Category: News – Features

Features
British Turkish activist James Ozden takes aim at McDonald’s as part of wider action over the climate emergency

A group of activists known as Animal Rebellion blocked access to four McDonald’s distribution centres across Britain this weekend, with group spokesperson James Ozden accusing the fast food chain and wider meat and dairy industry of “destroying our planet”. Animal Rebellion used vehicles and bamboo structures to prevent lorries from leaving depots in Hemel Hempstead, […]

HP Features
10K signatures and counting: can Kadir Kanizi’s direct flights petition break the travel embargo on North Cyprus?

Somewhere on the internet is a graveyard of petitions for direct flights to North Cyprus. They all start with good intentions, and one last year even got a response from the British government, but they all die a premature death without making a material difference. Kadir Kanizi (pictured top) is responsible for the latest direct flights […]

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Turkish Cypriot hellim producers can sell to EU through island-wide PDO, but will still face discrimination

After years of disputes, Cypriot cheese – known in Turkish as hellim and in Greek as halloumi – has been granted Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status by the European Union. Member states “unanimously supported” the PDO proposals earlier today, which are applicable to “all parts of Cyprus”, according to a tweet by Elisa Ferreira, the European […]

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Former UK government minister: “There are two states in Cyprus. We all need to reflect on that more fully”

On Wednesday, 24 March, the British Turkish Cypriot Association will screen the third and final instalment of its webinar series ‘The Future of Cyprus: Two States? Federalism?’ with a heavyweight panel that includes former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, TRNC President Ersin Tatar’s Special Representative Ergün Olgun, and international relations guru Professor Hasan Ünal. When the […]

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“Time for the international community to think outside the box on Cyprus”, says Ambassador Ümit Yalçın

Turkey’s ambassador to London Ümit Yalçın has found himself in the midst of some of the most intensive political traffic between Turkey and the United Kingdom in decades. After spending two years as the Undersecretary of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the experienced diplomat arrived in the British capital late in 2018 to find […]

HP News
BTCA brings on the heavyweights: Jack Straw, Ergün Olgun, and Prof. Hasan Ünal to debate ‘future of Cyprus’

The third and final instalment of the British Turkish Cypriot Association’s ‘What is the future for Cyprus’ debate brings together five major speakers. President Ersin Tatar’s Special Representative Ergün Olgun will appear alongside former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, international relations guru Professor Hasan Ünal, Lord Northbrook, the Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) […]

Features
Is KKTC Istanbul the coolest diplomatic Instagram account in the world?

“Curated by TRNC Consulate General in İstanbul” reads the bio for KKTCIstanbul, the arts and cultural Instagram account of the Istanbul Consulate for the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus (TRNC). Running since the summer of 2020, KKTCIstanbul’s 132 posts to date are a visual feast of Turkish Cypriot life, past and present. A cursory glance […]

HP Features
10 things you may not know about the embargoes on Turkish Cypriots 

Did you know that Turkish Cypriots have been deprived of their political, economic and social rights since 1964? Turkish Cypriots are the co-founders of the Republic of Cyprus, a small island in the Eastern Mediterranean. The island became independent from British rule in 1960 and a new power-sharing state was created between Cyprus’ two largest […]