The north’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli was accused on Tuesday of “thinking he is an influencer” by opposition party CTP Deputy Leader Sila Usar Incirli.
Incirli was speaking on public broadcaster BRT television regarding social media posts made by Arikli in the aftermath of a fatal traffic accident which occurred in Kyrenia on Monday, where he wrote that those blaming him were engaging in “lynch culture”.
“Does the esteemed minister think he is an influencer? The esteemed minister is a minister, and I invite him to be serious,” she said.
She added, “such statements on social media are not enough. They do not fall in line with the seriousness of the state. In other words, he is a minister of the TRNC government. Statements like this will not solve this country’s problems.”
Asked whether she follows him on social media, Incirli said, “to be honest, I follow [him] in parliament. I do not really find it appropriate to follow him on social media, because it is a virtual place.”
In the same broadcast, she also reacted to the north’s ‘government’s’ refusal to acquiesce to the creation of a ‘parliamentary’ investigation into the circumstances regarding the banning of 12 Turkish Cypriots from Turkey.
After the proposal was voted down by ‘MPs’ from the north’s governing coalition, coalition party UBP Deputy Leader Sunat Atun said it “is out of the question” for the legislature to “handle a matter which is out of its control”.
Incirli responded, saying she found Atun’s response “inadequate”, and described his subsequent advice for people to follow legal steps set out in a booklet written by Turkish lawyers as “insincere”.
“We did not find the UBP’s evaluation of the matter to be sincere,” she added.