Fires were lit in Famagusta on Wednesday evening on the eighth consecutive weekday of protests against the north’s ruling coalition’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs by children at public schools.
The protest was held at the town’s central Namik Kemal square, in the shadow of the Lala Mustafa Pasha mosque, with it the turn of teachers’ trade union leaders to address the crowds.
“Our teachers and unions have been resisting the impositions aimed at transforming our education system for a long time,” Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union leader Selma Eylem began.
“Our fight is for our children. It is to protect them from darkness, so that they can receive an education as prescribed by egalitarian and libertarian laws. It is so that they can live in a free and independent country in which they can protect their own free will, identity, language, and religion.”
She then made reference to a phrase reportedly coined by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday night, that protesting Turkish Cypriots do not “know their limits”.
“We have come to say ‘no’ to those who overstep their limits, who dare to expel us from our own country, who defy us, who plan to put us in our place. We have come to say ‘no’ to those who allow all this, who turn a blind eye, who facilitate it, who try to mock our minds, to the impudent.”
She then added, “we are shouting once again from Famagusta; Cyprus is secular and will remain secular!”
“Our fight will continue to grow until these attempts to disrupt our democratic society, which has lived with people of different religions, languages, and origins throughout history and has approached differences with tolerance, are stopped. They attack our values and existence, they ignore us, our will, and our existence.”
Next up to speak was Cyprus Turkish teachers’ trade union (Ktos) leader Burak Mavis, who began his speech with a history lesson.
“We have been living in these lands for centuries. The Hittites came and went, the Akkadians came and went, the Latins came and went, the Lusignans, the Ottomans, the British all came, they all went, and we existed. This society gave martyrs, it suffered losses,” he said, before moving on to speak about ‘education minister’ Nazim Cavusoglu.
“Our education minister does not recognise the will of the people. He does not take into consideration the demands of trade unions which speak to all these people. Oh, Nazim! Instead of looking after a child’s head, look after their stomach, their bag, their school, their pen, their notebook! Who the hell are you?”
The protests are set to continue every weeknight until next Monday, the deadline teachers and their supporters have set the ruling coalition to change the law before measures escalate, with a general strike said to be possible.
Thursday’s protest is set to take place in Morphou, while Friday’s protest will take place in front of the north’s ‘parliament’ building in northern Nicosia.
However, Cavusoglu had seemingly been in no mood to adhere to the deadline when speaking in ‘parliament’ on Tuesday, saying, “trade unions cannot issue a deadline to the government”.
“Lighting a fire on the street or any actions is not what will determine whether this regulation is legal,” he said.
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