The newspaper “Avrupa”, which has been subjected to more intense pressure, harassment, attacks and lawsuits than any other publication in the history of the press in northern Cyprus, was the first newspaper to state that Turkey's presence in Cyprus was an “occupation” and to fight for this cause throughout its entire publication life by placing this fact at the centre of its editorial line. This struggle transformed “Avrupa” into a symbol of social rebellion beyond a mere newspaper.

 

 

The Dikmen and Rauf Denktaş Cases

From the day it was first published on 17 September 1997, its courageous coverage of dark events and crimes cloaked in the mantle of the “national struggle” quickly made “Avrupa” a target for Rauf Denktaş, the Security Forces Command (GKK) and nationalist circles in power in northern Cyprus at the time.

The newspaper's 1999 coverage of a family's right to seek justice after being evicted from their home in Dikmen by the Security Forces Command (GKK) resulted in the GKK filing 69 lawsuits against Avrupa.

 

 

Ulus Irkad wrote in his article titled “The economic, social and political effects of the uprising in Cyprus in the early 2000s -3-”, published on the official website of the New Cyprus Party (YKP) (https://www.ykp.org.cy) on 18/03/2011:

 

‘’Those who intervened in Cyprus in 1974 with the aim of rescuing the Turkish Cypriot people were now trying to strike the same people over the head with a mace. The European newspaper, which was just starting to emerge and was pursuing a truly radical left-wing policy by challenging taboos, would first try to intimidate the Turkish Cypriot leadership, namely Denktaş, and then, in particular, the main power in Cyprus. The number of lawsuits filed against the newspaper was unknown.‘

 

In the same article, Ulus Irkad quoted from the 31 December 1999 edition of the newspaper “Avrupa” as follows:

 

’A total of 69 lawsuits were served on ‘Avrupa’ in one day under this extraordinary circumstance. For the first time in the world, a total of 69 criminal lawsuits were served on a newspaper in a single day. These lawsuits will be heard in a military court... And 'Avrupa's crime is great... Is it not a crime to defend a simple citizen's right to the inviolability of their home, despite the commander?" (1)

 

 

Bomb attacks and the “espionage conspiracy”

But this was only the beginning.

That same year, the first bomb was placed in the newspaper’s printing house, and that same year, Rauf Denktaş filed lawsuits against the newspaper that would lead to the end of its publication in 2001.

In 2000, in an incident recorded as the “Espionage Conspiracy”, the newspaper's founder and Editor-in-Chief Şener Levent, along with writers Ali Osman Tabak and Harun Denizkan, photojournalist Mehmet İnancı, a non-commissioned officer and his wife were arrested. This caused shock in the Turkish Cypriot community, followed by an unprecedented mass uprising.

Sarah L. De Jong, representative of the International Federation of Journalists, who came to northern Cyprus to follow the trials held during the eleven days of detention, stated the following in her report:

 

‘’My overall conclusion is that the police's attitude towards Levent and the Avrupa newspaper was politically motivated and that the evidence was insufficient to prove the espionage charges. 

The strong criticism of the European newspaper, which was disturbing to the Turkish Cypriot administration, is well known to everyone and can be cited as the reason for the actions taken against Levent and his staff..."  (2)

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In November of the same year, the printing press of the European newspaper was bombed for the second time.

 

 

From “Avrupa” to “Afrika”...

In 2001, the newspaper was unable to pay the record compensation penalty (approximately $200,000 at the time) imposed as a result of the lawsuits filed and won by Rauf Denktaş in 1999. Consequently, all of the newspaper's press and publishing equipment was seized, and all proceeds from its sale were confiscated. 

As a result of this lawsuit, the newspaper Avrupa ceased publication under that name and continued under the name Afrika.

A year later, in 2002, Şener Levent and Memduh Ener, one of the newspaper's writers, were each sentenced to six months in prison because of an article written by Ener in the newspaper.

