And suddenly, the occupied territories filled with demonstrators. Turkish Cypriots took to the streets – and stayed there. For two months now, an unprecedented wave of protests has been ongoing against the Islamification of their society and in favor of preserving the secular character of their community.
It all started in March, when the conservative authorities of the occupied north lifted a ban on headscarves in secondary schools. Since then, trade unions, teachers and left-wing organizations have been on the streets.
The issue is mobilizing citizens, as it touches on their basic existential concerns: identity, autonomy, and the fear of losing their way of life under increasing authoritarian and religious pressure. It is an attempt to impose the Erdoganist AKP and fundamentalism on the Turkish-Cypriot community, political analysts, unionists and professors explain to Kathimerini, and declare that they will continue their battle despite Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s warnings.
The backstory
In March, the authorities in occupied Cyprus amended the school disciplinary code to allow the use of the headscarves in junior high schools, while high schools can now independently decide the policy they will adopt. The controversial decision was taken after an incident went viral on social media when teachers refused to let a 13-year-old student into her school in occupied Nicosia because she was wearing a hijab.
The reaction was immediate. School strikes were organized, and the movement quickly gained momentum. A mass protest took place on April 8, with the participation of some 18,000 demonstrators, a particularly significant number in a population of 380,000. Even Turkish-Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s wife, Sibel, in a social media post, called the regulation “unnecessary,” stating that she too would have demonstrated if she had not been obliged to attend a museum opening with her husband that day. “I am against the fact that girls who are not 18 years old yet often wear headscarves at the request of their families and study in halls where the image of the great leader Ataturk hangs,” she said.
The rallies became daily, with protesters lighting fires outside the so-called government buildings and the Turkish embassy. On May 2, the day before Erdogan’s visit to the island, 100 trade unions declared a general strike. Another large demonstration took place, which resulted in the arrest of demonstrators.
The Turkish president himself warned the protesters, “Those who try to disturb our brotherhood, to create a rift between us, and to sow the seeds of hatred… will not be successful.” At the same time, he sent a clear message to trade unions and organizations: “If you touch our girls’ scarves, you will find us against you.”
Meanwhile, rumors are circulating on the island as to whether the 13-year-old girl acted on her own or at the behest of the Turkish embassy. Many claimed that while the school’s administration was trying to decide how to handle the situation, the girl started traveling to school in an embassy car.
“Our society, which is a tolerant society that has lived together with people of different languages, religions and ethnic origins for many years and for which secularism is one of its basic social values, opposes the change in this regulation,” says Selma Eylem, president of the Turkish Cypriot Secondary Education Teachers’ Association (KTOEOS) and one of the main organizers of the protests. “This is an attempt to deepen the domination of political Islam imposed by the AKP in the north of our island, and the use of our girls as instruments in this political move.”
This is not simply a matter of dress code or individual freedom, so it mobilizes the entire community, says Burak Mavis, head of the Turkish-Cypriot Teachers’ Trade Union (KTOS), for his part. “The recent regulation regarding the hijab opened the door not only to the wearing of a religious symbol but also to legitimizing religious and ideological influence on minors, disregarding their developmental capacity for informed choice,” he says, adding: “Our community, especially educators and parents, strongly opposes attempts to reshape education through political or religious agendas. Turkish Cypriots have a long history of embracing pluralism, secularism and tolerance. Today, what we defend are these fundamental democratic values, not a position against any religion or belief.”
This is not the first attempt to change the social fabric of the occupied north. The community went through a liberal period from 2003 to 2017, to a large extent because of Erdogan. As political analysts living in occupied Nicosia explain, the left could not come to power before, as they were in favor of the reunification of the island. After the AKP and Erdogan’s victory, things changed.
The Turkish president had come into things with an agenda of Turkey’s European course and therefore the resolution of the Cyprus problem. Thus, he paved the way for the Turkish-Cypriot left to come to power. But after Crans-Montana, Turkey decided to change course, now pushing for a two-state solution, and the left in the occupied territories did not follow suit.
Profound sociopolitical and demographic changes followed. New religious schools were established, the population was altered through settlement and the construction of large mosques was financed by Turkey.
The 2020 elections were a turning point in the political situation. “A few months before the elections, I remember polls in which Tatar was trailing 20 percentage points behind [former Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa] Akinci,” a Turkish-Cypriot political analyst says. “The lesson I’ve learned was that Turkey can elect whoever it wants. I think Tatar himself could not even dream that he could win.”
He says that the change in the disciplinary code was made because of the upcoming elections in the occupied territories in October. “The regulation is part of a broader political maneuver linked to the upcoming elections,” Mavis notes. “It attempts to mobilize conservative voters.”
“In 2020, the election of the president took place through the intervention of the AKP, the dose of ignorance in the will of the Turkish Cypriots has increased, separatist discourses on the Cyprus issue have been raised, the siege has deepened, colonization, integration, assimilation policies in line with the AKP ideology have become more severe and are being implemented through the elected puppet government,” Eylem says. “The main goal is to ensure the continuation of this order on the divided side of the island, which is excluded from international law, where a mafia, money laundering, bribery, nepotism and give-away system is created.”
Will they succeed?
The occupied north is already Turkey’s backyard, on which their economic survival depends. The likelihood of the protesters succeeding in overturning the new legislation is slim to none, especially as schools close for the summer holidays in a few weeks. Nevertheless, the organizers say they are determined to continue.
“President Erdogan’s comments did not intimidate us; they confirmed the legitimacy of our struggle,” says Mavis. “We will continue to fight for the best interests of children, secular education and pedagogical principles.”
Money for rubles and rials
The protests come at a time when corruption has skyrocketed in the north of the island.
In recent years, and particularly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (as many Russians were forced to withdraw from the Republic of Cyprus), there has been a boom in construction. Skyscrapers and hotel complexes are proliferating in the Iskele region, thanks to an influx of rubles and also Iranian rials.
Turkish Cypriots now call it the new Limassol. Over 1,000 car dealerships have sprung up, while cryptocurrency shops number in the hundreds, more than bank branches.
A draft law that is currently being discussed would allow offshore funds to be brought into the northern part with minimal supervision that could turn the occupied part of the island into a center for money laundering. The proposed legislation would charge 3% interest on imported funds until the end of 2025, and that money – regardless of how it was brought in and where it came from – would be introduced into local banks and thus into the international financial system.
A 2021 statutory decree gave a 20-day window allowing unregistered money to be integrated into the economy with a maximum of 2.5% tax.
One person who allegedly took advantage of the decree was Halil Falyali, who was found murdered in 2022, a Turkish-Cypriot businessman believed to have run a large drug ring and an illegal online betting empire.
On May 1 in the Dutch city of Rijswijk, where he was living under police protection, Falyali’s former financial director, Cemil Onal, who had publicly accused political figures in Ankara of using Cyprus as a hub for money laundering, was also murdered. The Dutch courts had refused to extradite him to Turkey and released him and he had started working with journalistic networks investigating black money routes.
Turkish-Cypriot journalist Aysemden Akin, who had spoken to him, has received death threats, with her colleagues launching a campaign to inform international public opinion.