INDIGENOUS Turkish Cypriots number just over half the overall population of the north and represent a 74 per cent majority of �TRNC� citizens, census results revealed yesterday.
�The population is divided into two: There are citizens, and those who work for citizens,� Peace Research Institute of Oslo (PRIO) researcher Mete Hatay told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, adding that the breakaway state had �begun to resemble a Gulf state where foreign workers constitute most of the labour force,�
Ethnic data gathered during a census carried out last April and published yesterday revealed that out of an overall population of 256,000, just over 178,000 were �TRNC� citizens and that 120,000 were of full Turkish Cypriot parentage, with another 12,000 claiming one Turkish Cypriot parent.
Hatay, however, played down arguments that indigenous Turkish Cypriots were being swamped by mainland Turks settling on the island by saying that while Turkish Cypriots were a minority in the overall population, only around 24 per cent of �TRNC� citizens were of mainland Turkish origin.
�The rest of the population consists of students and guest workers,� he said, referring to around 77,000 Turkish citizens currently residing in Cyprus. He was keen to stress that people in that category had no voting rights in the north of the island.
Debate has been raging in the north pending the publication of the figures with some accusing the Turkish Cypriot authorities of attempting to underplay the number of Turkish �settlers� living in the north.
Turkish Cypriot �prime minister� Ferdi Sabit Soyer yesterday, while announcing the figures, hit back at his accusers by declaring the census �true and transparent�. He said it had been carried out according to international norms and that prior to its being carried out foreign missions in Cyprus, the EU and the UN had been informed on the methodology that would be used.
�We received no objections from anyone,� Soyer said, adding that had such a census been carried out long ago, the Greek Cypriot government would not have had at its disposal such compelling arguments about the changing demographics of the north.
The census contains detailed ethnic information on the north�s population. For example, it is revealed that a little over 16,000 children have been born to mainlanders who moved to the island and became �TRNC� citizens at some point since 1974. The number of Turkish-born citizens is put at 42,500.
But for many this does not detract from what they see as the facts on the ground. At the weekend prominent Turkish Cypriot journalist Metin Munir � bemoaning the fact that much of the north, has come to resemble the less attractive parts of Turkey � wrote: �The streets of Kyrenia are packed with unshaven men fiddling with worry beads, beggars and women selling tissues�.
Journalist Sener Levent wrote on Tuesday that if a foreign journalist was to ask him what the future held for Cyprus he would tell them to �go and ask someone from Turkey, as it is they who decide what goes on here�.
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