Turkish Cypriot - Island Talks

Sesta – Episode 3: On the universality of poetry with Nafia Akdeniz (5/3/2022)

Sesta-embracing the colours of culture! In this third episode of Sesta, Meltem Burak talks to the ethnographer and poet Dr Nafia Akdeniz. Nafia is currently working as a senior instructor at Eastern Mediterranean University, as a post-doctoral researcher with Professor Rebecca Bryant who is based in Utrecht University, and she is working on her poetry collection Yarım İnşaat (Under Construction) which will be published in Turkish in March 2022. Throughout the podcast, Nafia elaborates on the politics of poetry; rootlessness and home-seeking; displacement and emplacement, and nostalgia for future. She emphasises the universality of poetry, and the relationship between empathy and poetry,…

Nicosia Uncut – Episode 35: RoC’s U-turn from sanctions to CBMs (17/2/2022)

Handover ceremony of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the newly-appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Ioannis Kasoulides, by the outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Nikos Christodoulides. (Photo by CNA)

Since the collapse of the talks in Crans Montana, Anastasiades government has dedicated all its foreign policy capital in isolating Turkey through various diplomatic tools. Apart from a number of regional agreements (which were highlighted with tantamount ceremonies), the Republic of Cyprus has used its EU membership to push, unsuccessfully, for European sanctions against Turkey. The Greek Cypriot mainstream media did not hesitate to portray such "glorious diplomatic victories" on their front pages, radio and TV stations were filled with strategic experts praising government's strategic steps in the international arena. It seems that all went down the drain after…

Buffering – Episode 13: The times, they are dark! (12/2/2022)

Yiorgos Kakouris and Esra Aygın, two Cypriot journalists living and working abroad bring the dispatches from the alternate Cypriot universe! In this episode they discussed the assassination of a Turkish Cypriot businessman who is alleged to have dark connections in and outside Cyprus. Also, they shed a light on the latest situation in the famous camp where many immigrants are held behind fences by the authorities.

Buffering – Episode 12: Elections, elections and animal welfare (27/1/2022)

They are back! Buffering podcast of the two Cypriot journalists, Esra Aygın and Yiorgos Kakouris, continue to bring you dispatches from the alternate Cypriot universe. In this episode, they provide you all the insights of the elections in the north and the latest developments towards the upcoming Presidential elections in the Republic of Cyprus. And they prove to be an animal friendly podcast!

Decode Cyprus – Episode 1: Evaluating the Turkish Cypriot elections (25/1/2022)

Decode Cyprus - because in Cyprus, nothing is as it looks. In this first episode of Decode Cyprus, Esra Aygın and Lefteris Adilinis, two journalists from Cyprus discuss the Turkish Cypriot parliamentary elections that took place on 23 January 2022. The results are as follows: Faiz Sucuoğlu's UBP (right-wing nationalist): 39.61% -24 seats; Tufan Erhürman's CTP (left-wing social democrat): 31.91% - 18 seats; Fikri Ataoğlu's DP (right-wing liberal): 7.42% - 3 seats; Kudret Özersay's HP (centrist): 6.69% - 3 seats; Erhan Arıklı's YDP (right-wing of the Turkish origin voters): 6.44% - 2 seats. Total 50 seats. TDP (left-wing social…

Nicosia Uncut – Episode 34: Cyprus: The land of pipe dreams (14/1/2022)

Cyprus is the land of impossible fantasies. One side thinks that the international community is now ready to accept a "two-state solution" in Cyprus, the other tries to play a global chess-game with a non-feasible, unrealistic "East Med Pipeline Project", something which was doomed to fail from the beginning. In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykalli discuss how the East Med Pipeline Project has falsely been promoted as a diplomatic success story for the internal consumption by the Greek Cypriot politicians. In the local scene, we have the elections mood in the air: The Turkish…

Nicosia Uncut – Episode 33: TCs hit by currency, RoC’s illusions on EU sanctions collapsed (20/12/2021)

The Turkish Cypriot economy is badly hit following the meltdown of the Turkish lira. Being an import oriented economy based on services, economy in the north was already fragile due to the pandemic. The depreciation of the Turkish lira affected northern part of the island even more than Turkey since the slider at the volume of trade is almost maxed on the import side, whereas the Turkish Cypriot exports are almost non-existent. In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı also talk about the EU's Green Line Regulation which regulates the crossing of people, goods and…

Nicosia Uncut – Episode 32: Cyprus problem: What do the leaked UN minutes tell us? (3/12/2021)

In this special episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı discuss and analyse the content, context and the implications of the leaked UN minutes with the delegations on the last day (6 July 2017) of the Cyprus conference in Crans Montana which ended without any agreement. Also known as "Crash Montana", the failure effectively ended the efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem, leading to a blame game between the sides since then. The leaked UN minutes, as collected on this episode page - www.islandtalks.fm , demonstrated how the chapter on security and guarantees was the main source of disagreement in an environment heavily fortified with mistrust. The leaked documents also shed some light on the role of the UN and the EU in the latest talks.

Nicosia Uncut – Episode 31: Rivalries in UBP & DISY; Erdoğan’s deteriorating popularity (3/11/2021)

In this episode of Nicosia Uncut, Andromachi Sophocleous and Kemal Baykallı explore the reconciliation initiatives in Cyprus - Home for Cooperation, Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage in Cyprus, Cyprus Dialogue Forum, Famagusta Avenue Garage and The Base by Cyprusinno are few to name. In the local politics, Turkish Cypriot right wing UBP party had a leadership race, electing Dr.Faiz Sucuoğlu as the new leader of the party and the new PM until the early elections which is expected to take place in early 2022. 2023 presidential elections of RoC enhanced the rivalries within the Greek Cypriot right wing DISY party, some independents have already announced that they are running. Last but not least, the West is cautiously waiting for the 2023 elections in Turkey, and it seems that Erdoğan is finally losing steam according to the latest polls.

Nicosia Uncut – Episode 30: More elections, more tensions (14/10/2021)

Summer is over and all sides are now focused on upcoming elections on both parts of the divide in Cyprus and in Turkey. Turkish Cypriot minority coalition finally collapsed the day after this episode was recorded. Both Turkey and the Republic of Cyprus have presidential elections in 2023 and the tension around the waters of Cyprus is likely to rise again. Turkey put its diplomatic skills at test on multiple fronts but the prospects for Turkish-American and Turkish-Russian relations do not look very promising. In the meantime, both communities are feeling the economic effects of the pandemic, Turkish Cypriots…