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Economic crisis wraps Turkish Cypriot cabinet in jail stripes

Saturday, August 9, 2008



ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News





The economic crisis and chronic rise in prices have led to unusual acts of protests in northern Cyprus. Successive rises in oil, electricity and grocery prices, and vehicle fees have drawn a strong reaction from civil society.



Prominent unions and nongovernmental organizations in the country have undertaken an unusual campaign of protest. Protestors from 38 labor unions and NGOs published and distributed posters portraying Turkish Cypriot cabinet members as the Dalton brothers from the Lucky Luke cartoons, daily Kıbrıs Postası reported. Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer, Foreign Minister Turgay Avcı, Finance Minister Ahmet Uzun, and Labor and Social Security Minister Sonay Adem are pictured as Avarell, Joe, Jack and William Dalton, who rob banks and trains in the cartoon.



The press statement at the back of the posters, titled “Price hikes are not fate,” called on the public to put the posters up in their offices, houses and cars. It said the government “ripped off the people despite the discourse of self-rule.” Therefore the members of the cabinet, who are like the Daltons because of their offenses against the public, earned themselves the title “Zamtons,” it said. Labor union members also hung posters in their offices reading “For sale. Apply to the Prime Ministry.”



On another front, the Northern Cyprus Hoteliers Association has put its hotels up for sale, placing ads in newspapers. Expressing its criticism of the government's tourism policies via the ads, the association's published statement read, “In order to save our honor, we decided to sell our hotels.”



Meanwhile Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Ferdi Sabit Soyer said they had “asked YTL 200 million from Turkey, but Ankara did not give them any money,” daily Milliyet reported Friday. Opposition parties claimed that the Soyer government had burdened the economy with over-employment.