By Bosphorus News Türkiye Desk
Ayyüce Türkeş Taş, the İYİ Party's Deputy Chairperson for the Turkic World and Turks Abroad and an Adana deputy in the Grand National Assembly (TBMM), where she sits on the National Defence Committee and the Planning and Budget Committee, said Wednesday that students from the Republic of Cyprus were announced by name and had their flag raised at the medal ceremony of the International Geography Olympiad in Istanbul. She called the matter unacceptable and said the ceremony was hosted by the Republic of Türkiye and attended by Youth and Sports Deputy Minister Enes Eminoğlu, who presented awards.
Türkeş questioned how "a regime not recognised by Türkiye" could be presented at the event and asked why Eminoğlu did not intervene at the time. The matter, she said, could not be dismissed as a simple protocol error. "Turkish Cypriots cannot be ignored, the TRNC cannot be ignored," she said, calling for those responsible to be identified and for immediate action.
Türkeş is the daughter of Alparslan Türkeş, who was born in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1917 and later moved to Türkiye, where he built his entire political and military career. He served as a Turkish army officer before entering politics, founded the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in Ankara in 1969 and led it until 1980 and again from 1993 until his death, and served as deputy prime minister in the National Front coalition governments formed by Süleyman Demirel between 1975 and 1978.
The elder Türkeş was detained after the 1980 military coup and stood trial with other party members before his release in 1985. He returned to lead the party, then renamed the Nationalist Labour Party, after Türkiye's 1987 referendum lifted his political ban, and oversaw its restoration to the MHP name in 1993. He died in Ankara in April 1997 and remains a defining figure of the Turkish nationalist movement.
Sources: Ayyüce Türkeş Taş via X, İYİ Parti, Bosphorus News review and reporting.