The north has averted a looming energy crisis after a boat carrying fuel oil to power its power stations, which had initially been seized by the Turkish authorities, was allowed to complete its journey to the island.
The north’s electricity authority Kib-Tek’s general manager Dalman Aydin told the north’s public broadcaster BRT on Wednesday evening that the ship, the Yeni Yuzyil, was located off the coast of Kyrenia, and would be unloaded once weather conditions allow.
Unloading, he added, would commence as soon as Friday should the seas be calm. Satellite data obtained by the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday evening showed the Yeni Yuzyil to be located off Kyrenia’s Alagadi beach.
It appears that the ship was allowed to leave Turkey’s Hatay province’s Iskenderun port after it was found that its links to an alleged organised crime ring were more tenuous than first believed.
News website Kibris Postasi reported that the Aktas family, whose patriarch Aziz Ihsan Aktas was one of around 40 people so far arrested as part of the investigations, and their company Ickale had only incidentally worked with Guven Holding, the ship’s operator, and that there would be “no legal obstacle” to its voyage to Cyprus.
They added that it was Guven Holding and not Ickale which had been tasked by the Turkish Petroleum International Corporation (TPic) with bringing fuel to the north.
However, Kib-Tek employees’ union El-Sen leader Ahmet Tugcu was less than convinced, telling newspaper Yeni Duzen on Wednesday that Ickale is “currently sitting on Kib-Tek like a nightmare”.
He also pointed his finger squarely at the north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli, who served as ‘energy minister’ between 2020 and 2021 under ‘prime minister’ Ersan Saner, for allowing Ickale into Turkish Cypriot affairs.
“When Erhan Arikli was energy minister, Ickale’s name first started to be heard around fuel purchases without tenders. Later, it came to the forefront in transportation,” he said, before also saying that Ickale is one of “three companies which Kib-Tek is currently working with which is close to the [Turkish] AK Party government”.
The others, he said, are energy company Aksa and Turkey’s state-owned Electricity Generation Company (Euas).
“We believe Ickale is not the right company. Ickale is a company supported by the AK Party government in Turkey. It is currently sitting on Kib-Tek like a nightmare. I am not surprised at all that Ickale is behind the latest agreement, even though it was made with TPic,” he said.

Aziz Ihsan Aktas stands accused of being at the centre of an organised crime ring which had rigged government contracts in Turkey and secured itself billions of liras worth of funding before laundering the assets.
Turkish newspaper Takvim reported that related company Bilginay has received billions of Turkish liras’ worth of tenders from the Greater Istanbul municipality.
Meanwhile, Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet reported links between Bilginay and Turkey’s parliament, Turkish Airlines, and other central-government affiliated institutions, with tenders once again running into the billions of liras.
Aktas was one of around 40 other people in Istanbul on suspicion of bribing government officials, rigging government tenders, laundering their gains, and other related crimes, with Istanbul’s Besiktas mayor Riza Akpolat also among those arrested.
Outside of Besiktas, investigations were also launched into tenders won by Aktas’ family members in Istanbul’s Esenyurt municipality, though he denies any knowledge of any of his relatives’ business dealings there and claims he was “not acquainted” with former Esenyurt mayor Ahmet Ozer, who was sacked in October for alleged links to proscribed terrorist organisations.
An investigation into Aktas has also been launched in the city of Diyarbakir, where former mayor Huseyin Beyoglu was named among the defendants.
Some have already made links between tenders won by Aktas and his family and the possibility of underhand methods in securing tenders elsewhere in Turkey and further afield.
News website Bugun Kibris reported that in the summer of 2022, Ickale made over US$53 million (€50.9m) from fuel shipments to Cyprus.
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