A PUZZLE: HOW MANY TURKISH CYPRIOTS ARE LEFT?

The last census which covered all the inhabitants of the island of Cyprus was made on 11 December 1960 and the number of the Turkish-Cypriots (T/Cs) was 104,320. Adding on this number, the 475 Moslem gypsies and other Moslems, it reached to 104,942. The total number of Christians was 473,265. (Census of Population and Agriculture 1960, Government Printing Office, Nicosia, 1962)

ESTIMATE IN 1973: 114,960

Because the T/Cs left the structure of the Cypriot state after the beginning of intercommunal clashes at the end of 1963, no census covering the T/Cs could be made. According to the study of the Canadian researcher, Richard A.Patrick, who served as an officer in the UNFICYP, "Political Geography and the Cyprus Conflict 1963-1971", published in 1976, there were a total of 119,147 T/Cs living in the T/C settlements on the island. The population estimates of the G/C administration for the T/C in Cyprus put the number as 114,960.

THEIR POPULATION IN THE SUMMER OF 1974: 115,758

After the division of the island with the war of 1974, the following information was given in a report prepared by Mr.Ahmet Sami, the secretary-general of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Justice of the "Autonomous Turkish-Cypriot Administration", dating 20. October 1974:

“A total of 83,719 T/Cs live on the territory of the "Autonomous Turkish-Cypriot Administration". There were 32,039 T/Cs left in the south. Appr. 10 thousand of them are in the SBA, 4,200 in Limassol and in its villages, 12,000 in Paphos district, 2,630 in the Larnaca district, 3,209 in the villages of Nicosia district. It was stated in the same report that until 19 October 1974, about 12,000 T/Cs moved to the north with their own possibilities.”

According to the information given above, there were 71,719 T/Cs living in the northern part, 44,039 T/Cs in the southern part of the partition-line drawn after the war, making a total T/C population of 115,758.

THOSE BROUGHT FIRST FROM TURKEY

According to a news-item, published in the Zaman newspaper of 9. August 1977, Mr.Hakki Atun, the Minister for Settlement and rehabilitation of the "Federated State of the Turkish Cypriots", declared that 20,934 families, i.e. 83,650 T/Cs were settled in the north in the three years between 1974 and 1977. As the number of the T/Cs coming from the south were 44,039, the remaining 39,611 persons were those settlers brought from Turkey.

As it is well-known, the Turkish settlers were brought from Anatolia for the first time in October 1974 with the pretext that "they would work in the hotels and gardens left by the G/Cs", but later this practice was widened in January 1975 as the families of the martyrs fell in the war of 1974 were also settled in the north, continued with giving houses and plots of land to those who wished to settle in Cyprus.

The Zaman newspaper of 10 June 1976 reported Mr.Denktash, saying the following during an election speech: "Those, who opposed us, were exploiting the plight of the people. It was a matter of out-rooting and settling about 80 thousand people. This magnificent mission was done by human beings, they could make some mistakes." Mr.Denktash was making politics with the number of 80,000 by adding the number of Turkish settlers to the official 44,039 resettled T/Cs.

47,186 MAINLAND TURKISH SETTLERS AT THE END OF 1983

In the draft "Second Five-Year Development Plan", prepared by the State Planning Bureau, published in September 1983, it was stated that 91,225 persons were re-settled between 1974 and 1982 on the territory of the "Federated State of the Turkish Cypriots". As the number of the T/C refugees coming from the south was 44,039, the number of the Turkish citizens, settled in Northern Cyprus can be put as 47,186. It is interesting that there has been no official statement on this matter until now.

WHY THE POPULATION STATISTICS WERE NOT PUBLISHED?

The population of the T/Cs were 104,942 in 1960 and 115,758 in 1974. The number of the T/Cs covered also the mainland Turkish settlers, starting from July 1974. The population reached to 173,224 when a census was made on 26.5.1990 for determining the number of the voters before the general election. The head of the regime in Northern Cyprus, Mr.Rauf Denktash, answered the reporters the reason why the population statistics were not disclosed: "If we disclose them, they will know who came from where!" (Yeni Düzen, 23. July 1993)

EUROPEAN COUNCIL ASKED FOR A CENSUS

The Spanish MP Alfons Cuco, the rapporteur of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography of the European Council prepared a report on the "Structure of the Cypriot Communities" dated 27. April 1992, which was discussed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council. The Assembly adopted a resolution No.1197 on 7 October 1992 which recommended that the Committee of Ministers instruct the European Population Committee to conduct a census of the islands' population, in cooperation with the authorities concerned, in order to replace population estimates with reliable data. The authorities of the Republic of Cyprus and the T/C Administration were requested to keep the arrival of aliens on the island under strict control. Turkey was invited to register in its Cyprus Consulate all Turkish citizens residing and arriving in Cyprus.

It is unfortunate that since then no census was conducted in the north of the island under the observation of international organizations and the number of mainland Turkish settlers or the number of those Turkish citizens living illegally could not be determined.

 

HOW RELIABLE IS THE FIRST OFFICIAL CENSUS?

The results of the first official census, made by the T/C authorities on 15.December 1996 and was evaluated at the State Institute of Statistics in Ankara, were made public first after two years. According to this data, the de facto population was 200,587 and the de jure population was 188,662.

