The New Cyprus Party (Yeni Kıbrıs Partisi) is a left-wing, democratic socialist Turkish-Cypriot political party. Before 2004 it was known as the Patriotic Unity Movement (Yurtsever Birlik Hareketi).
New Cyprus Party | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Murat Kanatlı |
| Founded | 30 October 1989 |
| Headquarters | Nicosia, North Cyprus |
| Ideology | Democratic socialism [1] |
| Political position | Left wing |
| European affiliation | Party of the European Left (observer) |
| International affiliation | None |
| Colours | Blue, Yellow |
| Website | |
| www.ykp.org.cy | |
Extract from New Cyprus Party's Program:
The 1980s have been hard years for the left movement in the north of Cyprus. Because of, the forms of struggle against occupation and practically experienced problems, the conditions of the occupation permitted to be a government but not a political power, and although in 1981 the majority in the “parliament” was achieved by not being able to be a government, the announcement of “TRNC”, the coalition with right wing parties, the protocols with the Republic of Turkey, the view on the self-determination right of the Turkish Cypriots and similar matters, all these caused separations within the left movement, thus with the sovereignty of the defenders of reform within the system in the parties, new formations have in some way become a necessity.
In this process, especially in 1989, hundreds of TKP members who were at the same time members of the Peoples’ Solidarity Association (Halk-Der) were either dismissed from the party or forced to leave. Under these conditions, the old TKP members met and founded first of all the “Cypriots Solidarity Association”. Later on, with the participation of Cypriots of various sections on 30 October 1989 the New Cyprus Party (YKP) was founded. Since the day of its foundation YKP was attacked orally by the Turkish Republic army-civil administrations, subjected to the blackout of local collaborationists, bombed and shot at various times by dark forces.
In this process the party, in order to voice its opinions to the masses, published on 15 April 1990 a weekly newspaper called “Bu Memleket Bizimdir” (This Country is Ours) for 3 issues, later on 2 September 1990 it began to publish the weekly Yeniçağ (New Era) Newspaper, which still continues to be published.
Since the day of its foundation, while aiming in the long term for a socialist order, YKP focused always in the short term on the struggle against the regime. Besides, it struggled for an agreement conforming to international law regarding the Cyprus problem. Because the party defended that it is the political party of whole Cyprus and Cypriots since the day of its foundation, it continued communication with various political forces in the southern part of the island, under very difficult conditions and despite all types of attacks it issued common declarations with political formations in the South and performed common activities. Especially its views on subjects regarding the EU (back then, still the EC) echoed in the society and although meeting sympathy it was not supported by the people because of the occupation conditions governing our country.
In the following years, first a movement was formed called “Patriotic Unity Movement” with the persons, who resigned at various periods from CTP. Later on, with the participation of different sections, the YKP party general assembly in 1998 made a change in the name and program and thus the “Patriotic Unity Movement” (YBH) was transformed into a political party.
The main element of the transformation process of YKP into YBH was the initiative to gather the fragmented left movement under the same roof as much as possible under the conditions of our country. Besides, by gathering the different sections of the left, one of the expectations of this unity was that a new energy could be released in the society.
The experiences under the name YBH showed clearly that some of those included later on into the process did not abandon their old habits. Disclosing their commitment to another party under the roof of YBH and thus by creating a second political identity within the party, the party inevitably was dragged into a conflict. Their objective to transform the election to a target with populist policies by abandoning the party principles in return of votes, inevitably ended with them leaving the party after a certain period.
At the end of all these processes thus experienced, the party took its place in history as a political movement, which was respected internationally; its words were taken serious with the open and clear policies followed in Cyprus and with the realizations of future diagnoses, whose works were followed with attention and sympathy.
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