NICOSIA: The leader of breakaway northern Cyprus, Mustafa Akinci, stood firm in the face of calls to resign on Monday after criticizing Turkey’s military offensive in Syria.
Akinci, president of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, took the rare step over the weekend of criticizing Turkey, the only country that recognizes the TRNC.
“Even if we call it ‘Peace Spring’, it is blood that is spilling and not water,” he wrote on Facebook, referring to the codename of the Turkish military operation against Kurdish-held northeast Syria launched last Wednesday.
He also called for “dialogue and diplomacy.”
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded on Sunday that the Turkish Cypriot leader had “totally overstepped his bounds.”
Erdogan warned: “At the given time, we will deliver an appropriate response.”
Akinci’s opponents in northern Nicosia called an extraordinary session of parliament Monday to press for his resignation, saying he had damaged ties with the country’s only patron.
But Akinci rejected the complaints as “unjust,” although he sought to nuance his remarks on Facebook.
“It is our common desire that Turkey gets rid of the scourge of terrorism that it has suffered a lot,” he said in a statement.
“However, I believe that it’s time for the war... on Syrian soil to come to an end,” he added.
Undaunted, Akinci asked: “Since when has defending peace become a crime?” And he added that the divided Mediterranean island’s Turkish Cypriots were not dependent on Ankara’s patronage.
“Turkey has done more than anyone to support the Turkish Cypriot people and state. However, Turkish Cypriots have reached their current position through their own great struggles,” he said.
The republic was created after Turkey invaded northern Cyprus in 1974 following a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece, and it has remained divided.
Akinci also said that Turkey, which still maintains 30,000-40,000 troops in the TRNC, should focus on improving its relations with the European Union, which has condemned the Turkish offensive in Syria.
The Greek Cypriot-run Republic of Cyprus in the south, a country which Ankara does not recognize, is an EU member.
North Cyprus head stands firm in row over Turkey criticism
North Cyprus head stands firm in row over Turkey criticism
- Akinci’s opponents in northern Nicosia called an extraordinary session of parliament Monday to press for his resignation, saying he had damaged ties with the country’s only patron
- Akinci said that Turkey, which still maintains 30,000-40,000 troops in the TRNC, should focus on improving its relations with the EU, which has condemned the Turkish offensive in Syria
US border agent shoots and wounds two people in Portland
- The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement
A US immigration agent shot and wounded a man and a woman in Portland, Oregon, authorities said on Thursday, leading local officials to call for calm given public outrage over the ICE shooting death of a Minnesota woman a day earlier.
“We understand the heightened emotion and tension many are feeling in the wake of the shooting in Minneapolis, but I am asking the community to remain calm as we work to learn more,” Portland police chief Bob Day said in a statement.
The Portland shooting unfolded Thursday afternoon as US Border Patrol agents were conducting a targeted vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
The statement said the driver, a suspected Venezuelan gang member, attempted to “weaponize” his vehicle and run over the agents. In response, DHS said, “an agent fired a defensive shot” and the driver and a passenger drove away.
Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances of the incident.
Portland police said that the shooting took place near a medical clinic in eastern Portland. Six minutes after arriving at the scene and determining federal agents were involved in the shooting, police were informed that two people with gunshot wounds — a man and a woman — were asking for help at a location about 2 miles (3 km) to the northeast of the medical clinic.
Police said they applied tourniquets to the man and woman, who were taken to a hospital. Their condition was unknown.
The shooting came just a day after a federal agent from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a separate agency within the Department of Homeland Security, fatally shot a 37-year-old mother of three in her car in Minneapolis.
That shooting has prompted two days of protests in Minneapolis. Officers from both ICE and Border Patrol have been deployed in cities across the United States as part of Republican President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
While the aggressive enforcement operations have been cheered by the president’s supporters, Democrats and civil rights activists have decried the posture as an unnecessary provocation.
US officials contend criminal suspects and anti-Trump activists have increasingly used their cars as weapons, though video evidence has sometimes contradicted their claims.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said in a statement his city was now grappling with violence at the hands of federal agents and that “we cannot sit by while constitutional protections erode and bloodshed mounts.”
He called on ICE to halt all its operations in the city until an investigation can be completed.
“Federal militarization undermines effective, community-based public safety, and it runs counter to the values that define our region,” Wilson said. “I will use every legal and legislative tool available to protect our residents’ civil and human rights.”
