Have the Turkish Cypriot become a minorty in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus?

stavrizatz · Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:10 pm Post subject:

http://www.ykp.org.cy/index_eng.php?subaction=showfull&id=1201210170&archive=&start_from=&ucat=6&

Mete · Deputy Joined: 16 Aug 2005 Posts: 1150 Location: Boston

Having been in Cyprus for almost 3 months now, I can tell that he's exaggerating big time.

samarkeolog · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 2:08 pm Post subject:

It is possible; still, even if it is true, we have to be careful with the numbers. (I haven't had a chance to read Hatay's latest investigation into whether the Turkish Cypriot population is shrinking.)

(Using 1996 census data and more recent updates, electoral lists, etc.) Mete Hatay (2005: viii) found there were 155-158,000 Turkish Cypriot and 32-35,000 Turkish settler citizens of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and 16,277 registered workers, 30,000 unregistered workers, 18,398 university students, 500 lecturers and 35,000 Turkish military (including both soldiers and their families). (Hatay even counted the average number of Turkish tourists present at any one time, at 1,695.)

That gives you 190,000 citizens, or 292,000 people in total (excluding the enclaved communities, British colonists, etc.), in the North. So, if Hatay got nearly 300,000 using underestimated official numbers, I suppose that something nearer to 500,000 is a distinct possibility.

Nevertheless, that means the Turkish Cypriots are still a majority of the voters in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Hatay found that 'until 1993, the majority of the electorate in the "settler villages" voted for opposition parties – that is, against the party that had been in government since 1976, the National Unity Party (UBP)' (although some of those parties were "settler parties", so they might have been Turkish nationalist and not "oppositional").

After 1993, 'ethnic "settler" parties vanished from the political arena' and the settlers voted increasingly for the (definitely) oppositional Democratic Party and the Republican Turkish Party. (With my emphasis) Hatay concluded that 'the UBP [National Unity Party]'s grip on power for much of this period was maintained not by Turkish "settlers" but by Turkish Cypriots themselves'.

So, although they might be an absolute minority, they might still be a majority of voters in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus; then again, even if they are a majority of voters, they might still have no voice, as they are told what they can and cannot say. (Personally, I can only think of one reason Talat had to declare publicly that he'd never privately called the Turkish Army an occupier...; I believe Erdoğan had to do the same, too.)

Moreover, the Turkish settler community might also have no voice, especially when it, seemingly, came here for work, primarily, rather than to secure the "homeland" or whatever (as the governments may have been moving them for). (Hatay noted that its voting has been primarily concerned with 'social and economic problems' (rather than nationalism and national politics).)

Furthermore, the "Turkish worker community" includes many Kurds (and some Roma/Gypsies), the Kurds more unpopular with the Turkish Army than the Turkish Cypriots - and even the problems they face here are an escape from those they left in south-eastern Turkey.

I know the numbers are striking, but I don't think the communities that comprise them should be associated with the Turkish Army, as Murat Kanatlı seems to do. I think the majority of all of the different communities in the North would prefer to live free of military interference.

repulsewarrior · Deputy Joined: 06 Jan 2006 Posts: 1767 Location: Canada

thank-you mr s. always looking forward to reading your posts, most informative.

samarkeolog · Posted: Sat Feb 09, 2008 9:40 pm Post subject:

Thanks, but I really just nabbed Hatay's work. Smile