A Turkish Cypriot who owns a portion of the land in Ayios Dhometios, where the ‘government’ plans to build a Turkish-funded Islamic ‘presidential’ complex, is taking legal action against the authorities over the matter, it emerged on Friday.

According to the Press and Information Office, two newspapers in the north reported that Canev Denner, who owns nine donums of the land allocated for the project, is suing the ‘government.’

Newspapers Avrupa and Yeni Duzen reported that Denner had had purchased the land in 1973 but was prohibited from using it following the Turkish invasion of 1974, as the area was designated a military zone.

The largest portion of the land appears to belong to Greek Cypriots, according to previous reports.

The trial is set to commence on March 20 and could result in a decision for the ‘authorities’ in the north to halt construction of the massive complex, which includes buildings for the ‘parliament,’ the ‘president,’ and a mosque.

On May 5, 2017, the Turkish army returned the land to its owner, but the ‘government’ expropriated it after deciding to construct the complex, publishing the ‘expropriation decision’ in the ‘official newspaper’ on February 29, 2024.

Denner subsequently filed an appeal through legal representation, urging the ‘supreme administrative court’ to halt construction and refrain from further action.

Two days ago, the ‘supreme court’ heard the case and summoned the defendants to appear in ‘court’ on March 20. Representatives from the ‘cabinet’ and the ‘transport ministry’ have been invited to participate in the trial.

The value of the land, estimated at several million pounds, spans 9 donums.

A 25-year-old prisoner in the north made an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to escape on Saturday.

The man, a 25-year-old Pakistani national, was being housed in the north’s old prison building, in northern Nicosia’s industrial zone.

He scaled the prison’s perimeter wall at around 2.30pm, before being spotted in a fenced area just outside the walls.

Police then detained him and put him back in prison.

He had been jailed last year after a series of burglaries and robberies at shops, including a burglary in May in which he stole a man’s car keys from inside his house and then drove off in the car.

He also stole seven tablets and five laptops from an electronics shop, and multiple other electronic devices from another house.

The police’s investigation into the escape attempt is ongoing.

‘North Cyprus can easily be a safe shelter for those wanted by Interpol or involved in illegal dealings’

At least 11 fugitives wanted by Interpol have been pinned down in the northern part of Cyprus in the last 20 months, as this unrecognised piece of land increasingly becomes a safe haven for criminals looking to evade the law.

The fugitives, including Australian underworld boss Mark Douglas Buddle, Russian drug lord Viktor Panyushin, Chinese criminal Yanxi Xia also known as Arman Kaya, and Italian mafioso Sebastiano Claudio Saia had purchased real estate after obtaining residence permits from the Turkish Cypriot administration and were leading lavish lives here. Some had also established businesses.

All the arrested fugitives were extradited to Turkey. The northern part of Cyprus, not recognised by any state other than Turkey, has no extradition treaties in force and all the Interpol-related arrest and extraditions can only be made through Turkey.

Lack of recognition means there is no oversight of international institutions and that international law and legal order do not apply. This, coupled with lack of adequate controls on who enters the country, on what the status of their visas or permits are once there, as well as on their activities has increasingly turned the north into a place where fugitives can easily hide.

Not surprisingly, Moldovan authorities believe that fugitive oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc, one of the most influential Moldovan politicians until 2019, is hiding in the north. Plahoutniuc, who is sanctioned by the USA and the EU, is wanted for embezzlement of state funds, fraud and bribery.

The lack of international recognition “creates serious legal gaps in terms of crime and criminals”, explains Dr Yonca Ozdemir of International Relations. “Moreover, existing laws are inadequate, there are huge shortcomings in their implementation, and there is lack of supervision… Therefore, north Cyprus can easily be a safe shelter for those wanted by Interpol or involved in illegal dealings.”

According to the 2023 Global Organised Crime Index, in the northern part of Cyprus “there are a number of people wanted by Interpol” and “these foreign criminal actors collaborate closely with domestic criminals.” The index also shows that organised crime; human, sex and drug trafficking; money laundering; and gambling networks are largely operating there with impunity.

The widespread bribery mechanism also supports the system, according to Ozdemir.

A study on corruption in the northern part of Cyprus based on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) methodology published last year revealed that 40 per cent of the business executives interviewed resorted to bribery in the past year. Seventy-two per cent of the 350 interviewed said bribery and corruption was ‘very common’. Bribery was found to be most rampant among the ‘prime minister’ and ‘ministers.’

