Journalist Ayşemden Akın who received death threats and police at loggerheads over protection

Turkish Cypriot journalist Ayşemden Akın who received death threats after publishing a series of articles in which an interviewee had made allegations of a deep money-laundering and smuggling network based in Cyprus involving some of the most powerful men in Turkey found herself at loggerheads with the Turkish Cypriot police on Wednesday over the protection they had reportedly promised to provide.

Aysemden Akin wrote on social media that since her interviewee, Cemil Onal, was shot dead in the Netherlands on Thursday, a police vehicle had been parked outside her front door for half an hour every morning.

“At least we felt a little safe when taking our child to school,” she said, before adding that on Wednesday morning, she found that no police car was parked outside her house.

“My husband contacted the police and the answer was clear: ‘there will no longer be any waiting vehicles in the mornings, only increased patrols’,” she said, before referring to promises made by ‘government’ spokesman Ozdemir Berova regarding her protection on Tuesday night.

“What were you saying yesterday? ‘We will provide 24/7 protection’. Now, you have even taken away what was there before. Previously, you were saying, ‘inform the police when you leave your house, we will accompany you to your destination’. As of yesterday, this was also cancelled. The new rule: ‘tell us where you are going, we will send patrols there’,” she said.

“What do you mean? Are you trying to target me?”, she asked, before asking if the “step back” by the police was the work of associates of Turkish Cypriot businessman Halil Falyalı, the man for whom Onal had worked as a financial advisor, and who had been shot dead in Kyrenia in 2022.

“Or is this the collapse of a state which cannot protect its own citizens? Whatever you want to call it, they are clearly looking the other way,” she said.

“Cemil Onal was silenced. We are still living under threat and under house arrest but let everyone know this: these days will pass, and only the power of truth will remain!”

However, Turkish Cypriot police chief Kasim Kuni responded in kind, telling Turkish news website Kisa Dalga that reports that Akin’s protection had been withdrawn were not true.

“We did not withdraw any protection. The police car is only patrolling, so they cannot be in front of the door every minute. However, we have taken the necessary precautions,” he said.

He also denied that requests have been made for more extensive police protection to be provided, and added that “even if there was, we do not have such a law”.

Around an hour later, Akin wrote a post on social media which read that the police had arrived at her house and informed her that they would continue to be present outside her house in the mornings.

Cemil Onal had given a series of interviews to Akin regarding Falyali’s dealings with the highest levels of Turkey’s government and its ruling AK Party.

Onal had made reference to “dirty money being laundered”, bribes, and a “dirty network”, and has, according to Bugun Kibris, the news website for which Akin works, handed documents to American and Dutch intelligence.

At the centre of his allegations are a reported 45 or 46 cassette tapes which Falyali had kept and intended, if and when necessary, to use as blackmail against powerful figures.

According to Onal, Erdogan and his Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who was also allegedly involved in the illicit business, appointed the son of longtime Erdogan ally and former controller of his discretionary funds Maksut Serim as Turkey’s ambassador in the north with the aim of recovering the tapes.

Yasin Ekrem Serim was appointed as ambassador last summer and, according to Onal, told, “get those tapes and bring them back, that is how you will rise in the state”.

However, it has been reported that while Turkey’s National intelligence organisation (Mit) had discovered that there were a total of 45 or 46 such tapes, Serim only recovered 40, and kept the other five for himself.

Turkey’s presidential communications directorate slammed the allegations, describing them as “fictitious” and “unfounded”, while the country’s foreign ministry promised to take legal action over the matter, describing the allegations as “unfounded” and “not based on any concrete evidence”.