Who Are the Turkish Cypriots?

Turkish Cypriots literally wrapped themselves in their flags, in a deceptively simple image.

TURKISH CYPRIOTS have adopted a red-on- white flag that’s almost exactly the inverse of Turkey’s white-on-red star and crescent. Here, two young protesters are literally wrapped in the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot flags. They were at a demonstration on the Turkish side of Nicosia on July 15th, 2005, the 31st anniversary of the Greek- sponsored coup that sparked the 1974 war.

This image might almost convince you that Turkish Cypriots see themselves as the mirror image of Turks—but that would be a vast oversimplification.

So who are the Turkish Cypriots? That was a tricky enough question even before 1974. Now it’s even more complicated, because deciding precisely who is—and who is not—a Turkish Cypriot weighs heavily on the stalled peace process.

Turkish Cypriots commonly complain that the Greek Cypriots see them as “four-hundred-year squatters,” because many of their ancestors probably arrived on the island shortly after the Ottoman conquest in 1571. The first Turkish immigrants were a mixture of Ottoman civil servants, Anatolian craftsmen and Janissaries—who were Ottoman soldiers that were usually descended from Christians taken captive in the Middle Ages. So it’s hardly surprising that many Turkish Cypriots identify themselves today as “Muslim in name only.”

Some of the original Turkish Cypriots were probably also native Greek Cypriots who converted to Islam for various reasons. Even before 1974, marriages between Turkish and Greek Cypriots were extraordinarly rare—the Greek Orthodox church wouldn’t perform them—so these often entailed religious conversion. I met one Turkish Cypriot living in the Turkish part of the island who said that—because of a mixed-marriage in her family before 1974—she had Greek Cypriot cousins living on the other side. They hadn’t met until 2003, when it became easier to travel between the two sides. When they did finally meet, she said they looked “exactly alike.” So you can add Greek Cypriot to the ethnic stew that helped create the Turkish Cypriot identity before the island’s division.

After 1974, Turkey encouraged its citizens to emigrate to north Cyprus, which only Turkey has ever recognized politically. In addition to the tens of thousands of Turkish Troops who are still stationed there, the Turkish government offered land in north Cyprus to Anatolian peasants—land that had belonged to Greek Cypriots. Ever since then, Greek Cypriots have dubbed the arrivals after 1974 “settlers.” But who are the settlers, and who are the “real” Turkish Cypriots? If only there were a straightforward answer. One reason that many Greek Cypriots gave for rejecting the Annan Plan in 2004 was because they thought that it would legitimize the settlers.

	In Cyprus, I met with Mete Hatay, a researcher at the International Peace Research Institute, or PRIO, a Norwegian research group with an office in Cyprus. He’s a Turkish Cypriot, born and raised, but he lives on the Greek side of Nicosia. Last summer, he was researching the demographics on the Turkish side of the island for a report
Global chains won't do business on the Turkish side of Cyprus, so local businesses sport knock-off names, like “Pizza Hat” and “Burger City.” ........................................	about the settler question that PRIO has since published, which is called “Beyond the Numbers.” The

following demographic breakdown of the Turkish side of the island is entirely from him.

Mr. Hatay said there were about 300,000 people living in north Cyprus, but about a third of them would not consider themselves Turkish Cypriots. Most of these are undeniably Turkish citizens. Among them are 30,000 Turkish soldiers who are stationed there, and another 5,000 related Turkish civilians, mostly the wives and children of the officers. He said there were also about 20,000 university students from Turkey, and another 3,5000 students from other countries, primarily from the Middle East and Eastern Europe. There are also 30,000 guest workers from Turkey who register with the local authorities, and renew their permits each year, but who don’t have voting rights on the Turkish side of Cyprus. Mr. Hatay estimated that there were a further 15,000 unregistered workers from Turkey. There are about 500 foreign prostitutes, who are registered with the local authorites and given “artist’s visas.” Finally, he said there were about 10,000 people from other countries living on the Turkish side of the island at least part time. These are mostly British citizens with summer homes there, but increasingly they're also Germans, and other sun worshippers from up north.

So out of roughly 300,000 residents, there are about 190,000 that the Turkish Cypriot authorities consider “citizens.” However, many Greek Cypriots would argue with that figure. About 130,000 of these people have a clear-cut case—they were either born on Cyprus before 1974, or they’re the children of two Turkish Cypriot parents. After that, it gets murkier. For example, about 35,000 of the people who the Turkish Cypriots call citizens were born in Turkey to two Turkish parents; and another 10,000 were born on the Turkish side after 1974, but both of their parents were originally from Turkey. Most Greek Cypriots would consider the people in both of those groups settlers—and certainly not Turkish Cypriots. Since 1974, there have also been some 10,000 children born in the north to one Turkish parent and one Turkish Cypriot parent. Another 5,000 people have been born abroad—in places like London or Istanbul—to at least one Turkish Cypriot parent. The Greek Cypriot government will grant passports to the people who fall into the last two groups, as long as they can prove that at least one of their parents was a Turkish Cypriot.

So do the Turkish Cypriots today number 190,000, or 130,000, or somewhere in between? That all depends on who you ask. The Turkish Cypriot authorities say that all 190,000 are their citizens; while many Greek Cypriots—who number about 700,000—would ultimately want to grant citizenship to somewhat fewer than the 190,000 in any peace plan that would reunify the island.
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