On 1 September 2019, World Peace Day, Baraka and Bağımsızlık Yolu (Independence Path) made a statement to the press in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The full press release is as follows:
Today is Sunday. That is to say, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closed today. However, recently, for Turkish Cypriots, it does not mean anything when it is open too.
Today is September 1, World Peace Day. Today, the president of the Republic of Cyprus, does not want a federation and does whatever he can to escape a federal solution. This situation is same for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in trnc (turkish republic of northern cyprus). But none of this change the fact that the common interest of the people living on this island is on federal solution’s side.
Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot must form a federal solution where they can shape our island’s future together as equals. Otherwise, it is not in the interest of the peoples, but of those who became ultra-rich through division and those who have power.
The casinos with hotels that turn our island shores into sewers profit from the division. Universities, which are based on allocated lands, have lost their ties with education and turned into a business, do not invest in their employees and do not even pay their salaries, profit from the division. Construction bosses, who kill immigrant labourers in construction, profit from the division. In the southern part of Cyprus, the church profit from the division by using people’s religious beliefs to bring them against each other and to maintain the status quo for material interest and status. In the northern part of Cyprus, the cults and the leaders of the current Evkaf (Pious Foundations) administration profit from the division.
The fact that there are so many groups that profit from the division and that they have hired spokespersons, make it necessary not to give up the federation but to show a clear attitude on the side of the federation. As long as the negotiations and the will of the peoples for peace on the streets continue, the masks of the Republicans and the two statists in both communities are and will continue to drop.
Today, chauvinists from inside and outside of our island are trying to increase the tension on topics such as natural gas and Maraş toward their profits. Mustafa Akıncı, elected negotiator with the overwhelming support of the people in the northern part of Cyprus, is being bypassed by various groups from the north and south of Cyprus and Ankara. Such efforts are coup attempts against the will of the people.
It should be known that neither the collapse of the negotiating table nor the efforts of the chauvinist elements to increase tension between the peoples will be successful. It is the will of the peoples who will create a federal peace. This will is not only at the negotiating table. Steps such as newly opened border gates and mutual opening of telephone networks are concrete reflections of this will. Those who try to eliminate the peace and the negotiating table should know that peace is not only dependent on the signatures of two people sitting at a table. Peace will be established on the street with a common slogan to be taken in action every day, with the common concerns turned into action for the future of our island, with the loudness of the voice of those organized for a federal order. The streets are not for the hegemons and collaborationists, but for us.
Independent Cyprus, All Peoples are Brothers and Sisters!
