Fazıl Küçük

Politician, journalist-writer and medical doctor (B. 14th March 1906, Ortaköy / Nicosia / Cyprus – D. 15th January 1984 London / England). He is known with the name of Dr. Fazıl Küçük. He is graduated from the Tarakçı School, the Istanbul Özel İstiklal High School and the Kabataş Erkek High School (1926). He started his education of medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, İstanbul Darülfünun Ottoman University (İstanbul University). He went to France and then to Switzerland after his first year and he finished his education at the University of Lausanne. After the medical specialty education he took in the clinics of Lausanne, he became a specialist in internal diseases. He returned to Cyprus in May 1937 and worked as a self-employed doctor in Nicosia for approximately twenty years (1937 – 58).

In his university student years, Küçük took a stand on the Kavanin Assembly that insisted that Turkish Cypriots should have been governed by governors assigned by the United Kingdom (England). His political life started with his councillorship in the Municipality of Nicosia between the years of 1943-49. He first carried out works for the transfer of Turkish Schools and Evkaf (Foundations) Administration to the Turkish public. He wrote writings dealing with the problems of Turkish Cypriots in the one and only Turkish newspaper of the time Söz and then in the newspaper of Masum Millet for this purpose. On 14^th March 1941, he started to publish the newspaper “Halkın Sesi” that he founded himself. He was one of the founders of the Association of Kıbrıs Adası Türk Azınlığı (KATAK) on 18^th April 1943. Later on, he left KATAK and established the Kıbrıs Milli Türk Halk Party (KMTHP) (23^rd April 1944). This party was assembled with KATAK on 23^rd October 1949 and was restructured under the name of Kıbrıs Milli Türk Birliği Party and Dr. Küçük became the leader of this new constitution. The name of this party was changed to Kıbrıs Türktür Party on 15^th August 1955.

Dr. Küçük founded the Organization of Kıbrıs Türk Mukavemet (KITEMB) on the date of 1^st April 1955 and the secret Volkan organization in September 1955. The same year, England started to utilize Turkish Cypriots as polices and commandos upon the terror movements of the Greek secret organization EOK, which were started for the purpose of saving the island from the exploitation of England and to put it under the sovereignty of Greece or to declare the independence. When the subject of the English to leave Cyprus became a current issue, Turkey and Greece showed different approaches about their statuses on the island. The principles behind the active entering of Dr. Fazıl Küçük to politics were to raise the awareness of the Turkish Cypriot community against the international actors that had obvious or secret intentions on the island and to be on the side of the Turkish Cypriot community. Upon the efforts of Küçük, the Şer’iye Courts were removed and Turkish Family Courts, taking the legal system of the west as principle, were founded. The position of mufti was reconstructed and brought to life. The English Exploitation Government transferred the Türk Tali Schools and the Vakıflar (T.N. Foundations) Administration to the Turkish community.

After the London and Zurich Conferences in which he participated as the representative of the Turkish Cypriot community, Dr. Küçük has represented the Turkish Cypriot community in the conference organized on 17^th February 1959 in London and he signed the agreement settled in two days in the name of his community. According to the foundation agreements of the Republic of Cyprus, the president of the republic would be from the Greek side and the vice-president of the republic would be from the Turkish side. Hereupon, Dr. Fazıl Küçük was selected as the first vice-president of the republic of Cyprus on 3^rd December 1959. From the month of July of 1962 until the month of December, he visited all the Turkish villages and some of the Greek villages together with a team specialized in the problems of rural regions, he prepared a detailed report after completing these visits and he sent it to the responsible governmental authorities.

Küçük, who presided the General Committee founded after the attacks of the Greeks to Turkish on 21^st December 1963, was assigned as the director of the Geçici Kıbrıs Türk Government founded on the date of 27^th December 1967. He left his position of the Vice-president of the Republic of Cyprus on 18^th February 1973 and gave his place to his friend from warfare Rauf Denktaş. He felt unwell at the beginning of the year 1980. However, he continued to write articles in “Halkın Sesi” and he continued to put forward his opinion about several problems even in this period of illness that lasted two or three years. He accepted the foundation of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus with joy.

 Küçük lost his life on 15th January 1984 at the age of 78, in a hospital in London, where he was receiving a treatment. His corpse was buried in the place known as the hill of Mumcu in Hamitköy near Nicosia. The hill where his corpse was put was named as “Anıt Tepe” after this day. A mausoleum was constructed for him afterwards and his consulting room was reorganized as “The Museum of Dr. Fazıl Küçük”