First ever ticket with Turkish-Cypriots in Europarliament elections

“What does a Turkish general know about the scent of jasmine at night in Nicosia?” Sener Levent (photo) the publisher of the daily Afrika and a critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, once wrote in his book My country is under occupation.

One may well ask whether a single Jasmine can speak truth to an occupation regime. Can it cry out in support of a Cyprus settlement?

Levent says it can and that this was the objective behind the creation of his Jasmine Movement.

The new political formation will run with its own exclusively Turkish-Cypriot ticket in May’s European Parliament. A Turkish-Cypriots will take part in the European Parliament election for the first time since Cyprus became a member of the European Union in 2004.

The candidates are running as citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.

Levent is the leader of the movement and he said there will be “six Cypriot candidates who speak Turkish and are citizens of the Republic of Cyprus”.

Political analyst Ibrahim Aziz, one of the Turkish-Cypriots who decided to stay in free Cyprus after the 1974 invasion and occupation of the island and was declared a wanted man by the Turkish occupation regime, will also be running on the Jasmine Movement ticket.