The trial of Turkish Cypriot journalist Ali Kismir, who faces up to 10 years in prison for “insulting” the Turkish Cypriot armed forces, began on Tuesday, with a prosecution witness saying army personnel had “cried” over an offending social media post.

Lieutenant Colonel Cengiz Dogan told the court in northern Nicosia that “because of a post shared on Facebook, the TRNC security forces command, one of the most valuable and trusted institutions, was discredited and devalued in the eyes of society.”

He added that for this reason, the force had filed a complaint about its “morality being belittled” by Kismir.

“Female personnel called me in tears and said, ‘commander, there is such a post on Facebook, what do they want to tell us?’, and that is how I learned about it,” he said.

After having read the post, he spoke with his commanding officer before filing a complaint to the police.

In the 2020 post, Kismir had likened the headquarters of the ‘TRNC security forces command’ to a ‘brothel’ after it had allegedly been visited by representatives of Ersin Tatar in the run-up to that October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election.

Kismir’s lawyer and Cyprus Turkish bar association head Hasan Esendagli asked Dogan, “what did you understand from the post and why did you feel the need to file a complaint?”

Dogan answered, “I understood what everyone understands. The [headquarters] is a brothel. Everyone who reads this will understand it that way.”

Esendagli followed up, asking, “if you put the headquarters aside, what is the post about, which you say is something everyone understands?”

Dogan responded, “it is entirely about politics, the aim is to make a political criticism. However, the security forces command was belittled and devalued in the eyes of society. The essence of the article is political criticism.”

Esendagli explained that “the post has nothing to do with you, the place, or the security forces command. The entire post is political criticism. The Ankara government is criticised, the politicians who intervene in the government here. The targets of the criticism are the Ankara government and its intervention in the TRNC presidential election.”

A small crowd of people had gathered outside the courthouse to offer support for Kismir, and this support spread across the Green Line, with the Greek Cypriot Cyprus Journalists’ Union offering their “wholehearted support” to Kismir, saying he faces prison for “daring to criticise the pseudo-state’s security forces.

“In essence, he is being prosecuted for an opinion piece where he defiantly expressed his critical opinion about the authorities in the occupied part of our country,” they added, going on to call him “daring”.

Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, the man beaten by Ersin Tatar in the 2020 election on Sunday said “those who should be tried are those who gave the order for these interventions [in the election] and those who carried them out.

“Journalists can of course be tried if they commit a crime like other people, but no journalist can be sentenced to prison for what they write. If we are going to demand a democratic social structure with a free press, it is inevitable that this case will be withdrawn,” he added.