The economic protocol signed between the TRNC and Turkey will undermine democracy and bring about serious social unrest, Democratic Party (DP) leader Serdar Denktaş has said.
In a written statement, he said that the reasons for the establishment of the UBP-HP government are gradually emerging.
Stating that collective bargaining agreement cannot be signed without the approval of the Ministry of Finance, Denktaş said:
“During the last government’s tenure, BRT and KIB-Tek did not follow this rule. Therefore, there was a problem between the Finance Ministry and those two institutions. In order not to repeat this situation, the four-party coalition government had taken the necessary measures. In spite of the existence of the ruling, which I believe is still in force and we have issued our own initiative, it is neither ethical nor diplomatic to impose such an article in the form of sanctions on the TRNC Government within an ‘International Treaty’.
“A more sincere approach could be taken by writing a very explicit article on ‘stopping trade union activities and closing trade unions’. It is not possible for me to accept this element of breaking the power of the trade union movement, which is responsible for protecting the employee’s rights”.
ECONOMIC CRISIS
The former finance minister went on to say:
“The second half of 2018 was an extraordinary period in which the loans and grants originating from the Republic of Turkey were stopped and the foreign exchange crisis took place. In order to overcome the economic recession caused by the halt of investments, public employees were paid two points above the cost of living.
The payment was aimed at minimising the unemployment problem that might arise as a result of the lack of employment due to the lack of jobs, and the loss of the capacity of the salaried sector to spend in our market There is no contradiction in our laws.
Although this crisis did not arise from us, such a measure would not be necessary if the contributions of the Republic of Turkey had continued in line with the budget planning.
Now, the introduction of a clause preventing similar practices in this protocol is nothing more than punishing our own income and our efforts to pass through that difficult period despite the problems experienced in 2018”.
Kibris Postasi