Security threat

The uncontrolled flow of individuals into the north has also proven to be a security threat. Shamil Kalaev, a member of the terrorist organisation Islamic State Isis was among the 11 people wanted by Interpol and apprehended in the north in the last 20 months.

Last year, three separate Iranian terror attacks against Israelis and Jews in the Republic of Cyprus were foiled. In all three cases, the arrested suspects had come into the Republic of Cyprus from the north. In December, Israeli Prime Minister’s Office made a statement with the Mossad intelligence agency and the National Security Council saying that Israel was “troubled” by Iranian use of the northern part of Cyprus “both for terrorism objectives and as an operational and transit area”.

Although there are no exact figures, authorities estimate that the number of Iranians living in the north have reached 15 thousand. Over 40 thousand Iranians entered the north through air and seaports in 2023 according to official statistics.

Chief Justice Narin Ferdi Şefik in her speech at the opening of the 2023-2024 judicial year underlined that there should be increased controls at entry into the country and called for “urgent measures”.

Other deportations

In addition to the fugitives wanted by Interpol, 21 other individuals including Iranian Arash Maheri were deported from the north in the last 20 months for reasons like ‘threatening public law and order’, ‘spreading enmity among people and against the state’ and ‘conspiracy’. Seventeen of them were Turkish nationals.

Separately, and during the same period, 29 Nigerians were deported from the northern part of Cyprus. Many of them were members of violent cults such as Bucaneers and Black Axe, which are considered among the most far-reaching and dangerous organised crime groups in the world. A BBC investigation on Black Axe in 2021 for example, unearthed evidence of infiltration of politics, sexual attacks and killings across the world. All 29 had entered the north with student visas to attend university.

The ease with which student visas are issued paired with inadequate legal framework and the general lack of controls have turned universities into a backdoor to enter the county. There currently are 23 universities here that host almost 110,000 students. Close to half of these students are from countries in Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Middle East and the Far East. According to estimates at least 30 per cent of the enrolled students are “passive”, meaning they have entered the country on a student visa, but are not attending any classes.

According to the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report in 2023, once in the north, these people, who have come in with student visas, end up being forced into prostitution, drug trafficking or other illegal dealings.

The Council of Ministers on Tuesday gave the green light for the purchase of two buses to address the transportation needs of communities in Rizokarpaso, Kormakitis and Karpasia.

Responding to a request from the head of humanitarian affairs for missing and trapped persons last November, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades highlighted the urgent need to procure new buses to serve the populations in these regions.

The Council of Ministers approved the acquisition of two buses with 30 seats designated for Kormakitis and Karpasia, and 50 seats allocated for Rizokarpaso.

“These new buses are expected to be put into service within the next 18-20 months,” Vafeades said.

“They will cater to the transportation needs of our internally displaced persons, facilitating access to hospitals in the free areas and accommodating any other transportation requirements that may arise within their communities.”

The decision to acquire new buses stems from the escalating maintenance and repair costs associated with the existing fleet.

Vafeades emphasized that the current expenses have become unsustainable, necessitating the replacement of the buses to ensure the stranded populations have access to reliable transportation options.

The north’s ‘interior ministry’ on Thursday requested that Meray Durust, who is currently working as a civil servant despite being on bail for allegedly forging documents, be suspended from her post.

Durust had been working as director of the north’s ‘labour ministry’ until shortly after her arrest alongside her husband and former ‘education minister’ Kemal Durust in February.

She stands accused of having falsely obtained a degree from the now-infamous Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU) in Morphou.

Two weeks after Meray Durust’s arrest, ‘labour minister’ Sadik Gardiyanoglu announced Durust had been handed a new public sector role.

“Bureaucrats relieved of their duties return to their former duties, and Durust, who served as a civil servant in the Morphou District Governor’s office, has returned there to continue in her old position,” he said.

Meanwhile, two relatives of Ersin Tatar’s bodyguard Serif Avcil, who was arrested on Friday as part of the same investigation, have also now been arrested.

One of the pair was found to be in possession of a certificate of study from the KSTU, while the other has a degree certificate from a four-year undergraduate programme.

Both were remanded in custody for a single day.

Avcil himself most recently appeared in court on Tuesday, with police sergeant Bilger Koral saying Avcil had claimed to have “lost his phone on the way to the police station”.

