Gürcafer: “So long as we do not do what we have to do, someone will always write the wrong script and ship it to us”

Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association (CTBCA) Cafer Gürcafer stated that the Draft Law on Acquisition of Real Estate and Long-Term Rentals alone will not be sufficient, and that an adjustment in the Citizenship Law was needed, and noted that a correct determination of the target market should be conducted, as well as other arrangements should be made that will not affect the loss of our customs, impact on our demographic structure and will not adversely affect our culture and traditions.

Stating that random marketing of dwellings and marketing dwellings in markets randomly will harm the country, Gürcafer said, “We should not deal with the housing sector alone. For example, it is necessary to consider the tertiary education sector as a whole. What is more, it is necessary to consider the Immigration Law as a part of this as well,” he said.

Gürcafer expressed that the supporting the demands of foreigners regarding the increase of the right to own housing from 1 to 5 is a very detailed and well-studied project by CTBCA, and went on to state that if this project is delivered as the CTBCA believes it should, the outcome will make a very important and sustainable contribution to the country’s tourism sector.

Cafer Gürcafer said, “For this project; we predicated our work on package of 20 thousand residences,’’ and further clarified that, ‘’this project, with the right marketing techniques, is one that will allow approximately 1 million tourists to come to the country every year.”

CTBCA President Cafer Gürcafer said: Tourism is and will be the locomotive for this country.  Plus, there will be a livestock sector that will feed tourism. Industry will likewise support it too. Construction as well in a similar fashion. We will achieve this goal, but money is needed until we reach it. Here, the construction sector is a sector that serves tourism as it stands well as contribute to the ‘to be’ tourism model. The multiplier effect of dwelling sales is around a percentage of its input to the State. This revenue needs to be properly planned and channelled to the right places. Especially after the pandemic, millions of people now want to spend their retirement like tourists in small countries on a monthly basis. If they experience this within a hotel, the multiplier effect is negligible, if they spend it outside, it is much more. There is an example of this in İskele.

This model is well developed in Malta and Southern Cyprus. We also need to get our share of this in a planned way. Therefore; with what we said, ‘Let the right of foreigners to own housing be increased from 1 to 5’, we declared that this project aims to let foreigners rent these houses in their own countries and send tourists to our country. In this context, if 20-25 thousand houses are treated in this way, approximately 1 million tourists would come to this country annually. If you increase this, the number of tourists will increase accordingly. For example, we need to improve our marketing policy. We also need to be mindful of our demographic structure and our peace of mind. This is where the Immigration Law comes into play. It is necessary to regulate the Immigration Law accordingly.

THE ANXIETY OVER ‘BEING ESTRANGED FROM OUR LAND’

The amount of land needed for the construction of 20 thousand houses within the framework of Chapter 96 is 1000 acres. This country is 2 million 455 thousand acres from one end to the other.

We are talking about 1 million tourists with 20 thousand houses built on 1000 acres. Whereas, a wrongly issued citizenship gives one person the right to purchase 10 thousand acres of land. Furthermore, the place to search for the ‘why’ of the concern about being estranged from our lands is not in the construction industry. It’s in the Citizenship Act.”

“STRUCTURAL DEFECTS MADE THE TRNC MORE DEPENDENT TO TURKEY”

CTBCA President Cafer Gürcafer noted that we have structural defects in the country from past to present and that these structural defects prevent us from developing both our country’s economy and our social life, as well as making the TRNC more dependent on Turkey.

Mentioning that these structural defects are included in the protocol signed with Turkey, Gürcafer said, “I do not think that these structural defects will be rectified by their inclusion in the protocol. This is something else and there is no need to place it in the protocol,” he said.

Gürcafer noted that there were also articles in the protocol that the Turkish Cypriots would never accept, but in general, a little self-criticism should be made and said: “There are points in this protocol that I strongly oppose, but we need to scrutinise why this is so. For years, we have not done what we needed to do in order to become a self-reliant state with a self-sufficient economy. ‘Let’s not raise the price of fuel, let’s not raise the cost of electricity’. So how? We should have implemented our socio-economic development plans that we have always focused on for 50 years. We started to talk about the reform issue when a package came from Turkey. We receive a package every year. If we for example; had made our own socio-economic development plans and went to Turkey and said, ‘We worked with all our expert human resources. We have included our universities, political parties and unions in this. Accordingly, our tourism will be as follows, these will be our agricultural products, this will be the construction sector, our public structure will be like this, and we will nurture our social life like this and do it this way. We will pay a 14^th salary, not just a 13^th salary. But we will arrange it with the income from here. Did we ever say, ‘we are doing this work to prevent the black economy, to prevent tax evasion,’ and were we ever told ‘No’?”

Cafer Gürcafer said that every time a protocol will be signed, we front up to Turkey with a slightly faultier structure. CTBCA President Cafer Gürcafer said, “For example, in these socio-economic development plans that I will make, I will have to reveal and explain the reason for, in an orderly way, which sectors should be 100% in the TRNC, and clarify in which sectors I want foreign capital. Within the socio-economic development plans with which I intend to create employment for my own people, I will nominate the sectors we have completely closed to foreign capital, which sectors we would have partnerships with, and put them before Turkey. There I will advocate that the foreign capital limitation should not be lifted,” he said.

“WE CAN’T GET ANYWHERE BY JUST LASHING OUT”

 Cafer Gürcafer once again drew attention to the importance of socio-economic development plans. Gürcafer said, “We all lash out; fuel should not be hiked. While OPEK raises the price of a barrel, will the gas station subsidize the fuel while the TL is constantly losing value against foreign currencies? How do we subsidize what? I’m not saying this to defend anyone. We need to work on this. Today, the minimum wage must be at least 10 thousand TL. Even 10 thousand TL is not enough, but we have to work on how to pay this 10 thousand TL. If we don’t work on it and just say, ‘give us the money’, then, packages will be prepared for us.

