Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Ersin Tatar pledged he would not allow anti-Türkiye movements on the island after Cyprus was mired by demonstrations in recent weeks.
In a written statement on Saturday, Tatar said the Turkish army was the architect of peace for Turkish Cypriots on the island. He also said certain people have tried to exploit a domestic debate in the country to divide Turkish Cypriots and sought to advance their own political agenda through anti-Turkish sentiment.
In the past few weeks, the TRNC was rocked with rallies by labor unions and other nongovernmental organizations after the lifting of a ban on headscarves for high school students. Demonstrators tapped into Islamophobia, and some claimed Türkiye was influential in the introduction of the amendments in regulations to allow the headscarf at schools.
Türkiye itself suffered from a headscarf ban for students in the process leading up to the notorious 1997 coup and in its aftermath. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was instrumental in lifting the ban in Türkiye after he came to power in the early 2000s.
“Though the national and cultural identity of Turkish Cypriots is strong, the fact that we have unshakable bonds with our motherland Türkiye matters. Those matters are inseparable,” Tatar said.
Tatar stated that Türkiye has always defended the rights of Turkish Cypriots and their state and never abstained from taking steps to that extent. He praised President Erdoğan for promoting projects for the TRNC, from supplying water to the island to infrastructure efforts to improve the lives of Turkish Cypriots.
“People of Turkish Cyprus are working for a stronger, prosperous future and achieving this goal is keeping our unity and ties with the motherland strong. No person or political party can harm those historic goals for their own political gain. As president, I will never allow this,” he concluded.