76. From Turkey to Turkish Cyprus

As  per  the  offer from my friend Prof.Balasubramoniam who was  the  Dean , European University  of Lefke, North  Cyprus, we  decided to   move out  of Adana to  Lefke, a small  township in the  Turkish Republic   of North  Cyprus.  There was  no direct flight  to  Ercan, the  only airport   in N.Cyprus.  We had to go  to  Istanbul and  then travel to   Ercan.  Moreover, we  had a lot of luggage  including some  of the  bags of  Basmati  rice we  brought  from Boston. On enquiry, we  found that    the  most convenient   transport available  to N.Cyprus from Adana was  by a  ferry from  the port  of Mercin about 85 KMs from Adana. So, we booked our tickets and started disposing off our belongings like furniture and other things. We had paid the rent for the whole year and no refund was available. There were  no takers  for the furniture and so  we left it to some poor people  staying near  our flat. We took the essential  utensils and other  things which itself added to more  than 8 or 9 bags. Even though we were in  Adana  for only 6 months, we had made lot of friends including a Malayali  lady from  Chalakudy who  got married to a  Turk , an Iraqi   doctor , short   guy  who was taking care  of his  two grown  up sisters and his brother  from the   allowance he was  getting from the government for his studies, my wife’s friends, Mrs.Pamela  and Mrs.Khadeeja and of course  my own colleagues Turkish and other  foreign friends from Russia , Ukraine and Germany.  It was   difficult to bid farewell to them  but we  had to leave  as with  the type  of inflation existing in Turkey then, it was not possible  for us to  continue  there.

A convenient tempo van   brought us to Mercin  with our luggage. We boarded the  big ferry  which  was almost like a  big ship with facility  for carrying several cars inside. But  as we started  our journey first time  on the  sea, things were pretty  bad.  The  air conditioner  was not working and many men and women  started  vomiting due  to   sea sickness. My wife was also   caught in the  group and were using the  plastic bags provided  by the  crew. After a few bouts, she  was lying on my lap till end of the journey for about five hours  to the  Northern part  of the  Cyprus island.  Fortunately  , Prof Bala  had arranged  the university vehicle to carry us to the  flat  the university had provided   to the  faculty  near the  university campus.  Both of us were  to tired and took   rest for the day.

History  of North  Cyprus

Cyprus  is an island lying South of the  mainland Turkey about 300 KMs  away. This  island was  the  haven of pirates  for a long time  but later became part  of the  empires of Egypt, Rome and Byzantine . People from Turkey  in the North and  Greece  in the  West and South started   migrating   to the island. Since the British were  ruling the  seas  due to their  naval power, ultimately Cyprus became  a  British colony. Copper was available  in the island and  many Copper  mines started functioning there. In 1960 , Cyprus  was given  independence  under a tripartite  agreement. As there was  minor friction between the   Turkish Muslims and the  Greek Christians, the tripartite agreement  nominated  Turkey as  the  guardian of the  Turkish Muslims and Greece as the guardian  which safeguards  the  interests  of the  Christians . Great Britain  remained as  the  third party   in the  agreement who also took the role of the arbitrator  in case  of a dispute  between the two  groups of people. Things went on for a few years without  trouble until  Arch Bishop  Makarios   became  the  president  of Cyprus. He started  easing out  the Turkish Muslims from many government posts including  police in favour of Christians and  several laws were enacted  depriving the  Muslims  of their legitimate rights  guaranteed  under the  constitution.  This was opposed  to by Turkey and Bishop  was warned not to do that. However,  the clergyman continued  his purging of Muslims  when  Turkish army and air force  personnel  virtually  landed in the  Northern part of Cyprus  and the Turkish Muslims greeted  them with  both hands. Turkey  declared  the  Northern  part of Cyprus as   Republic of North Cyprus.  However, United  Nations  intervened and the new republic was  not recognised by UNO. A no-man’s  land or buffer  zone was created  between the two regions and UN soldiers  were posted to avoid bloodshed.  UN  declared an embargo  on North Cyprus . Due to the  embargo  N.Cyprus   could not market their  produce like citrus  fruits and fruit products and people were living on whatever the Turkish government gave  them for subsistence. A few families  had their  relatives working in Germany, UK etc and they were   able to get  some support. The  only industry  thriving  in N.Cyprus was   education  with several private universities  like  our European University  of Lefke, Cyprus American University etc and off shore campus of Middle East Technical University (METU) of Turkey  etc.  These  private  universities were getting large number  of students from the gulf countries and even from the  very rich  people in mainland Turkey. Reasonably good  fees were collected and they could pay reasonably better  salaries  for the faculty appointed. That is how  I was  offered a  reasonably good remuneration . As these  universities were  not dependent on Turkey for  their  income, they could give  us at least half of our salary in hard currency USD or GBP and we could manage to live with  the other half given in Turkish lira. A fully furnished  flat with  gas and essential   utensils, fridge and microwave oven were  provided for the faculty from other places. We used  to buy essential goods from the   military canteen once in  a week in an old Renault car one of the  professors  had purchased.  His son was also studying  in the Computer Science  department. Life  in Cyprus was   satisfactory with   friends  from the different  nationalities  . We had two  Pakistani students who became regular visitors  in our house. As my wife could speak   Hindi reasonably well from our stay in New Delhi, they used to chit chat with her for quite some time. The boys Zaheer and Imran  both from Sindh province in Pakistan used to bring  cassettes  of the latest Hindi movies and  share it with us. They were telling that the  people of Pakistan are not too much against people of India and the rivalry may be short duration like when they see an Indo Pak cricket or hockey match and otherwise  no  problem.  The  people near the  border  were totally dependent on television and radio from India . It is only the political leadership  who rake up the  Indo-Pak rivalry whenever they face  problems  within their country.

I continued there for two semesters and  was  thinking of renewing my  contract for another semester when I heard that  Regional Engineering Colleges are  being renamed as  National Institutes of Technology with direct funding and control of the  Ministry of Human Resources  Development of Government of India. NITs  were autonomous  institutions  which could conduct   their own examinations and award degrees  to the students like IITs. As I was part of the REC  from 1969 to 2002,  I thought  it is not fair   on my part to keep myself away from the institute while the transition from REC  to NIT is taking place. I wrote an email to the Principal telling that even though I had  six more months’ leave   outstanding, I am ready to re-join the college if you feel that  my services are required  for the college . He wrote back “  Of course, we want people like you as strong  pillars  on which we want to build  our NIT. Please  come back as soon  as possible.” Believing his words, I returned to India cancelling   part of my leave.  However, on my return  I had   nothing to do academically in NITC other than as a professor  in  EED as  the Principal   had put his own stooges as  Dean Academic  (UG) and Dean Academic (PG Studies & Research). Probably  he was  playing a trick on me  for getting  the  leave  sanctioned against his wish to go to Turkey. NITs  were required to implement credit system    from the   beginning. Many members  of faculty  were  not aware of what  a credit system means other than converting  marks to grades.  I  had been working  abroad in two universities  where credit system was in vogue  ,thought that  I could contribute  something in the  framing  of the  rules and regulations  of the newly formed  NIT Calicut. At  least  temporarily  I was denied  the opportunity. A professor from a  non-engineering department  was appointed as Dean (UG) and a  close  friend of  the  principal  from Mechanical  department as  Dean ( PG&SR). Having  practically   nothing to do in the  department, I started  on my  first  text  book  on Control  Systems , “Modern Control Engineering” , a text  book  useful  for  Advanced  Control  Systems  course.