In this package, there are some demands for the elimination of our structural defects. But there are also items that the Turkish Cypriots will never accept. Before we reach such a stage, we must develop those socio-economic development plans that we have always neglected for so long.”

Gürcafer said, ‘’yes, we will want the Bank’s interest rates to be reduced. We will say that the tradesmen cannot afford these bank rates, and that they cannot afford the fuel and electricity hikes, but we will also work on how to make our electricity cheaper with our tourism professionals. We will also work on how to give free electricity to our unemployed people. Without doing this, we cannot take to the streets and react as if someone has a magic wand. We can’t get anywhere by just lashing out,” he added.

Warning that his words should not be construed as ‘defending the protocol’, Gürcafer said, “Don’t let it be interpreted as defending the protocol. I will go and explain what we are against in the protocol and why. For example, I will wrap up what was intended about the abolition of the capital restriction, why I am against it and how this, based on a particular study, has to do with the continuation of the social existence of the Turkish Cypriot community,” he said.

“I FEEL THAT AT EVERY POINT WE DID NOT DO WHAT WE NEEDED TO DO”

CTBCA President Cafer Gürcafer noted that he felt the shortcomings arising from not doing what was  needed to be done in this country at every point and drew attention to the paucity of policy.

Gürcafer said: “We do not have a real policy in any area. We try to produce social and economic protocols based on casual policies that are constrained by the capacity of ministers in ever changing governments. This cannot be. The trauma caused by the pandemic on the world had a negative effect on the TRNC on one hand, but made it the focus of attention in the circumstances. Southern Cyprus has taken off. After the pandemic, the value judgments of millions of people have evolved. Millions of people have decided to spend the rest of their lives in a small country at peace. We shared this foresight long ago. But we don’t do what we need to do.”

“DO NOT ISSUE UNLIMITED CITIZENSHIP”

Noting that the way to sustain social existence is through socio-economic development plans, Cafer Gürcafer said, “In order to maintain its social existence (which is very important both for this society and for Turkey’s foreign policy in my opinion), the Citizenship Law needs to be adjusted. Unlimited citizenship should not be issued,” he said.

Gürcafer continued his speech as follows:

“We need to perform these tasks and put the results before Turkey. NGOs, trade unions, political parties should carry out these works. We should agree on a common ground and sit down and work on what kind of future we want. It’s not just about babbling on.

When the Turkish Cypriot community, culture, traditions and social existence are threatened, they always raise a collective voice. It should be like this, but what needs to be done must be done, otherwise we will continue to experience these things.

Throughout the year, there was a perception that economic protocols are agreements that saves all our troubles. There is no such thing. We ought not have such an expectation. We should not even sign a protocol. If we were self-sufficient economically, the Republic of Turkey would say; ‘I want to help you this much this year. Tell me what issues you want me to help you with. This is how the relationship will change. I would argue that there are sufficient resources in this country to create a self-sustaining economy.

We can achieve this neither by saying “The Turkish Cypriot community will live forever, no one can take this right away from us” nor by saying “The TRNC will live forever”. This has its requirements. We will need to do these. Unless we do them, someone will always write the wrong script and ship it to us.”

THE DURATİON OF THE GOVERNMENT

Assessing the government’s performance, CTBCA President Gürcafer stated that he believed that the current government would remain on duty until the elections in Turkey.

Gürcafer said, “If the mistakes made in the past are not repeated and the needed things are done, we too will do our best,” said Gürcafer. “Our approach will be constructive, no matter who is in power,” he said. Gürcafer said, “We believe that we should take other NGOs and unions with us and come together on a common ground and endeavour to make this society self-sufficient.’’

However, politics should be exemplary. For example, when this society has so many problems and troubles and there is a lack of police, it upsets this society that the President of the Assembly asks for personal protection. It blunts the faith of the society,” he said.

 EOP-PRIME MINISTRY RELATIONSHIP

 Noting that the Economic Organizations Platform (EOP) has a very positive relationship with the Prime Minister, Cafer Gürcafer said, “Mr. Prime Minister, on the first day of his assignment, called on the EOP even before he formed the cabinet, and explained what his goal will be upon becoming the Prime Minister, he acknowledged that the economy is in a very difficult situation, and we discussed what needs to be done urgently in order to create a TRNC that stands on its own feet. He stated that he will be in close cooperation with the EOP in this context. Before going to Ankara, Mr. Prime Minister called the EOP again. There were several issues, one of which was our sensitivity about the issuing of tenders in the TRNC, not in Ankara.”

CTBCA President Cafer Gürcafer also commented on the relations with the Turkish Building Contractors Association:

“We should have developed our cooperation and relations with the Turkish Building Contractors Association long before today. It has been delayed, neglected. We had signed a protocol with the Turkish Building Contractors Association in the past. We gave the contents of this protocol to the embassy and our government, but unfortunately it was never enacted. Therefore, even today, when the subject of Maraş gets on the agenda; and if we cannot say, ‘we have a protocol, we will cooperate like this’, this is to our shame.  How important this is for our country’s economy is also appreciated by the Turkish Building Contractors Association. There is a very small cake there, and that cake means a lot to the economy of this country. Accordingly, there is a Turkish Building Contractors Association that says, ‘We are ready to give any kind of support’. Before this Ankara visit, I asked the Prime Minister; ‘Provide us with the groundwork to initiate and conclude this technically. We want to have this as our backdrop. We want to be part of this work. Let us explain why we want this and why it should happen, and we have planned and programmed how it would be made possible. We said ‘Let us talk about how this cooperation would be possible and ultimately conclude this work.’ A basis for this emerged as well.”