Cyprus’ first Vice President Dr Fazil Kucuk and his successor Rauf Denktash, who went on to serve as Turkish Cypriot leader for over three decades, were remembered at ceremonies in the north on the anniversaries of their deaths.
Monday was the 13th anniversary of Denktash’s death, with a ceremony held at his mausoleum in Kioneli attended by incumbent Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, Turkey’s ambassador in the north Yasin Ekrem Serim, and other high profile Turkish Cypriots.
Tatar gave a speech at the ceremony, saying Denktash was “a leader who continued his fight for the Turkish Cypriot people’s independence with his love for Anatolia and Turkey”.
He also said his own support for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem is “a legacy left to us by Rauf Denktash”.
“We share his legacy with the international community every day. If there is to be an agreement in Cyprus, it can be based on a two-state solution, and only on that basis can the Turkish Cypriot people continue to exist in safe hands,” he said.
Later the same day, he said he is “happy to have taken over Denktash’s will and legacy”, and described Denktash as a “great statesman, leader, and negotiator”.
At the same event, Denktash’s grandson, also named Rauf Denktash, said, “he was not just a leader, but also a child of his people, a symbol of the struggle, and a beacon of freedom”.
“With his will, intelligence, and diplomacy, and his unwavering devotion to his people, he proclaimed the Turkish Cypriot people’s fight for freedom to the world,” he said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also made a statement, describing Denktash as “the leader of the Cyprus cause”.
Wednesday was the 41st anniversary of Kucuk’s death, with a similar ceremony being held at his mausoleum in the Nicosia suburb of Mandres, attended by Tatar, Talat, Serim, and other high-profile Turkish Cypriots, as well as Turkey’s Family Minister Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas, who was in Cyprus to meet Tatar the same day.
At the ceremony, Tatar said Kucuk had “made Turkey take the Cyprus issue seriously” by way of making “frequent visits” to the country alongside Denktash and establishing relations with the country’s government.
He also made multiple references at the ceremony and later in the day to Kucuk’s remark that “the Turkish Cypriot people cannot exist without the motherland, Turkey”.
At a later event, he said, “Kucuk brought the Turkish Cypriots from a community to being an equal founding partner of the Republic of Cyprus”,
“The Turkish Cypriot people have come this far by following his path with the torch he lit,” he added.
His daughter Selen Suheyla Kucuk also spoke at that event, saying her grandfather was born “to a farming family” before completing high school in Istanbul and then university in Switzerland, qualifying as a doctor, before returning to Cyprus and founding the Halkin Sesi newspaper.
“My grandfather travelled from village to village to inform his people about the fight for freedom. His own children, my father and aunt, almost never saw him. My grandfather left his own family in the background for his people, because there was a fight to be won,” she said.
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