming in nature, and when I walked to greet him, he met me with an apology: “I’m sorry, I’m not a great speaker.”

This, as it turned out, was an understatement of his oratory abilities, but characteristic of an understated character.

Despite the setting of our meeting, where the Knights Templar once stood, Hurben’s objection to being conscripted into the Turkish Cypriot military is no crusade.

“This is just a simple thing for me, I don’t want to do this, and I’m just saying no,” he says matter-of-factly.

However, Hurben’s understated nature should not for a second be confused with a lack of will or conviction in his beliefs. Conscientious objection as a concept is absent from the north’s lawbooks, and as such, he is set to face jail as a deserter for ten days every year until he turns 40.

Under normal circumstances, he would have had to serve for 12 months in the military, but under a temporary scheme brought in at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, bought his way out of conscription for £6,000 (€6,966).

Now, he is expected to attend refresher days once a year but has refused to do so – a criminal offence in the north. As a result, he will be sent to jail on Thursday and every subsequent time he refuses to attend a refresher day.

Asked why he would rather put up with ten days behind bars rather than a single day in uniform, he said “I don’t want to be a part of any military preparation.”

“Right now, we are watching what is going on in Palestine. Something like this also happened in Cyprus, too. I don’t want to be part of something where we could see all those things happen again. Basically, I am just against war,” he said.

“If you ask Putin whether war is bad or not, everyone, even Putin or Bush or whoever you can think of who started wars will say war is a bad thing. So how are we fighting, how are we still killing people if we all agree that war is bad?” he asked.

Despite staring down the barrel of a prison term, albeit a short one, he said he is not scared of what is coming down the line.

“It doesn’t matter how long it’s going to be,” he begins, before joking “first of all, I’m an introvert, so I like to stay indoors.”

“I prefer to be alone, but then that probably will not happen in jail,” he smiled, referring to the current overcrowded state of the north’s prison.

Talking in more serious terms, he said he was prepared for everything before he made his stand.

“So, no I’m not afraid. Maybe I’m a little bit excited. It’s a new experience, so we will see.”

Hurben’s slight excitement and evident curiosity about the next steps have not clouded his steadfast belief that conscientious objection is a fundamental human right.

“The biggest problem is that conscientious objection is a human right, but in North Cyprus, like with a lot of other different human rights, we do not have this right,” he said.

“The government needs to give this human right to their people. This is not about ideology, about being on the left or on the right. It’s just an option.”

He went on to refer to people who belong to different religions who cannot take up arms for religious reasons.

“These people need that human right because of their religion. It’s not a choice for them. Just like Muslims cannot eat pork because of their religion, those people cannot touch a gun because of their religion. But our government just does not care.”

He said that following his release, he would apply to the European Court of Human Rights, but that he does not know what the court will do once the application has been submitted.

On the day of our meeting, a bill was tabled in the north’s ‘parliament’ by opposition party the CTP which would have legalised conscientious objection, but it was rejected by ‘MPs’ from the ruling coalition.

Ruling party UBP ‘MP’ Sunat Atun had cited the fact that Cyprus is currently in a state of ceasefire rather than peace as the reason his party and coalition partners had rejected the bill, but Hurben was, expectedly, not convinced.

“Atun didn’t really understand the situation well. His statements were a bit irrelevant. Technically we are in a state of ceasefire, and I am not trying to get rid of military service completely. I just want to create an option for those who, by their conscience, cannot do it.”

He pointed out that the Greek Cypriot National Guard already recognises conscientious objection, and also his own £6,000 payment which got him out of the bulk of military service.

“So, to pay and not go is okay, but this is not okay?”

Finally, he touched on the reactions he has garnered from the general public, saying he has received “a lot of support”.

“I’m glad to see people thinking the same as me,” he said.

He did note, however, that some people had expressed sentiments along the lines of “if I did something I didn’t want to do, then everyone else should, too.” He said he understands the feeling but not the logic, adding “I don’t want to make people go through the same thing.”

He also said some people had sarcastically asked him if he thinks he is going to change the world, but answered them characteristically.

“No. I am just not doing something I do not want to do.”