Nordic Monitor: Northern Cyprus is About to Become a Lawless Haven for Criminal Organisations Due to Erdogan and His Allies.
London, Saturday, 03 December 2022
The latest in a string of occurrences that suggest President Recep Tayyip Erdoan is determined to turn the breakaway region on the Mediterranean island into a "sin-city" where organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering, gambling, and sex trafficking networks can operate with impunity and no crackdown on their activities is the appointment of a neo-nationalist figure as Turkey's ambassador to the illegally occupied pseudo-state of Northern Cyprus (The UN Security Council resolutions 541/1983 and 550/1984 condemned this illegal unilateral action, calling for its withdrawal and calling upon all states not to recognize the illegal entity or help it in any way).
It's clear that Erdogan did not choose Metin Feyziolu, a neo-nationalist, anti-Western lawyer with no diplomatic background, at random to serve as the new representative to the Turkish-controlled region of the divided island. Given that Feyziolu has a long history of affiliation with the shadowy neo-nationalist (Ulusalc) networks that enjoy operating outside the bounds of the law and were previously implicated in murders, plots, and schemes that occasionally targeted non-Muslims in Turkey, there is a well-planned, sinister plot behind this.
Feyziolu has a long history of working with neo-nationalists; in 2014, he assisted Erdogan in using the courts as a political tool; and most recently, he was successful in his efforts to secure the release of notorious individuals who had conspired against NATO and the West's interests in Turkey. He was a significant player in Erdogan's effort to unify authority over all of the Turkish state's levers. On October 31, 2022, he was appointed Turkish ambassador to the pseudo-state as a reward for his service, essentially elevating him to the position of "governor" of the pseudo-state, a self-declared state that is only recognised by Turkey.
Tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers are stationed in Northern Cyprus, which is already a lawless region where organised criminal networks and mafia organisations have thrived thanks to the protection of Ankara. Such criminal organisations have long been operating there with impunity and occasionally carry out various clandestine operations outside of Turkish borders at the behest of the Turkish intelligence agency MIT.
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(Source: Nordic Monitor // Edit by: The Decision Maker – International Relations editors)