Turkish Cypriot opposition political party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman on Monday lit a fire outside Kyrenia town hall as nightly protests against the north’s ruling coalition’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs by children at public schools continued into a second week.
A few hundred people turned out at the event to see the fire lit, while Erhurman and fellow opposition party TDP leader Zeki Celer also danced traditional Cypriot dances around the fire once it was lit.
Before lighting the fire, Erhurman also addressed the crowds, speaking in the Cypriot Turkish dialect.
“I do not know how many times we have to tell those who do not want to hear this, but let us say it one more time: there is a people here, even if you do not know it, if you are not willing to learn, and this people has a history and it has its own rules,” he began.
“This people exists here, none of you can ignore this people, none of you can treat these people as if they are an empty space,” he said, in the direction of those who imposed the new law, before attacking the north’s ruling coalition directly.
“Those who claim to represent the government may have given up their will, they may be without a will, but we will know that if they are without a will, the real holder of the will of the people is right here!”’
He decried those who “try to throw things which have never been a problem in this country into the lap of this people”, and added, “no matter how hard they try to divide and disintegrate this people, we know what they will learn”.
“Whether one’s mother or father was born in Turkey or in Cyprus or somewhere else, this nation is made up of brothers. No matter how hard they try, it will not be divided, and they will know that no matter how hard they will try to divide us, we will unite. They will try to break us up, we will come together, and we will all be together, and we will walk as one, we will solve problems as brothers, and we will govern this country as brothers!”
He also said elderly Turkish Cypriots have reacted with upset both to the law and the perception that it is Turkey, and not Turkish Cypriots, who are calling the shots at the top of the north’s administration.
“No matter which party people over the age of 65 voted for or where they stood until today, they all say this: did we fight this fight in this country for this? … We had to put guns over our shoulders when we were 16 or 17 years old or even younger, when we were just children. Did we do that for this? Did we leave our homes for this? Were we imprisoned for this?”
He went on to say that those who imposed the law “do not know about our fight for existence, they have no intention of knowing”, and added, “but if they do not know, let them not know, and we will teach them – this people will fight tooth and nail for what they deserve! Tooth and nail!”
“After all this fight, those who do not know their place will come out and they will say to this people, ‘you go there, you come here, this place is mine and I am kicking you out, and I am sending you away’! Come on, get the hell out of here! Who the hell are they? Who the hell are they?”
He closed his speech by pledging that the Turkish Cypriots will not be moved from Cyprus and will remain resolutely secular.
“They will know that none of us, not a single one of us, are going anywhere. We are still here … None of us will go anywhere! You will not be able to ignore us! We existed, we always existed, we exist now, and we will exist for ever!”
Organised protests are set to continue around the north every weekday evening until April 28, the deadline teachers and their supporters have set the ruling coalition to change the law before measures escalate.
Tuesday’s protest is set to take place in Nicosia, while Wednesday’s protest will take place in Famagusta and Thursday’s protest will take place in Morphou, with the final protest of the week set to take place in Nicosia on Friday.
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