President of the CTBCA is Gürcafer again
15 May 2024
The 18th Ordinary General Assembly of the Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association (CTBCA) was held. Cafer Gürcafer was re-elected as president.
At the General Assembly, the members of the Association also voted in the members of the Board of Directors, Audit Committee and Disciplinary Committee. Cafer Gürcafer, the only candidate for the Presidency, was re-elected with a unanimous vote.
At the 18th Ordinary General Assembly of the Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association, which was held on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 10:00 in the Atatürk Cultural Centre Grand Conference Hall, Fuat Kutlu was elected as the President of the Council, and Mehmet Akal and Cemal M. Bulutoğluları were elected as the Clerks of the Council.
Gürcafer: We are growing both as a sector and as an institution
During his speech at the General Assembly, President of the Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association (CTBCA) Cafer Gürcafer, drew attention to the current reality of the State and the country and emphasized the importance of unity and solidarity at this juncture.
Cafer Gürcafer said that the building industry and CTBCA are growing day by day, but the same cannot be said about the State, and noted that this is a grave danger that needs to be taken into account.
Gürcafer said:
“We are growing both in terms of the number of employees, in terms of services we provide to our members and to our sector, and in terms of our influence both as a sector and an institution in the eyes of governments. I am sorry however that I cannot say the same for our State. Our State is not getting better. We can all see this. Yes, we are corporatizing, we are improving ourselves, we are developing, our companies are developing, we are expanding as a sector, we are making money, but there is something very odd. While the country as a whole should be developing, we are observing a State with the structure it had in the 80s and 90s, and we are degenerating. Our country is degenerating. Inefficiency in the public sector is rising day by day and has now reached a point where it can no longer be rectified. This is a grave danger that needs to be taken into account.’’
“We are becoming a selfish society”
We are not being populists, we have no expectations, but this country belongs to all of us. In this country, until the 1980s and 1990s, the number of people who believed in social emancipation, remaining in unity and in solidarity, and protecting the country was around 80-90 percent of the population. Today, we have a Turkish Cypriot who has lost its belief in social emancipation and a country and a society that has become selfish and is only trying to save the day. I am sorry, but politics is reflecting exactly the same. Many political parties and many non-governmental organizations behave as such too. We have turned into an abnormally aggressive society due to selfishness and this degeneration. I am very sorry and troubled by this situation.”
“I am afraid, I have very serious doubts whether our country will ever get better”
CTBCA President Cafer Gürcafer stated that he has very little doubt that the new era will be auspicious for the construction industry. “But I have serious doubts that our country will ever get better,” Gürcafer said, adding, “This is why, more than ever, we need the unity and solidarity that we have always observed and safeguarded.”
Gürcafer noted the following: “All successes in history emerged as a result of unity and solidarity. Ataturk’s principles and the War of Independence, which shed a light on the future of all of us and of our children, were realised by Ataturk keeping the nation in unity and in solidarity, and making people believe. Look at any disunity! It always ends in disappointment. We lived through this too. But our most important principle is to preserve our unity and solidarity. We grew as an association because we did not give a chance to those who wanted to divide us.’’
“The world is fast developing and progressing, and unfortunately we are going backwards”
‘’There are some challenges awaiting the Cyprus Turkish Building Contractors Association in the period ahead. There is a public structure which has broken down and unfortunately, there is a political institution that cannot alter or remedy this. It is not a very promising structure with respect to the future of the Turkish Cypriot community, for facilitating an economy that would stand on its own feet, and in terms of preserving the identity of the Turkish Cypriots. The reason; you cannot achieve the desired per capita national income by only eliminating irregularities. Once upon a time, when we stated ‘Germany’s per capita national income is 30 thousand USD’, when ours was around 3-4 thousand USD, we would see 30 thousand dollars as an unattainable figure. However, today there are countries with a per capita national income of 130 thousand USD. Yet, we are still at the same point. The world is developing and progressing truly rapidly, but unfortunately we are going backwards. This is our structure, the state of affairs in our country.”
“In view of the realities of the country, we need us more than we did yesterday”
CTBCA President Cafer Gürcafer pointed out that there is a need for a revolution and reform, but he has concerns at this point.
Gürcafer said that in view of the realities of the state and the country, unity and solidarity are needed more than was needed in the past, and concluded his speech as follows:
“I was one of those people who never lost their faith in the future and believed that a struggle had to be waged even under the worst conditions. Nevertheless, I do not refrain from saying this anymore. I am not observing a political structure which will provide for us a future in the sense we think of. We have degenerated so much, our country has become so corrupt and rotten that we need a revolution and a reform. We need a set of rules, just like Ataturk’s principles and reforms. That is why; let’s have a solution in Cyprus that will integrate us with the world, whether federal, confederal, recognition of the TRNC, or whatever be its name, so that we can join the European Union.
Let the EU step in and set the ground rules for us, let us follow these rules and be saved. Or, let there be a structure that knows what to do the next day, puts all these reforms in place, will fix the country and get us out of this mess. When I gaze to the future, I do not see anything regarding this. There is no such political structure. This is our reality. In view of this fact, we need us more than we did yesterday.
We will hold each other’s hands tighter. We will embrace tighter and protect our own industry, our bread and butter, our employees and our institutions more than yesterday.”
Gürcafer re-elected unanimously as president
After President Cafer Gürcafer’s speech, the presentation and discussion of the Activity and the Financial Reports were undertaken and both the reports were approved and accepted by the General Assembly.
Then, the elections of the President, Board of Directors, Audit Committee and the Disciplinary Committee were held.
While Cafer Gürcafer, the only candidate for the Presidency, was unanimously re-elected as the President, subsequent to the CTBCA’s 18th Ordinary General Assembly elections, the members for the bodies of the Association were chosen as follows.
President:
Cafer Gürcafer
Board of Directors:
Hasan Sertoğlu VİCE-PRESIDENT
Erim Kanlıada TREASURER
Serkan Amca SECRETARY
Hasan Çerkez ACTIVE MEMBER
Ragıp Tanlı ACTIVE MEMBER
Salih Kayım ACTIVE MEMBER
Ulaş Oktay ASSOCIATE MEMBER
Disciplinary Committee:
Cahit Kaya
Mehmet Kahveci
Musa Türker Sönmezler
Taner Yolcu
Yakup Engin Tel
Audit Committee:
Ahmet Arabacıoğlu
Okan Recaioğlu
