‘Where are Turkish Cypriots evacuated from Gaza?’

The question of where the Turkish Cypriots evacuated from Gaza since violence began in the area in October was raised on Tuesday by a Turkish Cypriot politician.

In a statement on social media, minor party MDP leader Buray Buskuvutcu criticised the ‘foreign ministry’ for being “insensitive” regarding the matter of Turkish Cypriots being stranded in or evacuated from Gaza.

He said the ‘ministry’ “has not been doing adequate work”, and said a crisis desk should have been set up to deal with the matter.

He also called on ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu to “share clear information” on the matter, and asked “how many of these people came to this country? What is their situation?”

The situation regarding the number of Turkish Cypriots evacuated from Gaza has been unclear for some time.

At the last official update on November 20, the north’s ‘foreign ministry’ announced that a total of 27 Turkish Cypriots had been evacuated into Egypt via the Rafah border crossing the previous day.

A month prior, on October 19, the north’s ‘foreign ministry’ had confirmed that 150 Turkish Cypriots and their relatives had been evacuated from Israel and Palestine.

On the same day, Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ahmet Yildiz said there were 104 Turkish Cypriots inside Gaza.

More recently, on December 13, Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Oncu Keceli said a total of 1,047 Turks, Turkish Cypriots, and their relatives had been evacuated from Gaza since October 8.

However, the Turkish foreign ministry at the time turned down the Cyprus Mail’s requests for clarification regarding how many of the 1,047 were Turkish Cypriots.