Mainland Turks in Northern Cyprus

Mainland Turks in Northern Cyprus (Cypriot Turkish: Türkiyeliler[1]) are a group of Turkish people who have settled in Northern Cyprus since the Turkish invasion in 1974. The group is heterogeneous in nature and is composed of various sub-groups, with varying degrees of integration. Mainland Turks are generally considered to be more conservative than the highly secularized Cypriot Turks, and tend to be more in favor of a two-state Cyprus.

The group is also referred to as "Turkish immigrants" and "Turkish settlers".

Sub-groups and history

Mainland Turks in Northern Cyprus are divided into two main groups: citizens and non-citizen residents.[2] Within the citizens, some have arrived in the island as a part of a settlement policy run by the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot authorities, some have migrated on their own and some have been born in the island to parents of either groups. Mete Hatay argues that only the first group has "good reason to be called settlers".[2]

The aforementioned sub-groups consist of several categories. The first group, citizens, can further be differentiated into skilled laborers and white-collar workers, Turkish soldiers and their close families, farmers who have settled in Cyprus and individual migrants.[3] The non-citizens can be divided into students and academic staff, tourists, workers with permits and illegitimate workers lacking permits.[4]

Citizens

Farmers

The policy of settling farmers in Cyprus began immediately after the 1974 invasion. Andrew Borowiec wrote of a Turkish announcement that 5000 agricultural workers would be settled to take up possessions left behind by the displaced Greek Cypriots.[5] According to Hatay, the first group of such settlers arrived on the island in February 1975; heavy settlement continued until 1977. These farmers originated from various regions of Turkey, including the Black Sea Region (Trabzon, Çarşamba, Samsun), the Mediterranean Region (Antalya, Adana, Mersin) and the Central Anatolia Region (Konya).[6] In February 1975, the number of "workers" from Turkey in the island was 910.[7]

Many farmers who moved to Cyprus were from parts of Turkey with harsh living conditions or had to be displaced. This was the case with the village of Kayalar, where people from the Turkish Black Sea district of Çarşamba were moved. These people were displaced due to the flooding of their village by a dam that was built, and were given a choice between moving to Cyprus and other regions in Turkey; some chose Cyprus. Christos Ioannides argued that these people had no political motivations for this choice; interviews with some have indicated that some did not know the location of Cyprus before moving there.[6]

The policy of settling farmers was conducted along the lines of the Agricultural Workforce Agreement signed by the Turkish Federated State of Cyprus (TFSC) and Turkey in 1975.[8] The consulates of the TFSC in Turkey were actively involved in organizing the transfer of this population; announcements through the radio and muhtars in villages called upon farmers interested in moving to Cyprus to apply to the consulates.[6]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Türkiyeli-Kıbrıslı tartışması: "Kimliksiz Kıbrıslılar"" (in Turkish). Kıbrıs Postası. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hatay 2005, p. 5
  3. ↑ Hatay 2005, p. 10
  4. ↑ Hatay 2005, p. 6
  5. ↑ Borowiec, Andrew (2000). Cyprus: A Troubled Island. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 98–99.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Hatay 2005, p. 12
  7. ↑ "Kıbrıs'ın Türk kesiminde toplam 1.010 işletme var". Milliyet. 9 February 1975. p. 9.
  8. ↑ Hacaloğlu, Hilmi; Tekşen, Özgür. "Kıbrıslı Türkler Türkiyelileri sevmez mi?" (in Turkish). Al Jazeera Turkish Journal. Retrieved 28 April 2015.

Bibliography