Turkish Cypriot electricity workers’ trade union El-Sen went on strike on Monday after a worker suffered serious injuries following an explosion at a transformer station last week, with the striking workers demanding better physical protection for those working on electricity infrastructure, and demanding answers over five years’ worth of missing financial statements from Turkish Cypriot electricity authority Kib-Tek.

The workers gathered outside Kib-Tek’s headquarters in Nicosia, a stone’s throw from the transformer station, and in the morning barricaded the building’s entrance, refusing to allow Kib-Tek board members to enter it.

One board member, Baris Tilki, found himself outside the building in his car  while the strike was going on during the morning, and was confronted by El-Sen leader Ahmet Tugcu, who asked him a series of questions.

“Why have investments not been made until now? Why has the necessary value not been given to the workers? Why have the necessary uniforms not been purchased for Arif Ozkirac and other Kib-Tek workers? Why are workers getting injured?” he asked, with Arif Ozkiraf the name of the worker who remains in intensive care after the explosion.

He later told newspaper Yeniduzen that Tilki is an “illegal board member” as he has private energy interests in the solar energy industry – something which the legislation governing Kib-Tek’s operation expressly prohibits.

Additionally, he accused the Kib-Tek board of attempting to offer promotions to “three cronies” in the authority’s upper echelons, with the offering of promotions in bodies run by the Turkish Cypriot authorities set to be restricted later this week in advance of elections which will take place in December.

Matters became more heated later in the day, however, with workers then entering the building and a scuffle breaking out inside.

It was then alleged that Kibris Genc TV journalist Ahmet Karagozlu was physically prevented from filming the matter, and that the screen of his mobile phone was broken during the incident. He has reported the incident to the police.

At the end of the day, Tugcu promised that the strike would continue on Tuesday and beyond if his union’s demands are not met.

Chairman of board allegedly demanded $200k in bribes

Those demands, he said, are that “the requisite clothing and equipment” be ensured for workers, that personnel not be appointed without vacancies being publicly announced and examinations being taken by all applicants, that promotions not be given without written examinations, and that the man accused of “attacking” Karagozlu inside the building be relieved of his duties.

Late last week, questions were raised regarding Kib-Tek’s financial records, with no financial statement having been published by the authority since 2020.

Additionally, newspaper Yeniduzen reported that Kib-Tek’s chairman of the board Gursel Uzun had allegedly demanded a bribe of $200,000 from those who wished to participate in a scrap metal auction.

The newspaper reported that a company by the name of Omeryan Construction had won the first auction in July, but that the auction was retroactively cancelled after Kib-Tek complained that it had received the paperwork late. Omeryan Construction then reportedly took legal action against Kib-Tek.

After this, another auction was held on September 22, and won by another company, called Asbuzu, with it alleged that the announcements of the cancellation of the first auction and the scheduling of the second were “not adequately communicated”.

In light of this, it was alleged that both Uzun and his deputy chairman Yalcin Kocyigit had demanded bribes from companies participating in the auction.

Uzun then announced on Saturday that he planned to sue Yeniduzen for defamation, describing the newspaper as “the mouthpiece of the opposing party” and dismissing the claim of bribery as “street gossip”.