North Cyprus Journalist Takes On Turkey's Mighty Erdogan

North Cyprus journalist takes on Turkey's mighty Erdogan

Nicosia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Dec, 2018 ) :Jail time, angry mobs and assassination attempts -- editor Sener Levent has paid a price for challenging Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and authorities in breakaway northern Cyprus through his tiny newspaper.

Alongside the stacks of old papers on his desk in northern Nicosia, a luminous screen displays footage from security cameras at his office's entrances.

The cameras are part of protective measures in place since gun attacks in 2011 targeted Levent, who has run the leftist daily Afrika for the past 20 years.

"There is always a price you pay for freedom of expression," said the 70-year-old Turkish Cypriot, grey hair combed back and sporting a mischievous grin.

"We paid this price.... but I believe that a person should get rid of his fears.

" In January, hundreds of protesters attacked the paper's offices after it ran an article criticising a Turkish military offensive against the Kurdish border enclave of Afrin in Syria.

"Afrin, a second occupation by Turkey" after Cyprus, ran the article's bold headline.

Levent is a native of Cyprus, a Mediterranean island whose northern third has been under Turkish military control since 1974.

Turkish troops invaded that year in response to a coup backed by the military junta then in powerin Athens that sought to unite the island with Greece -- a union staunchly opposed by Turkish Cypriots.

Only Ankara recognises the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). It also bankrolls the entity.