Turkey, Turkish-Cypriots Actually Go Back in Time
Post-coup censorship deepens, absurd decisions come to light.
Most observers are shaking their heads after two astonishing pieces of news from Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriot community.
The first backwards move is that four international playwright giants - Shakespeare, Brecht, Fo and Chekhov - have been banned from state-funded theatres in Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriot community in the north of the island.
The second is that Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriot community will not observe daylight savings and put their clocks back one hour on October 31st, meaning that Cyprus now has two time zones; GMT+2 and GMT+1.
Also meaning that Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriot community are going back in time, not just symbolically with the backwards move to censor literature and the arts, but in actuality by refusing to observe daylight savings along with the rest of the island.
The irony wouldn’t be lost on Brecht, who spent his life writing about alienation and the absurdities created by abuse of power.
More seriously, Turkey under Erdogan is becoming increasingly erratic. Sending ground troops into Syria could be a fatal mistake because the army is in disarray after the attempted coup.
The steady muzzling of the Turkish press leads to a block on moderate voices and propagandist trends. Where does this censorship end up? Usually in book burnings or play bannings, alienation, isolation and close-mindedness.
It would be unthinkable for these repressive policies to be extended to the rest of the island.
Let’s hope the Turkish Cypriots realise what is happening and understand the full extent of Erdogan’s authoritarianism and what it could do to their community.
Meanwhile, the pen remains mightier than the sword, and those playwrights remain mightier than any authoritarian who tries to silence their eternal voices.
As for daylight savings time, what can you say, really? The Turkish Cypriots will just have to live with the inconvenience of adjusting their timepieces in other ways. If travelling to Europe, the times will have to be adjusted for within Cyprus and then for the new timezone in Europe. Automatic updates on laptops and mobile phones will have to be undone, and at the very least, everyone will be confused when setting meetings. Being late will take on new dimensions.
Cyprus time just took on a new meaning.
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