 

All these events and the ongoing lawsuits against the newspaper, as well as the unrelenting threats and harassment, focused the attention of both the Turkish and international press on the political reality in northern Cyprus.

 

In an article titled Turkish Cypriot Publisher Goes to Press, and Court, Almost Daily published in The New York Times on 26 May 2003, we find the following lines:

 

‘’While much of Cyprus celebrated the recent opening of the 1974 division line separating the island's Turkish and Greek communities, Mr Levent's situation serves as a reminder of the harsh Turkish policies still in place in the north. When he tried to visit friends across the divide, as tens of thousands have done in recent weeks, civilian police stopped him at a checkpoint and turned him back without explanation. Police told reporters the only reason he had been able to cross two days earlier was that they had not noticed him." (3)

 

 

 

The First Shooting

On 25 February 2011, the newspaper was the target of a shooting attack. A man named Emin Sıba knocked on the door of the newspaper's office in Nicosia. He told Ali Osman Tabak, the newspaper's director, who opened the door, that he wanted to speak to Şener Levent. After being told that Levent was not there, Sıba left a threatening note on the door and fired two shots at the closed door. He was not caught. According to a subsequent statement by the police, Emin Sıba fled to Turkey by plane that same night after the attack. The TRNC police found the gun used in the attack during their investigation, prepared a file on the matter and sent it to Turkey, but there have been no further developments in this investigation.

 

In an interview published on 7 July 2011 on the Bianet news portal, Nilay Vardar spoke with Şener Levent, who shared the following information about the incident:

 

"Emin Sıba called us from Adana last month and confessed that he had shot at the newspaper. The reason for his call was that he had information, evidence and CDs about an operation that the gang there was planning to carry out in Cyprus. They were trafficking weapons and drugs to Cyprus. They also wanted to shoot a Cypriot businessman here in the near future. He offered to sell this information to us. We did not accept this deal, but he told us who had given him the gun that shot us; I wrote this story in the newspaper. However, the police did nothing. (4)

 

 

Second Shooting

Five months after the first attack, on 3 July 2011, a second armed attack was carried out on the newspaper.

This time, the gunman was a nationalist named Mustafa Yalçın, who had been sent from Istanbul. Just like the first gunman, Mustafa Yalçın went to the newspaper's office and said he wanted to see Şener Levent. When Ali Osman Tabak opened the door for him, he took out his gun and fired as he was taking his pen out of his pocket. Ali Osman Tabak noticed the gun at the last moment and quickly closed the door, causing the bullets to hit the door. Ali Osman Tabak was lucky to escape unharmed.

 

Two weeks before this attack, Mustafa Yalçın had visited the newspaper and confessed that he had been sent as a gunman. Şener Levent describes Mustafa Yalçın's visit to the newspaper as follows:

 

He said they had sent him here to kill me. They had described me as a “traitor and a Greek sympathiser”. However, he decided not to shoot me. He told me, “If you want the attacks against you to stop, you will get along well with Ankara; you will improve your relations with the authorities in Ankara”. Then we even bought his ticket and he returned to Turkey. We checked the flight to see if he had left. I wrote exactly what I have described here in the newspaper and published his photograph.‘ (5)

 

When asked by Bianet why he did not report the incident to the police, Şener Levent replied, ‘We no longer trusted the police, the first gunman is already roaming around Adana.‘

 

The Cartoon Trial

At this point, it should be noted that the extent to which the systematic harassment and pressure applied to the Avrupa and then Afrika newspapers was coordinated at the highest level was fully reflected in the police's attitude and stance towards the newspaper, which became even more apparent in the next attack on the newspaper. 

However, before this attack, it is necessary to mention the case known as the ‘cartoon case’. 

In December 2017, a collage image published in the newspaper under the headline ‘Through Greek Eyes’ led to a lawsuit being filed ‘on behalf of the Turkish Cypriot people’ by Derya Kanbay, the Turkish Ambassador to Nicosia at the time.

