North Cyprus's ministers of Education and transport exchange blame over school bus crash

The north Cyprus’s ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli and ‘education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu on Monday traded blames with each other for the overturning of a school bus in the Karpa peninsula village of Yeni Erenköy last week, which saw 28 children and the bus’ driver hospitalised.

Speaking in ‘parliament’ Arikli said that while his ‘ministry’ grants permits for vehicles to be used for transportation, it is the ‘education ministry’ which signs contracts with transportation companies to facilitate the provision of school bus services.

“This contradiction must be resolved,” he added.

Cavusoglu was incensed by this, telling ‘parliament’ that “there is an illusion being created that all responsibility lies with the education ministry”.

“This is not true.”

Erhan Arikli explains his version of events

In the aftermath of the accident, family members of the 28 injured children gathered outside Lefkosia’s Dr Burhan Nalbantoglu hospital, laying blame squarely at the feet of the ruling coalition.

Arikli had said the bus had overturned due to a brake failure, and in response, many were quick to point out the age and poor level of upkeep of buses across the north, with buses built in the 1950s, some with leaking roofs and mechanical malfunctions still being used to take children to and from school.

They spoke to television channel Kanal Sim, with one mother claiming that while the bus only had a capacity of 20 people, 40 people were on board.

A number of children had reportedly decided not to get on board as they “knew that the brakes of that bus were broken”.

The overturned bus

Arikli pointed his finger at Cavusoglu and his ‘ministry’ in the accident’s immediate aftermath, saying that at present, school buses in the north are being run as a “profit source” and the system is “open to serious abuse”, with transport providers signing contracts directly with the ‘education ministry’.

Last week, Turkish Cypriots demonstrated outside the TRNC’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel’s office against the government’s alleged negligence on the matter.

Children, parents, and teachers were at the protest, though some were prevented from attending after the Turkish Cypriot police boarded a bus which was en route from Yeni Erenköy to Lefkosia for the protest and prevented it from travelling.

At the protest, a teenage girl named Gamze Borak, who had been on the bus which crashed, had made a speech directly criticising the ruling coalition, sking, “who put these children onto that heap of scrap metal every morning?”, and adding, “the primary duty of the state is to protect us, but it did not protect us, it neglected its duty”.

Protesters outside Unal Ustel’s office last week decrying alleged negligence over the upkeep of school buses and demanding Cavusoglu’s resignation [Photo: Serap Sahin – Yeniduzen]