''Avrupa'' is a daily newspaper published in
Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus ( tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs), officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC; tr, Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti, ''KKTC''), is a ''de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the Geography of Cyprus, isl ...
. Its chief editor is
Åžener Levent Åžener is a Turkish name and may refer to:
Given name
* Şener Özbayraklı, Turkish footballer
* Åžener Åžen, Turkish actor
*Åžener Korkusuz (born 1979), Turkish American entrepreneur, American 7s Football League (A7FL) CEO and co-founder
Surname ...
. It supports the
reunification of Cyprus and espouses
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...
values, being characterised in scholarship as
radical left.
History
''Avrupa'' and the presidency of DenktaÅŸ
The newspaper was first published on 17 September 1997 using the name ''Avrupa'' ("Europe" in Turkish). It opposed the policies of
Rauf DenktaÅŸ
Rauf Raif Denktaş (27 January 1924 – 13 January 2012) was a Turkish Cypriot politician, barrister and jurist who served as the founding president of Northern Cyprus. He occupied this position as the president of the Turkish Republic of Nort ...
,
President of Northern Cyprus
The president of Northern Cyprus is the head of state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Rauf DenktaÅŸ was the first and founding president of Northern Cyprus, and retired in 2005. His position was taken over by Mehmet Ali Talat, fol ...
at the time, as well as the role Turkey played at the Cyprus problem. This resulted in the newspaper in over 100 lawsuits against the newspaper and attempts to close it down by confiscation of its property.
On 29 December 1999, the newspaper was fined 120 billion
Turkish lira
The lira ( tr, Türk lirası; sign: ₺; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. One lira is divided into one hundred ''kuruş''.
History
Ottoman lira (1844–1923)
The lira, along wit ...
s (TL) as a result of lawsuits filed by DenktaÅŸ. With the contribution of inflation, the fines reached a total of 200 billion TL in 2001.
It was also claimed that the newspaper did not pay its taxes and some of its equipment was confiscated for this reason in November 2001.
On 12 December 2001, all property in the newspaper's offices was confiscated and all income that would be generated from sales was seized