Through a “court” in the occupied country, the director and columnist of the Avrupa newspaper, Sener Leved, was served with a notice from the Ankara Court, calling on him to surrender to serve the sentence now finalized in one of the three cases in which he was convicted in absentia in Turkey.

As reported by the Cyprus Press and Information Office, Avroupa reveals that three lawsuits had been filed against Levent in the Ankara Court: in two of them, he was sentenced to one year in prison for each case, while in the third, he received a six-month sentence. The charges were for publicly insulting the nation, the state, the National Assembly, the government, the judiciary, the army, and the security forces of Turkey.

See what Leved himself says in an article in Politis about the arrest warrant issued against him in Ankara:

“A clerk from the clerk of the court came and brought me a notice. The notice is from the criminal court in Ankara. As we know, they concluded a “mutual judicial assistance” agreement with our own state – imitation. And lo and behold that is how they are passing this notice on to us. Our own conscientious, honest judges do not want to become an instrument in this, but they are all doomed. This notice concerns a criminal case filed against me in Ankara. To date, three lawsuits have been filed and concluded against me. For two of them, a one-year prison sentence was imposed on one of them. And for one of them, six months’ imprisonment. And all of them involve insulting President Tayyip Erdogan. After all, it is Erdogan who is the plaintiff. All of these lawsuits were heard in absentia. That is, in none of them was I in court. Besides, they did not even bother to inform me of the dates of the hearing. And they appointed again someone whom I do not know at all as a lawyer to defend me! That lawyer, whom I never saw, then asked me for legal fees.

Anyway. Let me get back to the point without rambling. In the latest service on me, I was notified that my one-year prison sentence was finalized. Why was it finalized? Because I did not file an appeal. So that time limit expired. It is clearly stated “surrender”. That is, within ten days of receiving this notice, it says, I must turn myself in to the Attorney General’s Office with two photographs of myself. What happens if I don’t turn myself in? It says. Then they will issue a “warrant of arrest” against me, he says! As you can understand, they say, “either you come and surrender or we will arrest you”. They have communicated this to the “competent authorities of the TRNC”. And their legal basis is the “mutual legal assistance agreement”. They explain it as follows: “Mutual assistance agreement in legal, commercial and criminal matters between Turkey and the TRNC, recognition and execution, extradition of criminals and transfer of convicts”.

However, this agreement always operates unilaterally. There is no mutual extradition of criminals, there is only unilateral extradition. The TJC returns them to Turkey. Turkey does not return them to the TRNC. They did not even return some famous people against whom arrest warrants were issued here, but they escaped and found refuge in Turkey. And they still do not return them. Well, who is the TRNC returning to Turkey? Citizens of Turkey, most of whom are Kurdish. According to our Constitution here, Cypriots cannot be extradited to Turkey, even if they are found guilty. However, it is not known whether Tayyip Erdogan will overcome this obstacle as well. Anything is possible.

Why is Tayyip Erdogan filing a lawsuit against us in Turkey and not in Cyprus? Because he does not trust our courts. This is where he lost that famous cartoon case. He became furious. As soon as he lost the trial, he registered the same lawsuit against us in Ankara. He won the lawsuit he had lost in Cyprus. Here I was acquitted. In Ankara, I was given a one-year prison sentence. After that, they filed other lawsuits against me. Three cases ended with imprisonment, but there are other lawsuits pending that have not yet been concluded.

I am a Cypriot. I am a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus and the European Union. They cannot try me in Ankara. If they try me, they will only try me in absentia. But I do not recognise that court. And its decisions are invalid for me. Let them try me all they want. Let them convict me all they want. I stand by everything I write, everything I say. Besides, the judiciary in the fascist regime in Turkey is also invalid for me. The forgers, thieves and despots are out and the innocent are in jail. It is a tyrannical, despotic administration.

And they appeal to me to surrender. Our conqueror for 51 years, is it you who has to surrender to justice?”