Erhurman welcomes journalist Kismir to official residence

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on Monday welcomed journalist Ali Kismir to his official residence in the northern sector of the Nicosia suburb of Ayios Dhometios, with Kismir still facing up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of having “insulted” the Turkish Cypriot armed forces.

Kismir was welcomed by Erhurman in his capacity as the leader of Turkish Cypriot press workers’ trade union Basin-Sen, and, according to Erhurman’s office “briefed [Erhurman on the union’s contacts and activities”.

The case against Kismir was indefinitely adjourned pending a decision last month. He allegedly “insulted” the Turkish Cypriot armed forces in a Facebook post in which he likened their headquarters to a brothel after it had allegedly been visited by representatives of Ersin Tatar in the run-up to the 2020 Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

Tatar won that election, but lost his bid for re-election last year, being unseated by Tufan Erhurman in a landslide.

At previous court hearings, his lawyers have argued that the law against “insulting” the Turkish Cypriot armed forces in and of itself is not compliant with the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution.

Earlier, it had been said that the Turkish Cypriot police had begun investigating Kismir before a complaint had been filed against him, with high-profile lawyer Mine Atli telling the Cyprus Mail at the time that “if this is true, it is a massive deal”.

“For any investigation to be undertaken, there needs to be a complaint. Even when you see big scandals and the police are asked why they have not begun investigating, they say they are waiting for a complaint to be filed,” she said.

Lieutenant Colonel Cengiz Dogan was the first witness to be called in the case, telling the court that Kismir’s words had actually made people cry, while the second witness was the European University of Lefka’s Turkish language professor Oguz Karakartal.

Kismir’s lawyer and Cyprus Turkish bar association chairman Hasan Esendagli had argued in court that Karakartal’s position on the matter is “not objective”, given that Karakartal had made frequent posts on social media in support of Turkish military activities.

Esendagli and Karakartal had then exchanged questions and answers regarding the wording of Kismir’s post, with Karakartal insisting that the reference to the building as a “brothel” was an attack on its owner, saying, “there is disdain for the whole place”.

He did, however, concede that in this analogy, it was politicians and not soldiers who are the “prostitutes”, but said that since the ‘TRNC security forces command’ is the “brothel operator”, the post constitutes an “insult by reference to the ‘TRNC security forces command’”.

Meanwhile, five diplomatic missions in Cyprus offered their support to Kismir, with former United States ambassador in Nicosia Julie Davis describing the trial as “a critical moment for press freedom”.