He had been contacted by telephone to be summoned to the station, but when police asked for the same phone as evidence, he said he had lost it.

There are no cases of measles in the north, ‘health minister’ Hakan Dincyurek said on Thursday night.

Dincyurek was speaking after a total of six cases of measles were detected in the state-controlled areas since the beginning of the year, the most recent of which was a 15-year-old girl who was admitted to hospital in Limassol.

He added that “it is important to vaccinate all children at the recommended times, so children’s health and society can be protected.”

He said the “only way to prevent measles” is through vaccination, and that the increased spread of the disease in recent years has come about due to the Covid-19 pandemic, anti-vaccination movements, and wars in the world.

The measles vaccine is commonly given to young children in two doses while aged between one and four years old, with the north also running a programme to vaccine primary school students against measles should they have not been vaccinated earlier.

Earlier this month, the Makarios hospital’s paediatric department director Avraam Ilias said measles vaccine uptake in Cyprus is “somewhat low” at around 80 per cent, and that for the general population to be protected against the disease, vaccination coverage must reach 95 per cent.

Demolition work began at the Yialousa high school on Friday.

The school was declared unsafe during inspections carried out following the deadly earthquakes last year, with students educated in temporary portacabins since last spring.

Local ‘MP’ Biray Hamzaogullari, who belongs to opposition party the CTP, said he hopes “a beautiful new building and landscape will emerge” in the place of the old school building.

The school had made headlines for all the wrong reasons last October, when rainfall turned the portacabins and the area surrounding them  into a flooded, muddy quagmire.

Turkish Cypriot authorities were criticised this week after Cameroonian anti-racism campaigner Emmanuel Achiri discovered he has been barred from going to the north, despite having lived there for almost a decade.

According to what the north’s ‘interior ministry’ told the Cyprus Mail, Achiri has indeed been declared persona non grata there, but failed to give a reason.

Achiri had previously lived in the north for a total of eight years, earning a doctorate from Eastern Mediterranean University. He has since moved to Belgium, where he works as a policy and advocacy advisor for the European Network Against Racism.

In a social media post, he announced that he had been refused entry to the north after attempting to cross at the Ledras Street crossing point but was denied entry.

He had been on the island as part of an official delegation alongside members of the European Parliament and one German MP, explaining that the aim of his trip to the island was to “monitor migration management”.

He added, “I have to say that I am shocked. I studied … and lived in northern Cyprus for eight years. During this time, I was a model student, a teaching assistant at the Eastern Mediterranean University for six years.”

He also mentioned that he had co-founded the advocacy group for third-country national students in the north ‘Voice of International Students (Vois)’.

He added “I also consider northern Cyprus as home, and probably care more about the people who lived here more than most of the politicians do.”

Additionally, he said, “it seems that the reason for this ban is because of my political activities.”

The Cyprus Mail contacted the north’s ‘interior ministry’, which confirmed that Achiri had been declared persona non grata but said it could not disclose the specific reasons as to why.

In response to Achiri’s banning from the north, the north’s Network Against Racism said “we condemn the unjust treatment of Emmanuel Achiri.”

“We would like to emphasise that this attitude is unacceptable. The unjust treatment of Emmanuel Achiri is evidence of the lack of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms … We consider that this is a violation of his rights,” they said.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said on Thursday that Israel “is not our enemy”.

Reactions to the issue of property sales to third country nationals in the north have been “exaggerated”, said Tatar while speaking to Voice of America, a US state-owned news network.

Third country nationals are only allowed to buy one house or one donum of land in the north, he said, and sales through intermediaries are also being reviewed by the north’s authorities with the aim of protecting agricultural land.

However, he also said that “this place has become a brand destination in education and tourism. There are problems, but they are exaggerated. The coming of people from all nationalities is an opportunity for the TRNC to be recognised.

“They say that ‘foreigners came and occupied Cyprus’. I don’t believe it. There are 50,000 Russians in south Cyprus, there are people from all nationalities in south Cyprus.”

Asked about increased numbers of Israelis buying property in the north, he said “Israel is not our enemy which should be treated as a threat. Greek Cypriots do not come and buy property here. Greek Cypriots are a threat to us. Israelis are here to invest.”

Former ‘prime minister’ and current ruling coalition party UBP ‘MP; Faiz Sucuoglu is more concerned with the situation regarding the purchase of property in the north by Israelis, however.

