Politics Collective
The last 50 years of the island of Cyprus cannot be separated from Turkey’s recent political history. In particular, attacks and massacres against Turks in Cyprus in the 1960s and 70s created political tension between Turkey, Greece, Britain and the US, extending beyond the island itself.
Turkey’s military intervention on the island, as a NATO member, against the attacks of the fascist junta in Greece was first halted by US President Lyndon Johnson’s famous letter to İnönü, and then, following the intervention in 1974 during Ecevit’s premiership, the US sanctioned Turkey with heavy embargoes.
Turkey’s attempt to establish political dominance over the northern half of the island triggered critical political developments, murders and organisations on both sides of the Mediterranean.
After the Second World War, the future of the island, which was under British control, was a major agenda item for both Turkey and Greece. Following the establishment of EOKA, a separatist, racist, fascist organisation modelled on Zionist terrorist organisations in Greece, the Turks on the island also established an armed resistance organisation called the Turkish Resistance Organisation (TMT) during the Democratic Party era. The TMT was affiliated with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), and everything from its training to its financing and organisational structure was determined by the army. In opposition to EOKA’s aim of annexing Cyprus to Greece, the TMT advocated for a plan called the Partition Plan, arguing that Northern Cyprus should become a city of Turkey.
Indeed, although the political situation on the island became somewhat clearer after Turkey’s interventions in 1964 and 1974, which were met with threats and embargoes from the US, the relationship between Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus became increasingly complicated, centred around actors who emerged from the counter-guerrilla and TMT, which were supported by the US in Turkey.
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THE MURDERS OF GÜRKAN AND HİKMET
Even before the 1964 intervention, the political leadership of the Turkish people in Cyprus was a significant source of tension. In the climate following 27 May, Ahmet Muzaffer Gürkan and Ayhan Hikmet, who accused Rauf Denktaş and Fazlı Küçük of being supporters of Menderes, pursued a policy aligned with the independence of the newly established republic on the island. This political stance made the two leaders targets of the TMT and the Special Warfare Department to which it was affiliated. Similar to the attacks against revolutionary students and intellectuals in Turkey, acts of violence and provocation were carried out on the island by the TMT. Gürkan and Hikmet, who blamed the TMT and Denktaş for the mosque bombings on the island in 1962, subsequently became targets of violent incidents. Accused of being admirers of the British and the Greeks, Gürkan and Hikmet were killed by TMT militants on 23 April 1962 as they left a venue where they had been sitting together.
THE ADALI MURDER
Political murders, counter-guerrilla and mafia relations in Cyprus continued in the darkness of the 1990s and under the AKP government. In 1996, Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adalı was killed in an armed attack outside his home. Adalı, who had been the target of attacks in the past for his political criticism, was most recently targeted for his persistent reporting on a robbery at the St. Barnabas Monastery. Approximately 20 years after the murder, organised crime leader Sedat Peker claimed that Korkut Eken, a member of the Special Warfare Department known for his past connections to figures such as Mehmet Ağar, Çatlı and Çakıcı in relation to the Kutlu Adalı murder, had contacted him and sent his brother Atilla Peker to the island to carry out the murder, but that they had been unsuccessful.
THE ANNAN PLAN
During its first term, the AKP was engaged in negotiations with the EU on the Cyprus issue. The AKP government supported the Annan Plan, named after then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and attempted to make a political solution in Cyprus part of Turkey’s EU accession process, welcoming all requests from Brussels during this period.
However, despite the Turkish side’s 65 % support in the referendum held on both sides of the island in April 2004, the Annan Plan failed due to the Greek side’s 75.38 % “no” vote, and the AKP steered the island onto a different political course.
THE TRIANGLE OF GAMBLING, DRUGS AND POLITICS
The murder of Halil Falyalı in 2022 once again exposed the complex relationship between the government and the mafia in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC). Falyalı, whose criminal record included illegal betting, drug smuggling, money laundering, and threats, continued to own hotels, marinas, and casinos on the island due to the KKTC’s autonomous status. He was killed on 8 February 2022 when the vehicle he was in was sprayed with automatic weapons fire, which was reported in the press as a settling of scores between criminal organisations. However, mafia leaders such as Sedat Peker and Behçet Töre suggested that Falyalı’s murder may have been politically motivated, not just related to organised crime. Peker claimed that Falyalı had established a cocaine route between Colombia and Turkey with Erkam Yıldırım, the son of Binali Yıldırım. Peker also claimed that Falyalı possessed tapes of many politicians. Indeed, a year before his death, when Falyalı was arrested, an obscene tape allegedly belonging to KKTC Prime Minister Ersan Saner was released. Various figures from Cypriot politics had also claimed on several occasions that Falyalı had built himself a political shield through bribery and threats in politics.
Indeed, Falyalı became one of the symbolic figures of the crime and money laundering network established by the AKP-MHP alliance in the KKTC. But the scandals on the island are not exclusive to Falyalı. The intensification of casinos, illegal betting, drugs and prostitution, especially in the last 10 years, had even made it onto the agenda of the KKTC parliament. In such a period, the fact that figures such as Mesut Özil, who was allegedly caught on camera using drugs in the past, Yavuz Bingöl, who has been accused of gambling addiction, and Süleyman Soylu, who has been photographed with many mafia leaders, were campaigning for the election on the island, and that Bahçeli, who publicly exonerated the mafia leader Çakıcı, called for a coup after the election, reveals the reasons behind the Palace’s affection for Cyprus.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Kuzey Kıbrıs’ta sağın karanlık tarihi, published in BirGün newspaper on October 26, 2025.
