North Cyprus survives electricity crisis after fuel ship arrives

The TRNC has averted a looming energy crisis after a boat carrying fuel oil to power its power stations, which had initially been seized by the Turkish authorities, was allowed to complete its journey to the island.

The TRNC’s electricity authority Kib-Tek’s general manager Dalman Aydin told the TRNC’s public broadcaster BRT on Wednesday evening that the ship, the Yeni Yuzyil, was located off the coast of Kyrenia, and would be unloaded once weather conditions allow.

Unloading, he added, would commence as soon as Friday should the seas be calm. Satellite data obtained by the Cyprus Mail on Wednesday evening showed the Yeni Yuzyil to be located off Kyrenia’s Alagadi beach.

It appears that the ship was allowed to leave Turkey’s Hatay province’s Iskenderun port after it was found that its links to an alleged organised crime ring were more tenuous than first believed.

News website Kibris Postasi reported that the Aktas family, whose patriarch Aziz Ihsan Aktas was one of around 40 people so far arrested as part of the investigations, and their company Ickale had only incidentally worked with Guven Holding, the ship’s operator, and that there would be “no legal obstacle” to its voyage to Cyprus.

They added that it was Guven Holding and not Ickale which had been tasked by the Turkish Petroleum International Corporation (TPic) with bringing fuel to the north.

However, Kib-Tek employees’ union El-Sen leader Ahmet Tugcu was less than convinced, telling newspaper Yeni Duzen on Wednesday that Ickale is “currently sitting on Kib-Tek like a nightmare”.

He also pointed his finger squarely at the north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli, who served as ‘energy minister’ between 2020 and 2021 under ‘prime minister’ Ersan Saner, for allowing Ickale into Turkish Cypriot affairs.

“When Erhan Arikli was energy minister, Ickale’s name first started to be heard around fuel purchases without tenders. Later, it came to the forefront in transportation,” he said, before also saying that Ickale is one of “three companies which Kib-Tek is currently working with which is close to the [Turkish] AK Party government”.

The others, he said, are energy company Aksa and Turkey’s state-owned Electricity Generation Company (Euas).

“We believe Ickale is not the right company. Ickale is a company supported by the AK Party government in Turkey. It is currently sitting on Kib-Tek like a nightmare. I am not surprised at all that Ickale is behind the latest agreement, even though it was made with TPic,” he said.