Ustel goes on attack over north power cuts

The north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel on Sunday evening levelled criticism at political opposition and the Republic of Cyprus as the north suffered a third day of power cuts after an explosion at a substation on Friday, while also suggesting that that explosion may have been caused by sabotage, internal or external.

He said the ongoing power cuts “have led us to reevaluate the energy issue in the broadest sense”.

“It is impossible not to be aware of the problems a power outage can cause. The duration, of course, matters. However, even a brief outage in a vital area can have dire consequences,” he said, before taking aim first at the Republic of Cyprus.

“The Turkish Cypriot people have been at the mercy of the Greek Cypriot administration regarding electricity for many years,” he said, going on to explain that all electricity in the north had been supplied by the electricity authority (EAC) until the 1990s.

“Construction of the Teknecik power station began in 1990 with a $125 million investment from Turkey, and two units were commissioned in 1995 and 1996. When Teknecik was opened, the Greek Cypriot side cut off the electricity which was part of our partnership rights as founders of the Republic of Cyprus,” he said.

He then recounted that an explosion at the Teknecik power station, which is located near Kyrenia, shortly after its opening, “knocked out half our grid, and we were forced to experience the longest power outage in our history”.

On this matter, he was keen to point out that his party, the UBP, was not in power at the time, and that “the opposition of the day exploiting [the explosion] for political purposes would have been out of the question”.

He then returned the criticism offered to the north’s ruling coalition by opposition figures and trade union leaders, saying that “trying to make political gain from problems does not align with societal conscience”.

Returning to the issue of the power cuts themselves, he said studies aimed at “definitively determining” the cause of the explosion at the substation are ongoing, and then outlined the contents of the cabinet meeting which had taken place earlier in the day.

“We listened to information from [the north’s electricity authority] Kib-Tek and the police. After listening, we decided to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the malfunction and other effects in a multifaceted manner, taking into account all possibilities, including conscious or unconscious negligence and external interference with the system,” he said.

He said he expects the police’s investigation into the matter to “quickly reach a conclusion”, and that Kib-Tek will also conduct its own investigation.

In addition, he said, the north has now requested support from Turkey, with an “expert team” set to arrive on the island to “investigate the matter from all perspectives”.

That team, he said, will arrive from Turkey “in a few days” and “conduct a thorough investigation at all levels and prepare a comprehensive report”.

He then said that all these investigations will be completed “within 15 days at the latest”, and that their findings “will be shared will the public”.

“If anyone is guilty or was negligent, necessary action will be taken, and no mercy will be given. No one has the right to inflict such hardship on our people,” he said.

Then, he moved onto the matter of electricity generation at large, and said that “in addition to the natural population growth in our country, people from Turkey and other countries who choose to live here permanently, as well as tourists and students also consume energy”.

“We must develop solutions to increase energy capacity, taking all population forecasts into account. Of course, we know that our current power generation technology is not environmentally friendly. Solar energy, in a sense, is a gift from God. We must utilise it to the fullest extent possible,” he said.

However, he said, the long-term solution to the north’s energy problems lies in Turkey.

“As long as we do not secure an electrical interconnection with Turkey, we will continue to face multifaceted problems in electricity and power generation,” he said, adding, “we must build an interconnection cable with our motherland, Turkey, as soon as possible”.

However, his criticism of the opposition only served to draw further criticism in return, with opposition party the CTP’s secretary-general Erkut Sahali taking umbrage at Ustel’s assertion that “trying to make political gain from problems does not align with societal conscience”.

“The subject is electricity and Kib-Tek, which is directly subordinate to his own office. He is directly responsible. While Kib-Tek has been under Unal’s control, he has constantly neglected his duty and took it through corrupt tenders and distributed the funds to profiteering circles,” Sahali said.

“What you have created is a substation that explodes, power plants that fail, transmission lines that break, infrastructure that collapses from neglect. You are running away from reality by talking about the Greek Cypriots, sabotage, and imaginary projects. This is not working. You are incapable.”