‘North’s population over a million’

The north’s population is now over a million, the Turkish Cypriot Mukhtars’ Association chairman Akay Darbaz said on Wednesday.

Speaking to Yeni Duzen, Darbaz said the information he had been given by mukhtars regarding the growth of the north’s population is “scary”.

“We reached the figure [of over a million] as a result of the interviews we held with mukhtars. We are seeing social explosions being brought about by irregular levels of construction,” he said.

“It is necessary to make the correct diagnosis and address these problems.”

Despite the north’s burgeoning population, however, he warned that rural areas in the north are suffering from a decline in their populations.

He singled out the villages of Kalo Chorio and Ambelikou in Lefka, saying both villages are “reaching the point of being empty”.

“There are no people left. There are no employment opportunities and there is nowhere for people to live. People are upping and leaving,” he said.

“The most important problem [in areas suffering from a decline in population] is employment. If you do not provide employment opportunities for people in an area, they will leave.”

He said he had been speaking about this issue “for years” and urged the north’s authorities to implement social housing projects.

Darbaz’s comments come off the back of similar estimates by the ruling coalition party DP ‘MP’ Serhat Akpinar.

He had said last week that “we have now reached a population of one million. Not 400,000, not 700,000.”

In reaction, he had called on the north’s ‘government’ to “limit and stop” its handing out of ‘citizenships’ to third county nationals living there.

“If we want the Turkish Cypriots to hold on to their future and their own will, we must limit and stop citizens of third world countries from obtaining citizenships, as they do under our current legal framework,” he told the Cyprus Mail.

“In addition to the cultural erosion we are experiencing, we must prevent ourselves from possibly becoming a minority in our own lands.”