Turkish language professor Oguz Karakartal was called as a witness on Friday as the trial of Cypriot journalist Ali Kismir, who stands accused of having “insulted” the Turkish Cypriot armed forces, continued.

Kismir was put on trial after he had likened the headquarters of the ‘TRNC security forces command’ to a ‘brothel’ in a post on Facebook in 2020, after the building had allegedly been visited by representatives of Ersin Tatar in the run-up to that October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

Karakartal, who is the head of the European University of Lefka’s Turkish language and literature department, first faced questions from prosecutor Hasan Bosnak.

He told the court he had received threats over his appearance as a witness, saying, “despite my polite behaviour, the matter escalated”.

“They called me and said ‘you are a sycophant of the state’, and then hung up on me. Despite being a third-generation person from Istanbul, I buried my mother in this land as it is my spiritual home. I am not a spiteful person, but if such things continue, I will take legal action,” he said.

He first faced questions from prosecutor Hasan Bosnak, who asked him whether Kismir’s use of language in the Facebook post entailed “any insult or humiliation” in the direction of the ‘TRNC security forces command’, and answered in the affirmative.

Defence lawyer and Cyprus Turkish bar association chairman Hasan Esendagli then began his line of questioning, first asking Karakartal about his political affiliation.

Karakartal told him he is an “Ataturk nationalist”, but that his “intellectual personality is always above this”.

Esendagli then asked what his stance on the the ‘TRNC security forces command’ is, with Karakartal answering that “we were taught to be respectful of state institutions”.

Esendagli then brought up the matter of Karakartal’s social media activity and his posts in support of Turkish military activities, saying that on account of this, Karakartal’s position regarding the “insulting” nature of the Facebook post is “not objective”.

The pair then exchanged questions and answers regarding the wording of Kismir’s post, with Karakartal insisting that the reference to the building as a “brothel” was an attack on its owner, saying, “there is disdain for the whole place”.

He did, however, concede that in this analogy, it was politicians and not soldiers who are the “prostitutes”, but said that since the ‘TRNC security forces command’ is the “brothel operator”, the post constitutes an “insult by reference to the ‘TRNC security forces command’”.

After questioning was completed, the case was adjourned until next Wednesday.

Earlier on Friday, a total of five countries’ diplomatic missions in Cyprus had expressed their support for Kismir, while Lieutenant Colonel Cengiz Dogan told the court at the first hearing on November 26 that the post had actually made people cry.