He said, “this is the so-called promised land for Israel. They buy goods in both the north and the south. The highest rate of sales are in Trikomo and in the village of Kazivera.”

“Land prices here are £20,000, yet they offer high prices like £70,000, and people sell to them. They also buy land, build eight- or ten-storey apartment blocks, and then sell the apartments,” he added.

He also said that “when you look at third country nationals [in the north] from countries such as Russia, Ukraine, and Poland, we can see that they are also of Jewish origin.”

In addition, he raised the alarm about possible demographic shifts in the north due to property sales and the possibility of dark money passing through the north.

“There are 1,500 car dealerships here and more are being opened. Of course, other issues come to mind, about dark money. I find it suspicious that there are so many car dealerships in such a small country,” he said.

Opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman was also alarmed about the situation, saying, “we see signs in Russian and in Farsi all over the place in the Trikomo district. Those places have gotten completely out of hand.

“The population of Lefka is 14,500, and they are building 20,000 houses in Kazivera. This is also the case in Ayios Amvrosios.”

He also alluded to problems in some schools for third country national children whose parents have bought property in the north, saying “there is the issue of children whose native language is not Turkish in schools, and teachers cannot communicate with their pupils.

“The public education system has collapsed.”

This was also alluded to by fellow CTP ‘MP’ Biray Hamzaogullari, who said in November that around 300 of the 700 children at the Bekirpasha high school in Trikomo “do not speak Turkish as a first language.”

Erhurman added, “there is a lack of healthcare services in hospitals. The public healthcare system has collapsed.”

He also called for a census to be conducted to discover how many people live in the north.

“This is a situation we are very worried about, we cannot just guess what the population is,” he said.

Turkish Cypriot social media journalist Serdinc Maypa appeared in court on Friday, accused of violating people’s right to privacy.

Maypa, who had gained a large social media following in the north by publishing his findings and making accusations on Facebook and Instagram, was the object of five separate complaints made to the police regarding privacy violations.

The complaints were made by officials from the north’s electricity authority Kib-Tek, the Cyprus Turkish building contractors’ association, the Development Bank, and two separate insurance companies.

Speaking in court, a police representative said a search of Maypa’s home uncovered a 1000-page document containing data of people who had caught Covid-19.

Maypa was also questioned regarding the various documents he had shared on live broadcasts on social media and said “I know what I did is a crime, but I did it for my country.”

Asked how he came into possession of the documents, he said “storks brought them”.

The police representative said three mobile phones, 226 different documents, two laptops, a safe, and a recording device were all found and taken as evidence.

Maypa was remanded in custody for three days.

Earlier, upon his entry into northern Nicosia’s court complex, he had said “everything will change in this country after I am released”.

He also made reference to his “attempts to reveal human trafficking”.

However, it has at the same time been alleged that Maypa himself may have been involved in the human trafficking trade.

Trade unions on Thursday raised the alarm over two small electrical explosions occurring at the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport in recent weeks.

On March 13 a worker from a subcontracted company received burns on both of his arms while performing “unauthorised” work on a panel box, explained Ahmet Tugcu, chairman of the employee union El-Sen, which is associated with the north’s electricity authority Kib-Tek.

A little over two weeks later, on March 29, another employee of the same subcontracted company was attempting to connect a generator to a transformer without Kib-Tek’s knowledge, Tugcu said. The transformer then exploded, but the man was not injured.

Tugcu said these explosions occurred due to the airport still operating on a transient current, which means that the amount of electricity passing through its electrical systems at any given time is inconsistent.

This fact “poses a serious risk of danger,” he said, and asked why in the nine months since the airport opened, no move had been made to transfer the airport to a normal current.

“The answers to these questions are actually obvious. The installation of the system has not been completed yet,” he said.

In addition, he said “does [the ‘government’] not realise they are an accomplice to those who invite death by turning a blind eye to the airport’s operator intervening in these extremely dangerous devices with subcontractors brought in from outside?”

He added that airport operator T&T is “very well aware that [this equipment] should only be touched by Kib-Tek personnel.”

He said the transfer to a regular current must be done “immediately”.

“Unless this is done, [T&T] will be responsible for all the accidents which will happen.”

“The safety of life and property of both airport employees and passengers is much, much more important than the money you will earn from opening a business hastily as if you were stealing goods from a fire,” he said.

