Turkish Cypriots unhappy with isolation, austerity measures

”]Ongoing protests by thousands of Turkish Cypriots against austerity measures imposed by the leading National Unity Party (UBP) have triggered calls of concern among officials.

After a March 2nd protest, the second in a month, Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu said he was worried about rising tension between Turkish Cyprus and Turkey.

“Falling out with Turkey does not serve the purposes of Turkish Cypriots,” Eroglu said.

“I believe the situation could escalate in mass rallies and potentially strikes, and other forms of civil protest,” said Hubert Faustmann, a University of Nicosia professor.

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus was divided in 1974 after Turkey formed the state of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. At a January 28th mass demonstration, a group of Turkish Cypriot protesters yelled anti-Turkey slogans. Some Turkish Cypriots attending he March 2nd protest waved flags of the Greek-run Republic of Cyprus.

The breakaway republic in northern Cyprus is isolated from the international community and is highly dependent on economic aid from Turkey. After the late January protest, members of the Turkish government have been criticising Ankara’s financial handouts and some politicians are even demanding that it stop.

“Who are these people?” said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referring to the protestors carrying anti-Turkey slogans. “They need to be brought before a court.”

“Erdogan is adding fuel to the fire,” said Professor Ahmet Sozen of Eastern Mediterranean University. “He fails to understand that even though Turkish Cypriots are Turks, they are different.”

Professor Muzaffer Senel of Istanbul Sehir University says that Erdogan’s speech had a negative effect on Turkish Cypriots and Turkey’s relations with them.

He said that Erdogan should have considered that the anti-Turkey protestors are a small and extremist group. “We should [differentiate] between all protestors and those extremist groups swearing at Turkey.”

Ankara gives northern Cyprus financial support worth of $600m every year. Sozen said that in the past four or five years, Turkey’s ruling party Justice and Development party (AKP) has demanded that the northern Cyprus government reform its financial and economic sectors.

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Northern Cyprus, however, has been postponing the reforms.

Andrekos Varnava, an expert from Cyprus’ Flinders University, does not believe that Turkey will stop giving support to northern Cyprus amid the anti-Turkey protests.

“[Ankara] has invested decades of economic, political and military support there,” said Varnava. “It is perceived as strategically important to Turkey’s southern flank, and its ambitions to become a Mediterranean power.”

According to some experts, Turkey has been focusing too much on Greek Cyprus at the cost of the northern part of the divided island. “For many years Turkey has been shaping its Greek Cyprus policy, while at the same time turning a blind eye to Turkish Cypriot society,” Senel said.

This content was commissioned for SETimes.com.