Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced his frustration at Turkish Cypriot “impudence” over ongoing protests against the north’s ruling coalition’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs by children at public schools, and teachers’ refusal to apply the law in question, according to reports.

Turkish newspaper Turkiye reported on Wednesday that Erdogan had briefly spoken about the issue at a meeting of his AK Party’s central administration board.

“This is impudence. We will visit the TRNC in the coming days. We will give the necessary messages, there. If you don’t come down hard on this lot, they don’t know their limits,” he is quoted as saying.

Erdogan’s upcoming visit to the island had been in the pipeline long before protests against the legalisation of hijabs at public schools became a serious political issue in the north, with the trip planned to coincide with the opening of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s official residence on May 3.

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However, in recent weeks, 13,000 Turkish Cypriots have marched through the streets of northern Nicosia in opposition to the law, with fires having been lit in protest against the law every weeknight since April 14.

Teachers and their supporters have set the ruling coalition a deadline of April 28 to change the law back to how it was, lest their measures escalate, with a general strike being talked about by opposition political parties and trade unions.

Frustration over the ongoing stalemate has been tangible in Ankara, with Oktay Saral, one of Erdogan’s top advisors, having taken to Twitter last week to attack the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel over his handling of the matter.

Saral tweeted a video of Ustel speaking in ‘parliament’ last week about how he had been “saddened” by the heightening of rhetoric over the matter.

In that speech, Ustel had made specific reference to Ibrahim Damar, the imam of the mosque in the northern Nicosia suburb of Mandres, who had described teachers opposed to hijabs as “infidels” and said he would refuse to lead a funeral service for “anyone who opposes headscarves”.

“First of all, a friend of ours in the religious department made different speeches. First of all, I want you to know that we have removed the friend who is in the religious department. After the investigation is completed, the necessary punishment will be given,” he said.

“We did not do nothing while social media attacks were being made against the people of Cyprus, against people from all sides. All of them have been reported to the people because we want reconciliation in society.”

Saral was less than impressed by this speech, and described Ustel as a “bosbakan”, a play on the word “basbakan”, which means “prime minister” in Turkish, with “bos” meaning “empty”.

“The TRNC’s empty minister did not speak nicely, he just babbled on. Should the Imam be hostile towards the headscarf?” he said.

“What a shame, we could not save Cyprus from Greek Cypriot-ness”.