Meanwhile, air traffic controllers’ union chairman Cem Kapisiz said the explosion which injured the worker’s arms “was hidden from the public and from us.”

Having heard about the incident, he said he had asked ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli whether the reports were true.

“I asked Arikli, ‘is this true? If so, who is responsible’?’. If it is true, of course Arikli is responsible,” he said.

With this in mind, he said it is “obvious” that the airport “had not passed the requisite electrical checks,” and said an accident could also endanger passengers, given the heightened risk of a fire breaking out.

The DP, the second-largest party in the north’s three-party ruling coalition, is considering leaving the ‘government’, it was learned on Thursday.

The party’s congress is to convene on Thursday with the possibility of withdrawing from the ‘government’ on its agenda, with announcements reportedly to be made on Thursday evening.

Party leader and the north’s ‘deputy prime minister’ Fikri Ataoglu is not present at the meeting, which will instead be chaired by its general secretary Serhat Akpinar. However, it is understood that Ataoglu will implement whatever is decided at Thursday’s meeting.

The DP has long been the kingmaker in Turkish Cypriot politics and has spent 19 of the last 30 years in ‘government’, forming coalitions with no fewer than five different parties.

Their current stint in ‘government’ began in 2020 under UBP ‘prime minister’ Ersan Saner. They have since stuck by the side of the UBP through two more ‘prime ministers’, namely Faiz Sucuoglu and incumbent Unal Ustel.

Should they elect to leave ‘government’, the ‘government’ would not automatically collapse, but it would leave the remaining two parties with a ‘parliamentary’ majority of just two.

In addition, it would mean the UBP would be reliant on the increasingly volatile YDP to pass legislation. The YDP is set to hold a party leadership election this month, with its two leadership candidates Erhan Arikli and Talip Atalay in open conflict with one another.

Turkish Cypriot pupils in the north have dropped by more than 50 per cent, head of Turkish Cypriot teaching union (Ktos) Burak Mavis said on Friday.

According to Mavis, the number of Turkish Cypriot students has dropped by 57 per cent, while the number of Turkish students has risen by a third.

Mavis said that the number of foreign pupils has risen 10 per cent, according to the press and information office.

He added that since there is no population policy or ‘citizenship policy’ there are problems in schools, as well as in all ‘public services’ of the north.

In his statement he added that there is an increase in the student population by at least five per cent, an increase in the number of four-year-olds, students with special needs and foreign students.

He also stated that there is an urgent need for new schools in the areas of Omorphita, Kioneli, Kyrenia, and Ayios Sergios and added that it is necessary to increase the number of linguists in schools in order to provide more effective education to some two thousand foreign students who need Turkish language teaching in primary education.

He added that the integration of foreign pupils cannot be achieved by focusing only on language skills and work should be done to provide social and cultural skills as well.

Mavis also said that they had observed that families did not participate in certain school activities and rejected the vaccination programme, citing their own beliefs and cultures.

Meanwhile, CTP head Tufan Erhurman, during a visit to the Kioneli primary school, said that the number of students who do not have Turkish as their main language is increasing in schools in each region.

“When we take over, our first job will be population policy,” he concluded.

House President Annita Demetriou will “send a message” to Azerbaijan over its plans to create an ‘inter-parliamentary’ group with the north’s parliament, she said on Friday.

Speaking at a youth event, she said, “we have information that Azerbaijan intends to do something like this. We have to stop it.”

She added that she will pen a letter to her Azerbaijani counterpart, Sahiba Gafarova, to condemn the plans, and that she will also raise the matter during a meeting with other European Union parliament speakers next week in Spain.

“Unfortunately, this is not the first time Azerbaijan has made such an effort. We must once again do everything in our power to stop it. It is unacceptable and reprehensible,” she said.

She added that she will meet with Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos to discuss the issue.

“After 50 years, this is our biggest concern, that some people think in some way that time can either solidify or justify such behaviour. No matter how many years pass, we are not going to accept anything like this,” she said.

With this in mind, she said, “we have to and want to support every effort to restart negotiations on the agreed framework, of a bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality. There is no other way. Otherwise, we will have to deal with things like this and worse every year.”

For this reason, she reiterated her calls for the National Council to be convened, saying “we are very concerned with what we see and the developments we have to manage every day.”

The creation of an ‘Azerbaijan-TRNC inter-parliamentary relations working group’ was announced on April 5, with Javanshir Feyziyev, former chair of the EU-Azerbaijan parliamentary cooperation committee, being elected as its chairman.

