The northern Cyprus Spring?

For information contact Derek Brett (+41 77 462 9825;

derek.brett@ifor.org

)

or

Murat Kanatli (+90 542 852 8446;

muratkanatli@gmail.com

; facebook @muratkanatli2018)

Last Friday

4/1/2019

, EBCO reported on the sentence handed down to Turkish

-

Cypriot conscientious

objector Halil Karapaşaoğlu by the Military Court in the self

-

styled “Turkish Republic of Nor

thern

Cyprus”, and on the massive public support he received, with a crowd of well over a hundred waiting

to cheer him as he emerged from the court.

Things have subsequently moved rapidly in northern Cyprus.

After the trial on Thursday the President and Ge

neral Secretary o

f the Press Workers Trade Union

announced that they would henceforth refuse to perform reserve service; on Friday they received

the endorsement of the Trade Union as a whole.

Friday lunchtime Murat Kanatli and Derek Brett did a 45

-

minute l

ive interview with the Kanal SIM TV

station (see the

link

on the

ebco facebook page

). Five hours later, as activists gathered at the Press

Workers Trade Union to discuss strategy, they were able to watch the Prime Minister sitting at

exactly the same table telling a differen

t interviewer that the Draft Amendment to the Military

Service Act which would allow alternative service for conscientious objectors was ready and would

be put before Parliament on Monday 7

th

.

On Saturday morning, the people of Nicosia woke to see a wall b

earing a new graffito by CRS

depicting Halil with two doves one carrying an olive branch signifying peace and the other

a pencil

signifying poetry...

http://www.ebco-beoc.org/sites/ebco-beoc.org/files/attachments/2019-01-09-Press-Release_EBCO_Cyprus_Halil.pdf

http://bessereweltlinks.de/index.php?cat=14699&thema=Gesetz-Entwurf_zum_Recht_auf_Kriegsdienstverweigerung_(work_in_progress)_2019