Rezvan Inlen, the Turkish Cypriot mukhtar of the village of Ayios Symeon, at the base of the Karpas peninsula, on Sunday called for the eradication of Cypriot donkeys.
He posted a video to social media platform Facebook in which he walked through a field near the village making an impassioned speech about his disdain for the animal and the impact he says it has on farming in the area.
“This is Ayios Symeon. From Apostolos Andreas, I’m not sure, but it’s about 40 or 45 kilometres away, in terms of distance, like, a village towards the centre [of Cyprus]. These over here are donkeys, and these crops are mine, and these crops are going straight into their bellies, and the donkeys are into these crops,” he began, setting the scene.
“Recently, there was apparently a murder or something. 15 of the things were killed, they were saying there was a murder. A murder! Let not one of them remain! Not a single one!”
He then added that as the donkeys continue to eat the crops out of his field, “these donkeys are going to be full to bursting and I’m going to kick the bucket”.
He said the donkeys are “not useful for even one thing”, before criticising those who advocate for the donkeys’ free roaming.
“They have come as far as Ayios Symeon because there is food here … and in your words are ‘free donkeys’, but to us, the people trying to earn a living off this land, they are animals which are cutting off our freedom and our children’s future,” he said, before his tone was raised once more.
“These animals, which have come here to ruin these crops, look at them. Not just 15, if they kill thousands of them I would not give a monkey’s! Let not one of them remain.”
He added that if people reacted angrily in the video’s comments, “whatever you say down there, whatever you say about me, I say the same about you right now in advance, exactly the same”.
“Whatever is said, the exact same. I return it to you in advance.”
He then made it clear that his words were to be taken as the words not of a concerned citizen but from his position as an elected official.
“I, the Ayios Symeon mukhtar, as a state official, say not one donkey should be left in these lands. Where are the people who defend them? I wish the same for them. Whatever bad words may be written in the comments, I have very bad words for them, very bad.”
“Come, come and look at them. Hundreds of acres of land and where do they come? They come here, in packs of 20, in packs, packs of 30, packs of 50,” he added.
He then closed his speech by saying, “we are not farming these fields to feed the donkeys, we are farming them for our children’s future”. A donkey’s bray was then heard in the background as the video cut off.
Tashkent nature park director Kemal Basat reacted to the video on Sunday afternoon, stressing that in his efforts to promote donkey conservation, he is on the side of farmers.
“One of the most important problems we have observed in our studies is the ‘human-donkey conflict’ … For 50 years, these donkeys have been in a constant search for survival in a region they did not choose and did not want … and similarly, our people in that region have been victimised by the damage the donkeys have unintentionally caused,” he said.
He said the donkeys have migrated down the peninsula in search of food and water, and that this is heightening tensions.
“I do not know Rezvan Inlen personally, but I do not think he is a bad person or that he really wants to harm the donkeys. Rather than analysing the words he used, let us understand the helplessness and the material and psychological pressure this creates in the region,” he said.
The Tashkent nature park is undertaking the “Karpasia donkeys management plan”, which aims to raise 2.28 million TL (€59,793) – enough to provide support for a total of 300 donkeys.
The Karpasia donkeys management plan aims to “save” the donkeys and ensure they do not damage farmers’ crops in the region, and is jointly organised with the north’s ‘tourism ministry’ and the Turkish Cypriot Rizokarpaso and Yialousa municipality.
Basat told the Cyprus Mail that as part of the plan, the donkeys will be counted, caught, subjected to health checks and registered.
“The national park area at the tip of the Karpas peninsula will be modified, feed and water troughs will be placed in appropriate places, and scientific studies will be carried out to determine the total capacity of the area.”
He added that every donkey in Karpasia will be registered within the next three years, and subsequently be managed within the scope of the plan.
“The ultimate goal is to ensure that donkeys live safely and to the animal welfare standards which they deserve, to protect nature from the unintentional damage caused by donkeys, and to protect the local people’s products from donkeys in a correct and healthy way,” he said.
Members of the public are able to symbolically adopt a Karpasia donkey through the Tashkent nature park and the Cyprus wildlife research institute by visiting bit.ly/esekkurtar.
The cost of adopting a donkey is 7,600TL (€199), with the Tashkent nature park saying that money will contribute “to improving the living conditions of these long-neglected animals in Cyprus”.
