Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to northern Cyprus on Saturday, aimed at demonstrating Ankara’s political and financial backing of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state, comes amid renewed attention to longstanding allegations of corruption and lawlessness in the country following the assassination of a whistleblower who exposed its role in illegal gambling and political payoffs.
Erdoğan arrived in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) for his first official trip to the island since his reelection in 2023. He was scheduled to inaugurate a newly constructed presidential and parliamentary complex in Nicosia, the northern part of which is controlled by the KKTC and serves as its capital city, and participate in a TEKNOFEST awards ceremony, part of Turkey’s state-sponsored aerospace and technology initiative.
The visit is intended to highlight Turkey’s strategic commitment to the KKTC, which is recognized only by Ankara and remains internationally considered part of the Republic of Cyprus. The new government complex, funded and built by Turkey’s public housing agency TOKİ, spans more than 600,000 square meters and includes offices for the presidency, the parliament and the prime ministry as well as landscaped gardens.
But Erdoğan’s visit comes just days after the assassination of Cemil Önal, a former insider who had publicly accused Ankara-linked political figures of using northern Cyprus as a hub for money laundering and bribery. Önal, 41, was shot dead...
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