He described the group’s creation as a historic step, and said it was “mandatory” to do such a thing “to secure the future of Turkic civilisation and its place and role in the world order”.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar hailed the move, thanking Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev, Sabiha Gafarova, and all Azerbaijani MPs, and saying “the Turkic world is our family, we must strengthen our relations with the Turkic world.”

Aliyev said the group’s creation will “contribute to the strengthening of relations between Azerbaijan and the TRNC.”

While Azerbaijan does not officially recognise the north, it has often flirted with doing so, with Aliyev having gone on the record multiple times as having described Ersin Tatar as the “TRNC President”.

He also invited Tatar to an upcoming summit of the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) which will take place in the town of Shusha in Azerbaijan in July, saying the move will “accelerate the unity of the Turkic people”.

The Republic of Cyprus had expressed “disappointment and dissatisfaction” after Aliyev had once again described Tatar as the “TRNC President” in 2022.

People living in Nicosia should “make summer plans as far as possible” from the capital, Nicosia Turkish Municipality (LTB) technical advisor Erdogan Bekiroglu said on Friday.

He highlighted Nicosia’s lack of natural shade from trees in a post on Facebook and added that “very difficult days await Nicosia this summer”.

However, he hinted at projects on the part of LTB to ameliorate the situation, saying, “of course, living in Nicosia will be more comfortable after our work is done.”

Nicosia’s lack of tree coverage is a problem which impacts both sides of the capital, especially during the hot summer months.

Just four per cent of Nicosia is covered by trees, making it the European capital with the lowest amount of tree coverage in Europe, according to the European Environment Agency.

We have lost hope in this country, shopkeepers say

The annual inflation rate in the northern part of Cyprus hit 94.5 per cent in March as Turkish Cypriots continue to experience the worst economic crisis in their history. Inflation compared to February rose by 6.9 per cent – the highest monthly inflation since the crisis began in 2021.

According to the official figures announced by the Statistical Institute, monthly food inflation in March was 3.4 per cent, which brought the food inflation to 220 per cent since 2022. The price of bread has increased by 25 per cent since the start of this year alone.

‘Bairam meal turns sour,’ a front page on daily Halkin Sesi read, reporting about the exorbitant food prices ahead of the Eid festival (Bairam) this week. The festival marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

Even though Turkish Cypriots are among the most liberal Muslims globally, the Eid festival is a very important time of the year when families come together for feasts and celebrations.

‘Barbecue remains a dream during Bairam,’ wrote Star Kibris. ‘Baklava is for the price of gold this Bairam,’ headlined Kibris Postasi.

The Turkish Cypriot economy has been in freefall since 2021 as the Turkish lira continuously declined in value against most major global currencies because of the unorthodox interest-rate-cutting policies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The official currency in the north is the Turkish lira, which lost some 40 per cent of its value in the past year alone. It has shed a further nine per cent this year. Keeping rates artificially low led to skyrocketing inflation, placing Turkey among the top five inflation champions in the world along with Zimbabwe, Sudan, Venezuela and Argentina.

Annual inflation in Turkey in March was 68.50 per cent, while the monthly inflation was 3.16 per cent.

Last month, Turkey’s central bank raised its key interest rate to 50 per cent in an attempt to combat inflation. Policymakers cited a “deterioration in the inflation outlook.” The central bank predicts Turkish inflation will rise towards 80 per cent by the summer.

The north adopts the Turkish key interest rate.

The fall in the value of the Turkish lira affects Turkish Cypriots even more as the economy is almost completely dependent on imports. Even imports from Turkey are indexed to the dollar. Transportation and import costs are also exacerbated by a cumbersome public administration that creates additional expenses. Moreover, many goods, services and expenses such as real estate, cars, rent and school fees are in foreign currencies although people’s salaries are paid in Turkish liras.

The flow of foreign currency into the Turkish Cypriot market through the increasing number of foreigners living there has also worsened inflation as each sector started to determine prices according to the higher purchasing power of foreigners, according to economists. Unlike in a normal economy, where the value of the local currency would increase with foreign currency inflow, the value of the Turkish Lira didn’t increase as it is not determined by the Turkish Cypriot economy.

“The money inflow with uncertain sources plays a big role in the increase [in inflation],” Turkish Cypriot economics professor Engin Kara of Cardiff University wrote on his social media account. “In the near future, a large part of the economy will be comprised of this money.”

