Turkey sacks its ambassador to north Cyprus six month into his duties: Replaces him with former ambassador

Turkey has for the second time in the space of six months sacked its ‘ambassador’ to north Cyprus, according to reports on Tuesday.

Multiple news outlets reported that Yasin Ekrem Serim, who was appointed to the role in August, has been relieved of his duties and replaced by Ali Murat Basceri, who had served as Turkey’s ‘ambassador’ in to north Cyprus between 2018 and 2022.

Local media, Yeni Duzen reported that a source had attributed Serim’s sacking and replacement with Basceri to developments regarding the Cyprus problem.

“We are on the eve of new developments on the Cyprus problem. In such a process, it was requested that someone who is more familiar with the issue’s history be appointed as ambassador,” the source reportedly said.

Serim is 38 years old and was appointed to the role in the summer, having previously served in various government roles, and worked in Turkey’s foreign ministry since 2016.

Basceri served in the role between 2018 and 2022 and was accused of interfering in the 2020 TRNC presidential election by then TRNC president Mustafa Akinci, who alleged that he was using the ’embassy’ as an “election headquarters” for then-candidate Ersin Tatar, who went on to win that year’s election.

In an interview with television channel TV2020 at the time, Akinci alleged that MPs from Turkey’s ruling parties the MHP and AK Party had “visited villages and said ‘do not vote for Akinci’”, and compared the ’embassy’’s conduct during the election campaign to a coup d’état.

Basceri had responded in kind at the time, saying Akinci’s accusations had “no basis in reality” and said Akinci was “creating antagonism with Turkey as an election strategy”.

Akinci had made the accusations after Basceri had invited six ‘MPs’ from Tatar’s political party the UBP to a dinner at the headquarters of the TRNC security forces command.

Hasan Tacoy, then ‘economy minister’ and one of the attendees, had quipped after the meal that “we talked about all kinds of elections”.

Journalist Ali Kismir’s reaction to that meal and other meetings, describing the building as a “brothel”, is what found him charged with having “insulted” the Turkish Cypriot armed forces and facing up to 10 years in prison.

Cyprus Mail