President Ersin Tatar issues a message on the 40th anniversary of the passing of Dr. Fazıl Küçük, the leader of the struggle for freedom of the Turkish Cypriot People
The statement of President Ersin Tatar is as follows:
“We are commemorating with deep respect and longing Dr. Fazıl Küçük, the leader of the struggle for the existence and freedom of the Turkish Cypriot people, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his passing.
He was a great leader leaving his mark as a doctor, a journalist and a writer throughout his life which extends from being a municipal council member to the Presidency.
Dr. Fazıl Küçük visited all the villages in Cyprus and tried to organise the Turkish Cypriot people for the national case. He struggled against the Enosis -the goal of the Greek Cypriots - together with his colleagues, primarily Rauf Denktaş, under harsh circumstances . He spent great efforts to attract the attention of Türkiye. His efforts to clarify the national case in Türkiye, enabled the whole world to see the realities of the island that there are two peoples in Cyprus.
Dr. Küçük pioneered the establishment of the Turkish Resistance Organization, which is the basis of today's Security Forces Command, and fought against the UK as well as the EOKA, and always supported the Turkish Cypriot people in the most difficult days.
Dr. Fazıl Küçük was a self-sacrificing leader who gave his own property to the Turkish Cypriots, who were expelled from their villages and deprived of their homes and helped build houses for them.
When we consider the developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and Palestine today, it becomes clearer how farseeing Fazıl Küçük was.
With these feelings and thoughts, I commemorate once again with love, respect, gratitude and mercy, our leader, his comrades in arms, and the Founding President Rauf R. Denktaş, whose footsteps we pursue on the path to acceptance of our independence.”