Soaring prices in the northern part of the island have left people, especially those on low or fixed incomes, with plummeting purchasing power and a decline in their living standards. The Cyprus Turkish Civil Servants Union (KTAMS) calculated that a family of four earning the minimum wage is living right at the hunger threshold.

According to KTAMS, the hunger threshold – the amount needed to maintain a healthy, balanced and adequate diet – for a family of four as of the end of March, was 23,644 Turkish Lira (about €687). The minimum wage in the north is currently 24,000 Turkish lira (about €697).

As Turkish Cypriots experienced a huge drop in their purchasing power leading to a decline in their living standards, they also saw their debts rocket.

According to the official figures of the Turkish Cypriot central bank, total borrowing from banks increased 61 per cent as of the end of 2023 compared to the previous year to 87 billion Turkish lira (about €2.5 billion). As of 2022, the total borrowing stood at 53.9 billion (about €1.6 billion).

Together with borrowing, the amount of non-performing loans also increased 58.2 per cent by the end of 2023 compared with 2022 to 4,176 million Turkish liras (about €121 million).

The uncontrollable price increases also deeply affect businesses that have to grapple with constant increases in costs. In the last two months alone, bottled gas and electricity prices increased 7.8 per cent, while fuel prices increased 10.8 per cent.

Head of the chamber of shopkeepers and artisans (KTEZO) Mehmet Ali Ardic told daily Yeniduzen last week there is a 70 per cent closing rate in small food and beverage businesses as they cannot keep up with the increasing costs.

“We have lost our hope in this country,” head of the association of restaurant owners Arif Bayraktar said. “We are just rowing the boat in vain. We are not getting anywhere.”

Turkish Cypriot authorities have “requested information” from Turkey on the matter of Cypriots being refused entry to Turkey, ‘interior minister’ Dursun Oguz said on Monday.

Speaking in ‘parliament’, Oguz said, “we have asked if, as has been stated, there is a list, and what are the reasons for people finding themselves on such a list.”

“It is not right for people to not know whether they will be allowed in when they arrive at the gate. The necessary explanation will be made,” he said, adding that “justifications” have been requested from Turkey.

He said, “within the scope of international law, every country has the authority to decide who can enter the country, but the relationship between the Republic of Turkey and the TRNC is different. In this context, the issue was brought up at the highest level and information was requested.”

In this regard, he said he had reached out to Turkey’s foreign ministry and its Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz.

The issue was brought up in ‘parliament’ by opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman, who asked, “who in this country can enter Turkey and who cannot? Why were some people not allowed? No one in the country knows the answers to these questions.”

He added that “a significant proportion of people in this country who feel like they are ‘dissidents’ wonder if they can enter Turkey. They are forced to have second thoughts. There are also people who have not actually been able to enter the country, and who will not be able to.

“I am just asking this; do relations with Turkey match your ‘good relations’ approach, as you call it? I really hope that not even one person in this chamber will label this state of affairs as ‘appropriate.”

Speaking about the Turkish Cypriots who had been put together, he said, “you could allow them to team up all together and we all know that they would not pose a security threat to Turkey on this tiny island. The Turkish authorities may not know this, but we do.”

He also criticised statements from ‘prime minister Unal Ustel from December last year. Ustel had said he would “discuss the issue with Turkey”, and Erhurman replied; “you said you would ask, but no information came. So, what will happen? Will it continue like this? Is this a normal situation in terms of our relationship with Turkey?”

The matter of Cypriots being refused entry to Turkey reached the top of the north’s political agenda last week when Evrim Hincal, the financial secretary of opposition party the TDP, was refused entry to the country.

Hincal had travelled to the country alongside Turkish Cypriot Nicosia Mayor Mehmet Harmanci for a joint family holiday, but upon arrival at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport, he was told he would not be able to enter the country as his name is on Turkey’s N-82 list.

While being named on the N-82 list does not mean a person is outright banned from Turkey, those on the list must apply in advance to the Turkish embassy in their country for pre-clearance to enter the country, and the list is not publicly available, so those on it generally do not find out until they arrive in Turkey.

Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci made a rare intervention to call for transparency in the matter later last week.

Meanwhile, newspaper Yeni Duzen on Monday listed 15 names of Cypriots who have said they had been informed on previous attempts to visit Turkey that they were either on the N-82 list or on the G-82 list. Being on the G-82 list entails an outright ban from entering Turkey.

