The recent visit to the TRNC by the president of Turkish football club Fenerbahce Aziz Yildirim has ruffled feathers, by his apparent snubbing of KTFF president Hasan Sertoglu.
According to Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Yeni Duzen’, Yildirim was to meet with President Mustafa Akinci provided that he also met with president of the Turkish Cypriot Football Federation (KTFF) president Hasan Sertoglu.
However, since Yildirim failed to keep his appointment with Sertoglu and gave no notice that he would not be attending, President Akinci postponed his meeting with Yildirim. Instead, Yildirim met with the leader of the CTP-BG party Mehmet Ali Talat.
After his meeting with the Fenerbahce president, Talat issued a statement condemning Yildirim’s behaviour:
“The fact that Turkish officials who are coming from Turkey show no respect or consideration for the Turkish Cypriot organisations and do not take the necessary care of their ties with these organisations, is unacceptable”, Talat said.
Also commenting on the issue, KTFF president Sertoglu in a separate statement described Yildirim’s stance as shameful, saying that in spite of the fact that a meeting with the chairman of Fenerbahce had been arranged, he failed to turn up. Sertoglu said that Yildirim’s attitude was very disrespectful to both the Turkish Cypriots and Turkish Cypriot organisations. He also thanked President Akinci for the sensitivity he had shown on the issue. Sertoglu also thanked Talat for his stance adding that Talat had been deceived.
The KTFF also issued a statement about Yildirim’s visit saying that his stance was disrespectful and his behaviour inappropriate.
Meanwhile, the paper writes that Yildirim is allegedly visiting the TRNC in order to undertake efforts to buy a bank and a university in the TRNC. According to the paper, it was made known that Yildirim visited yesterday the Central Bank headquarters with the aim of lifting the “bureaucratic obstacles” and a regulation that exists in the TRNC, which prevents the Turkish clubs establishing banks and universities in the country.
Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Havadis’, citing reliable sources, also reports that Yildirim had visited the TRNC with the aim of establishing a bank under the name (FB) or to buy Deniz Bank which belongs to Kani and Erhan Kanioglulari.
Yeni Duzen, Havadis
