Thousands of Turkish Cypriots chanting “we want our country back” have taken to the streets of Nicosia despite heavy rain, after calls for a mass demonstration against Ankara’s heavy-handed policies towards the breakaway republic.
Tensions with the Turkish government mounted this week after a mob of hardliners attacked the office of the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Afrika for running a front-page article critical of the country’s military offensive against Kurdish militants in Syria.
Led by the nationalist Grey Wolves, they went on the rampage after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, criticised the newspaper’s stance as “immoral” and “shameless”.
Beneath the headline “one more occupation from Turkey”, Afrika drew parallels with Ankara’s 1974 military operation in Cyprus when Turkey seized the island’s northern third.
The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe condemned the attack as an assault on free press and freedom of speech.
Ahead of the protest on Friday, Sener Elcil, a trade unionist, told the Guardian: “The attack was very violent and very humiliating for Turkish Cypriots, who no longer feel secure in their own country.” At least 5,000 people were believed to have taken part.
“In Turkey, all the intellectuals, journalists and writers have been imprisoned. There is no opposition, but in Cyprus there are people who believe in democracy and peace,” he said.
Elcil, who heads the leftwing and secular Turkish Cypriot teachers’ union, echoed other protest organisers in blaming Ankara for the violence on Monday.
At a rally in Bursa at the weekend, Erdoğan incited his “brothers in north Cyprus” to respond to the “vulgar” newspaper’s criticism.
About 500 protesters, many shouting Allahu Akbar, converged on the building, smashing windows and pelting it with eggs, water bottles and stones. Sener Levent, the newspaper’s editor, narrowly escaped being lynched, witnesses claimed.
Elcil, speaking from Nicosia, said: “Groups, paramilitary organisations, acting on the orders of the Turkish embassy, were behind it.
“For a very long time, Erdoğan has been trying to extend his power to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots do not feel protected.”
The demonstration, on the eve of presidential elections in the island’s Greek-run south, comes at a time of mounting tensions between Turkey and the minority, in whose name it invaded almost 45 years ago.
The 120,000-strong Turkish Cypriot community has increasingly complained of being overrun by devout mainland settlers. Grievances have grown since the collapse of UN-mediated reunification talks last year.
Although Ankara bankrolls the republic and is the only country to acknowledge it internationally, the appearance of religious schools and a mosque-building scheme, backed by the Turkish government, have antagonised a community that fears its traditionally secular Cypriot identity is being erased.
Afrika has been a leading critic of policies it has denounced as imperialist and neo-Ottoman. Levent told the Associated Press: “Erdoğan sent the demonstrators. It was a threat made against us. We will continue telling the truth.”
Rising tensions have not gone unnoticed in the south. The foreign ministry issued a blistering statement deploring Erdoğan’s increasing authoritarianism.
“The incitement to violence on the part of the Turkish president is yet more proof of Mr Erdoğan’s policy to consolidate Turkey’s authoritarian policies in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus, including restrictions on freedom of expression and freedom of the press,” it said.
The election on Sunday, which follows parliamentary polls in the north earlier this month, will play a decisive role in re-energising the peace process, with the prospect of reunification dependent – as never before – on the outcome of what is likely to be a two-round race.
#REPLAYTUNES: Thousands of Turkish Cypriots Protests Against Turkish Government
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