Turkey’s higher education council (Yok) is to prepare a report on the state of the north’s education system in the wake of the “fake diploma scandal”, the north’s ‘education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu said on Monday.

A delegation from Yok arrived on the island on Monday, led by its head of higher education supervision Hamit Emrah Beris. They will remain in Cyprus for ten days, aiming to evaluate the state of higher education in the north.

Cavusoglu told ‘parliament’ on Monday that police investigations into the matter are ongoing, and that he hopes the north can “turn this problem into an advantage”.

The “fake diploma scandal” rocked the north’s education system in the opening months of the year, with multiple high-profile figures having been arrested, and many more being accused of complicity.

Revelations centred on the Cyprus Health and Social Sciences University (KSTU) in Morphou, where police found that degrees were being handed out to people within days or in some cases hours of them registering as students.

The university’s dentistry faculty had its licence revoked in February.

Former ‘education minister’ Kemal Durust was one of the many arrested, having allegedly fraudulently obtained thousands of euros by sending fake invoices to the university in question. His wife, a high-level civil servant, was also arrested, accused of having received a fake diploma.

Other high-profile arrests included Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s bodyguard Serif Avcil and former board member of the north’s higher education accreditation authority (Yodak) Mehmet Hasguler.

Yodak chairman Turgay Avci was also arrested, and resigned from his post.

More people from Russia visit the north than from any other third country outside of Turkey, the north’s ‘tourism minister’ Fikri Ataoglu said on Tuesday.

Speaking in ‘parliament’, he said that around 40,000 Russian tourists had visited the north via tourism agencies in 2023.

Meanwhile, he said, his ‘ministry’ is making efforts to reduce ticket prices for flights to and from the north’s Tymbou (Ercan) airport.

To this end, he said, widebody aircraft are now flying to the airport “every single day” and the number of flights is also being increased.

However, he said, the number of passengers wishing to fly to the north is also increasing, meaning that “flight ticket prices are not yet at the desired levels.”

With this in mind, he said his ‘ministry’ had entered discussions with Turkish-German airline SunExpress with a view to operating flights to new destinations from May.

He added that “SunExpress’ goal is to fly to may countries outside Turkey via Antalya from September,” and that developments to this end would be shared with the public.

There is a “51 per cent chance” of ‘parliamentary’ elections taking place in the north within the next year, ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli said on Friday.

Speaking to Kibris Postasi TV, he said he “cannot say with certainty” that the current three-party ruling coalition, which consists of his party the YDP as well as the UBP and the DP, “will last until 2027”, the latest possible date for new ‘parliamentary’ elections.

The current three-party ruling coalition was formed in February 2022, after no party won an absolute majority in that January’s ‘parliamentary’ election.

The UBP, the north’s largest party, won 24 of 50 seats, while the DP won three seats and the YDP won two seats, giving the ruling coalition an effective ‘parliamentary’ majority of eight.

The UBP then survived a civil war of its own during the spring of 2022, with party leader Faiz Sucuoglu being dethroned as ‘prime minister’ in May after attempts to sack his ‘finance minister’ Sunat Atun led to the whole ‘government’ being brought down.

Unal Ustel then replaced him and has led the coalition ever since, though intra-party issues have since spread to the UBP’s two coalition partners.

Erhan Arikli will face a challenge for the leadership of the YDP on April 28, with the party’s other ‘MP’ Talip Atalay running against him at the party’s forthcoming conference.

Arikli and Atalay have been engaged in a bitter war of words since February when Atalay announced his candidacy in February. While Atalay insists he would not withdraw from the coalition should he win the party’s leadership, his palatability to the coalition partners is less than certain.

Meanwhile, the DP’s party congress voted to leave the coalition earlier this month, but the party’s leadership elected to suspend the decision’s application until further notice. This in itself has created disquiet in the party, with members’ confidence in the party’s leadership wavering and some in open revolt.

With Ustel himself set to face a leadership challenge at the UBP’s party conference in September, the ground on which the north’s ‘government’ stands appears to seem ever more shaky.

The next ‘parliamentary’ election in the north can be held no later than February 2027, though no ‘parliament’ has run to term since the 1998-2003 ‘parliament’, when Dervish Eroglu was ‘prime minister’ for the second of three separate terms.