by Leo Kendrick
Northern Cypriot hotelier and business tycoon Halil Falyalı, a prominent figure in Cyprus’ business community with alleged ties to drug trafficking and underground gambling networks, was assassinated last week (8 February) near his home in the Çatalköy district of Girne on the northern part of the island. Falyalı’s assassination has renewed discussion on the extent to which organized crime and mafia activity dominate in Turkish Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Falyalı was alleged throughout his career to have connections at high levels in the Cypriot government from whom the businessman received protection amidst a litany of court cases and allegations of illegal activities such as money laundering and drug trafficking.
Falyalı and his chauffeur Murat Demirtaş were killed after their motorcade came under gunfire as they approached Falyalı’s Çatalköy home. Demirtaş was pronounced dead at the scene while Falyalı was rushed to a nearby hospital where he too was pronounced dead on arrival.
Halil Falyalı received widespread notoriety last year after allegations by mob boss Sedat Peker came to light claiming that Falyalı had participated in a cocaine trafficking operation between Colombia and Turkey together with Erkan Yıldırım, son of former prime minister and longtime ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) stalwart Binali Yıldırım. Peker, who resides in the United Arab Emirates, attracted significant attention last spring and summer for a series of videos alleging corruption and criminal activity at the highest levels of Turkey’s government.
Halil Falyalı, who ran a series of casinos as well as an online betting business, possessed assets estimated at close to $800 million, and was wanted in the United States for drug and money laundering allegations. In his videos last year, Sedat Peker also alleged that Falyalı possessed scandalous videos of numerous prominent Cypriot politicians and businessmen and that his possession of these videos was keeping him out of prison. Falyalı’s funeral last Thursday was attended by numerous Northern Cypriot government officials, showing that the businessman’s ties to the highest levels of the TRNC government ran deep despite Falyalı’s checkered legal past. Falyalı maintained a close relationship with Northern Cypriot president Ersin Tatar, and the two had previously been pictured dining and drinking in public together.
While several arrests were made in connection with Falyalı’s murder over the past week, the identity of the perpetrator remains a mystery. In an interview with Medyascope’s Murat Türsan on last week’s This Week in Turkey segment, journalist Esra Aygın pointed out that the assassination of the wealthy businessman is almost certainly connected to his alleged shady dealings in drug trafficking, money laundering, or blackmail of Turkish and Cypriot government officials. Seven individuals have been detained thus far in connection with the killing.
Aygın described the community of Northern Cyprus as in ‘deep shock’ following the murder, not just because of the murky circumstances of the well-known Falyalı’s death but also because of the way that shadowy killings have recently come to dominate the Northern Cypriot news. The killing of another prominent Northern Cypriot businessman just weeks ago was also shrouded in mystery amidst alleged connections to a mainland Turkish mafia family with a close relationship to Turkey’s ambassador to Northern Cyprus. Nevertheless, said Aygın, addressing systemic organized crime in the small island state as a political priority remains on the back burner for the country’s politicians: “There have been some extremely dark developments in recent weeks,” said Aygın, “And the political arena is not really wasting its time on these issues, they’re busy trying to form coalitions.”
The Northern Cypriot public is right to suspect complicity and government involvement in the country’s mafia underworld, said Aygın. The weapons used in Falyalı’s murder, including numerous Kalashnikovs and A-47s, would be nearly impossible to smuggle into Northern Cyprus without some sort of government collusion, as all port, borders, and land crossings are heavily guarded by Turkish military. Adding that the shooting lasted for minutes, Aygın said “How were they able to just do this and run away, in a place full of security cameras?” Additionally, because of long-standing Turkish military control over Northern Cyprus’ police force, it is not under civilian control, and it “cannot be supervised by democratic mechanisms,” which feeds public suspicion, says Aygın.
The TRNC’s status as an unrecognized state also allows it to operate outside international legal norms, explained Aygın, who said that it evades basic supervision mechanisms that most other states are subject to. As a consequence of this status, “Not only Turkish Cypriot, but Turkish organized crime groups have also established a significant foothold in the northern part of the island”. The northern part of Cyprus, according to Aygın, has also become a ‘heaven’ for activities such as gambling, money laundering, and sex trafficking, as the country’s casinos and brothels exploit TRNC’s lawlessness.
“People are beginning to come to terms,” Aygın said, “with the fact that the northern part of Cyprus actually is a very dark place, where all sorts of illegal activities are thriving. Now, we are seeing the relations and disputes between the mafia groups taking place in almost broad daylight, in front of the eyes of the people.”
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