Fires were lit outside the north’s ‘parliament’ for a fourth day in a row on Thursday in protest against the ruling coalition’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs by children at public schools, with figures from across the north’s political spectrum in attendance.

Musical performances made up most of the evening’s events with speeches also made by representatives of two trade unions representing workers at Famagusta’s Eastern Mediterranean University.

Bugu Sumen Cohar of Dau-Bir-Sen told the crowd that “we are here tonight to say once again ‘no way’ to those who are trying to encroach on society’s will, on its values, on our secular society, on Cypriotness, on education, on schools, on our children, on our society, on our future, and on our existence”.

“My Cyprus, you deserve better. Once again, we are saying ‘union, struggle, solidarity’,” she said, referencing a popular protest chant.

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Dau-Sen chairman Ercan Hoskara made reference to Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s wife Sibel Tatar’s opposition to the hijab law, saying, “her heart is here too but she cannot come, so why do her ilk not come? Because they have no courage, no heart, and no will”.

Trade unionists dance near one of the fires

Opposition political party leader TDP leader Zeki Celer took to the stage for the second time this week, referencing the scathing attack launched on the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s advisor Oktay Saral earlier in the day.

Of members of ruling coalition party the UBP, he said, “let them not forget that the snake you said would not touch me one day will return and stick its tongue out at you today and then bite you tomorrow, too”.

However, there was one high-profile UBP affiliate in the crowd in the shape of former Turkish Cypriot Kyrenia mayor Nidai Gungordu, who spoke to the Cyprus Mail about his reasons for attending the protest.

“I am an individual, a Turkish Cypriot individual. I have concerns and for that reason I came. I have no other aim. I am here because the image which is emerging is not a good one for the Turkish Cypriots, the expressions, the styles of speaking, the foul language, behaviour and expressions which are humiliating for the Turkish Cypriot community made me feel uncomfortable,” he said.

File photo: Nidai Gungordu [second from right] with ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel [centre] and ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli [right] during the 2022 Turkish Cypriot local election campaign.

While Gungordu is not officially a UBP member, was endorsed by the party in all three mayoral elections in which he stood between 2014 and 2022 and himself endorsed Dervish Eroglu and Ersin Tatar in the Turkish Cypriot leadership elections of 2015 and 2020, and the UBP in the ‘parliamentary’ elections of 2018 and 2022.

Armagan Candan, one of the two Turkish Cypriot observers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, who belongs to opposition party the CTP, was also present at the protest and also spoke to the Cyprus Mail.

“For days, the Turkish Cypriot people have been on the streets demanding respect for their lifestyle and their way of life. This was the case in years gone by, the Turkish Cypriot people fought for their very right to exist on this island. Now, they are coming together to protect their culture and their model of living,” he said.

“People from different walks of life, from both ends of the political and economic spectra, are coming together for the same cause and purpose.”

File photo: Armagan Candan addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

“The Turkish Cypriot people have been successful in coming together in similar situations in previous periods. Again, they will continue to show this reaction until a result is achieved, so that these initiatives which run contrary to the will of the Turkish Cypriot people will be killed.”

Protests and the lighting of fires are set to continue every weekday evening until April 28, the deadline teachers and their supporters have set the ruling coalition to change the law before measures escalate.

Cyprus Turkish teachers’ trade union (Ktos) leader Burak Mavis also informed the Cyprus Mail that from next week, the nightly protests will move around the island, with Monday’s protest set to take place in Kyrenia, and events planned for Famagusta and Morphou later in the week.

Children at the protest hold a banner which reads “you will not be able to lull us into ignorance with religion”

Last week, an estimated 13,000 people had taken to the streets to protest against the law, with former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci speaking to the Cyprus Mail on the march.

“I came here so that Turkish Cypriots can exist with their own free will. I came here to say no to all kinds of political oppression,” he said.

The following day, around 300 people joined a march organised by ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli to “show respect to the motherland”, Turkey, in the wake of the protests.

Arikli had taken the most umbrage at a protest teachers had staged outside the embassy two weeks prior, at which Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem called on ambassador Ali Murat Basceri to “go home”.

He had planned to stage another pro-Turkey protest of his own on April 26 but cancelled it on Thursday following Oktay Saral’s comments about Unal Ustel.