Mehmet Yaşın

Mehmet Yaşın, printed "Mehmet Yasin" in English, wrote "Perishing Cyprus" for the Turkish Cypriot weekly Olay, where it ran from 26 April 1982. An English translation was submitted to the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and printed as Appendix 9 of its hearing of 20 July 1985².

The article reports on Gastria, a half-excavated Geometric-age city where the government allowed a cement and gypsum factory, against the opposition of the Antiquities Department and the Supreme Monuments Committee¹. It carries an interview with the archaeologist Dr Turhan Kamil about Famagusta¹ and another with the Department's director, Hasan Şefik Altay¹. It also covers the thefts of icons and antiquities at Kyrenia Castle and St Barnabas, where 225 icons were reported missing, a Department commission wrote a 40-page report, and the Kyrenia branch director Mehmet Rasih Savarona was removed and brought to court¹.

A Morphou section deals with seizures at Tymbou from İsfendiyar Rıfat Açıksöz. It prints a letter from Altay of 30 September 1980 and charges that antiquities confiscated from Rifat came from the private collection of Christakis Hadjiloizides¹. These are the article's statements. His birth, death and later career are not recorded.