NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Several thousand Turkish Cypriots took to the streets of the northern half of ethnically divided Cyprus’ capital Nicosia on Friday to protest what they say is Turkey’s attempt to erode their secular roots and to strengthen the hold of political Islam over their society.
Rain showers cleared long enough for marchers to walk along a main thoroughfare hoisting trade union banners and holding placards reading “It won’t pass” and “Cyprus will stay secular” before gathering for a concert.
The protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations that leftist trade unions mounted to express their opposition to what they see as Ankara’s bid to mold staunchly secular Turkish Cypriots into a more politically pliable community through the introduction of Islam into the education system.
The protest came a day before Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to breakaway northern Cyprus where he will inaugurate a complex of government buildings. Erdogan reportedly said that he would publicly rebuke protesters during his visit.
The protests began last month when the right-wing Turkish Cypriot authorities lifted a ban on wearing headscarves in high schools. Teachers’ trade unions, political parties and other leftist groups condemned the move as an encroachment into the strictly secular education system aimed at the eventual “Islamization” of Turkish Cypriot society.
Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded following an Athens-backed coup aiming at union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third where it maintains more than 35,000 troops.
Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, but only the Greek Cypriot south where the island’s internationally recognized government is seated enjoys full benefits.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres announced on Friday that the appointment of María Angela Holguín Cuéllar as his personal envoy on Cyprus, tasked with exploring ways to resume peace talks stalled since 2017.
Elma Eylem, president of the Turkish Cypriot Secondary Education Teachers’ Union KTOEÖS and one of the protests’ key organizers, said that the change in statute allowing the wearing of headscarves in school is evidence of a bid at “social engineering” to force Turkish Cypriot society into submission according to the edicts of Turkey’s ruling AKP party.
“This step has been taken in the divided part of our island which has been turned into a sub-administration of Turkey, where every institution has been taken over, where our population has been reduced to a minority and our political will has been taken away, this change in the statute is a part of social engineering,” Eylem told The Associated Press in a written response to questions.
Teachers at one high school reportedly turned away a female student who showed up wearing a headscarf after the ban was lifted.
Eylem defended the action, saying that teachers won’t allow “political Islam to be imposed on our girls through their bodies.”
“This issue is not a matter of freedom, headscarf or regulation. This issue is a step taken by the AKP in its efforts to deepen the political Islam domination over the Turkish Cypriot Community,” she said.
Eylem also dismissed an earlier counterprotest by those in favor of allowing headscarf-wearing in high schools, saying that such demonstrations organized by Turkey in northern Cyprus “do not reflect the will of the Turkish Cypriot community.”
The nnion president said that a legal challenge to the lifting of the headscarf ban has been initiated at the Turkish Cypriot Constitutional Court, adding that their fight will be “a long-term struggle.”