 The collage depicted a Greek statue urinating on Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's head. In this case, the newspaper was charged with ‘insulting foreign dignitaries and causing discord between the TRNC and Turkey.’

 

 

22 January Attack

Following the military operation launched by the Turkish Armed Forces in the Afrin district of Syria on 20 January 2018 (Operation Olive Branch), the newspaper Afrika published on 21 January 2018 carried the headline “Another invasion operation from Turkey”. In response to this headline, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan explicitly targeted the newspaper during his speech in Bursa:

 

"A newspaper in Northern Cyprus has published an immoral headline... It says “the Turkish army has carried out a new invasion in Cyprus”. What immorality, what indecency. My brothers and sisters in Northern Cyprus must respond to this situation." (6)

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Following Erdoğan's call, on the morning of 22 January 2018, a large crowd gathered in front of the newspaper's offices, carrying Turkish flags, large rocks and clubs. This crowd, consisting of ultra-nationalist and religious groups, set fire to the newspaper clippings they had brought with them and smashed all the windows and balcony glass of the newspaper office with the rocks and large stones they had brought. They then climbed the flagpole, first took down the newspaper's sign, and then attempted to enter the building from the balcony.

 Despite the fact that almost the entire police force in the TRNC surrounded the crowd, their failure to intervene and simply watching the attack left an indelible stain on the police force. It was Police Chief Inspector Ali Savaş Altan, who, unlike the rest of the police force, disobeyed orders and took action, who prevented the journalists from being lynched.

 

A year after this incident, in what appeared to be an act of retribution, Ali Savaş Altan was arrested on 2 November 2023 on charges of bribery. Altan was tried in the High Criminal Court, but after the prosecution failed to produce witnesses, the court ordered the case to be dismissed, and Altan was released on 13 November. (7)

 

The arrests related to the attack on 22 January only came after the attackers climbed and unfurled a foreign flag onto the roof of the parliament building—located opposite the newspaper office at the time— A total of six people were arrested. Despite the bail request for the defendants in the case, Judge Tacan Reynar stated that the crimes committed by the suspects were very serious and ‘carried a life sentence.’

In the verdict read on 21 February 2018, Mehmet İpek, President of the Ak Hataylılar Association, was sentenced to 6 months, Ahmet Türkmen to 6 months, Ümit Taş to 3 months, Bayram Ak to 3 months, Oktay Güney to 2 months, and Abdulhadi Doğan to 4 months imprisonment. (8)

All offenders except Oktay Güney, who was released after serving his sentence, were released in May of the same year by decision of the Parole Board.

Nine individuals sought in connection with the attack were never apprehended.

 

Senior Judge Tacan Reynar's Resignation

The resignation of Senior Judge Tacan Reynar, who sent the 22 January attackers to prison, from his position as judge on 24 May 2018, and the “Cartoon Trial” in Afrika newspaper, which began on 16 October 2018, where he voluntarily took on the defence of Şener Levent and Ali Osman Tabak alongside lawyer Mine Atlı, was the talk of the town for months and went down in Cypriot history as a landmark event. ' 

 

Tacan Reynar published a statement on social media on 4 June 2018 regarding his resignation:

 

"I resigned from my position as a judge, to which I was appointed by the High Council of Justice in 2010, effective 24 May 2018. I believe that the process leading to the resignation of a public official, and especially a member of the judiciary, is of direct interest to the public, and that the public is right to question it", Reynar began, explaining the reasons for his resignation in detail. Regarding the 22 January attack, he wrote:

​

"As is known, in the case of the attack on the Afrika Newspaper, known as the 22 January events, the High Court chose to remain silent, making no statement regarding the reports that I had received death threats and other reports. As the judge in this case, I would like it to be known that the legal process that took place during the trial has gone down in this country's legal history as a black mark. The pressure exerted on the court, the insults directed at me, the silence of all institutions in the country regarding these insults, and the subsequent legal scandals in the criminal proceedings have shown that administrative enforcement after sentencing has no meaning or importance."... (9)

 

 

 

Acquittal in the Cartoon Trial

The trial initiated by Derya Kanbay, then Turkish Ambassador to Nicosia, regarding the collage image published in December 2017 in Afrika under the title  ''Through Greek Eyes” began on 16 October 2018 at the Nicosia Magistrates' Court.

  

The case, presided over by Judge Cenkay İnan and represented by lawyers Tacan Reynar and Mine Atlı for Şener Levent and Ali Osman Tabak, heard 25 witnesses for the prosecution and 14 witnesses for the Afrika Newspaper.

 

Judge Cenkay İnan read out the verdict of the trial, which lasted approximately one year and resulted in acquittal, in an hour and a half. In his verdict, Cenkay İnan stated that he did not find the prosecution's defence of ‘insulting foreign dignitaries’ or ‘creating a rift between the TRNC and Turkey’ consistent or sufficient. Evaluating the image in question as ‘criticism and metaphor through satire,’ İnan reminded that the plaintiff, the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Nicosia, did not testify in court. (10)

 

Following the trial, Şener Levent described the outcome as a ‘historic decision,’ stating, ‘If this case had been heard in Turkey, the outcome would have been very different,’ adding, ‘We are Cypriots, we are citizens of the Republic of Cyprus. Although it is under Turkish rule, the independence of the court has been demonstrated to the world.’…

 

Despite the acquittal decision issued by the TRNC court, which seemed to prove Şener Levent's statement, another case was filed against Şener Levent in Turkey, and Şener Levent was sentenced to one year in prison in Turkey for the same case. Moreover, this case was decided before the appeal court could rule, even though the TRNC prosecutor's office had appealed the acquittal decision.

 

Regarding this decision, Şener Levent made the following statement on his social media account on 26 April 2022:

 

''The criminal case filed against me in Ankara has been concluded, and this morning the court's decision was served to me... The Ankara Criminal Court of First Instance sentenced me to one year in prison for insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan... The plaintiff is Tayyip Erdoğan… This is the famous cartoon/collage case… We were tried for the same case in our court and acquitted, but because they did not recognise the decision of our court, they opened the same case in Ankara… And they tried me in absentia and passed judgement… In law, there is no such thing as trying a person twice for the same crime… With this ruling, the fascist regime in Ankara, which has intensified its pressure on us, is targeting and attempting to intimidate everyone in our country who opposes it… Just as they do not recognise the decision of our court, I do not recognise the decision of their court… In Turkey, which is squeezed between the lips of a dictator, the law is already dead''.

 

 

Second Acquittal in the Cartoon Trial

Following the acquittal decision handed down by the lower court in the cartoon trial, and after the Chief Prosecutor appealed, the Afrika Newspaper was acquitted for the second time by a majority decision of the court panel in the appeal hearings, which lasted eight months.

 

Following this decision, other cases brought against Şener Levent in connection with the cartoon case, namely his articles entitled “From the Peace Operation to the Olive Branch” and “Zorba the Cypriot”, were also withdrawn by the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.

 

“From Africa to 'Old Europe”...

In June 2020, 16 years after Avrupa began publication under the name Afrika, Emmanuel Achiri, one of the founders of the VOIS Cyprus union, made a statement on social media calling the monkey symbol used in the Afrika Newspaper's logo racist.

 Following this accusation, the collective racism charge against the newspaper, supported by some left-wing groups, turned into a full-blown verbal attack.

 The fact that a newspaper, which since its inception had sought justice for all victims of injustice regardless of language, nationality or race, was suddenly faced with such an accusation of racism led to speculation that the attack had been deliberately organised to damage the newspaper and its image.

As a result of all this, on 25 June 2020, the newspaper bid farewell to its name Afrika and began publishing under the name ‘Eski Avrupa’ meaning 'Old Europe'.