The difference between the two was explained by Mr.Ahmet Bulunç, Adviser of the State Planning Bureau, who made public the results, that 11,925 persons declared on the day of the census that their permanent place of residence were outside the TRNC.                   

The other demographical structure was given as follows:

Total population................. 200,857      %100

Citizen of the TRNC .......... 164,460       % 82

    Born in the TRNC.......... 137,398

    Born in Turkey ..............  23,924

    Born in a 3rd country.....     3,138

Citizen of Turkey...............   30,702        %15

     Student ........................     8,287           

     Employed....................    12,922

     Unemployed................      1,327

     Other (private business,

     pensioner etc.)...............    8,166

Citizen of a 3rd country.....     5,425         % 3

The number of the Greek-Cypriots living in the north was 384 and the Cypriot-Maronites 173.

As it can be seen from the above numbers, there is no statement about the number of those children born in the TRNC by the Turkish parents. There is no mention of the number of the appr. 35,000 soldiers of the Turkish Army in Cyprus, nor of their dependents. There are about 25 or 30 thousand illegal workers which should make the number of the de facto population much higher.

According to the information given by some authorities, who want to remain undisclosed, appr. 46 thousand people were given citizenship since 1974 and 20-25 thousand of them do not live permanently in the TRNC. (Avrupa, 31.1.1998) Famous politicians and parliamentarians were included among those. (Ortam, 17.19.1996)

Mr.Kenan Akin, who originates from mainland Turkey and was the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry of the TRNC, disclosed that there were 60 thousand mainland settlers in the TRNC. (Avrupa, 6.6.1998)

"40% OF THE POPULATION IS FROM THE MAINLAND"

The idea of re-establishing a political party like the "Re-Birth Party" of the mainland Turkish settlers which amalgamated with the Democrat Party in 1992, emerged after the lost of votes on the general elections made on 6. December 1998 and those, who were angry, published an advertisement of protest in the press which said "The 40% of the population (Kibris, 15. December), nearly one third of the wider range of the population were divided cunningly and their just and balanced representation in the parliament was obstructed. (Hürriyet-Kibris, 22.December 1998)

As it can be seen, the number of those, originating from the mainland Turkey, in the population of the TRNC, differs between 60 and 80 thousand and this number reaches over 100 thousand with the illegal workers.

IMMIGRATION STATISTICS OF THE TRNC

Below you will find the list of the passengers arriving at and departing from the TRNC through the air- and sea-ports, according to the years and citizenships. The number of the mainland Turkish settlers in the north is 100,000. As those born in Turkey and their children are later given the citizenship of the TRNC and they are included under the title of "TRNC citizens", it is difficult to know who are really of T/C origin.

                             ARRIVALS                                                  DEPARTURES

Year   TRNC      Turkey      Other          Total          TRNC       Turkey        Other         Total   

         

1974       5,098       5,573       1,022        11,693           6,093         4,193           804     11,090

1975    13,635      73,831       6,577        94,043        29,842        51,465        5,943      87,250

1976    30,764      83,440       4,552      118,756        31,454        80,347       4,985      116,786

1977    33,570   108,016        5,113      146,699        34,540        97,142        5,377      137,059

1978    35,449   104,738        8,177      148,364        36,410       103,108       7,802     147,320

1979    47,839     95,095      13,286     156,220         46,858         92,956     12,619     152,433

1980   51,204      69,810      14,793     135,807         53,135        68,727      14,082     135,944

1981   52,933     62,812      15,471     131,216          52,371        44,912      15,512     112,795

1982   49,870     62,058      22,811     134,739          51,764        66,172       22,631     140,567

1983   58,908     78,467      20,467     157,842          60,660        76,386       20,300     157,346

1984   57,929      93,913     18,925     170,767          56,763        90,403       19,511     166,677

1985   53,860    103,791     21,284     178,935          54,599       102,754       21,049    178,402

1986   55,076    105,729     25,763     186,568          55,788       105,492       25,603    186,883

1987   59,602    149,394     36,448     245,444          60,954       149,980       36,995     247,929

1988   60,178    173,351     56,050     289,579          62,243       169,501       53,966     285,710

1989   68,583    214,566     59,507     342,656          68,212       209,837       58,562     336,611

1990   74,681    243,269     57,541     375,491          73,771       241,764       57,615     373,150

1991   66,012    179,379     40,858     286,249          66,627       178,770       40,502     285,899

1992   78,466    210,178     57,440     346,084          80,304       209,045       57,380    346,729

1993   93,669    281,370     77,943     452,982          97,702       281,160       78,876    457,738

1994 109,787    256,549     95,079     461,415        113,012       252,813        94,514    460,339

1995 134,374   298,026     87,733     520,133         136,803      291,058       87,214      515,075

1996 133,072   289,131     75,985     498,188         135,079      286,691       75,337     497,107 

1997 138,109   326,364     73,000     537,473         138,884      321,208        71,853     531,945 

___________________________________________________________________________

      1,562,868  3,668,850 895,825  6,127,343     1,603,868    3,575,884      889,032  6,068,784

===================================================================

Summary:

As of the beginning of 1998 

Departing TRNC citizens                                             41,000                              

Remaining Turkish citizens in the TRNC                                           92,966

Remaining other citizens in the TRNC                                                                  6,793

As seen above, 41 thousand persons left the north of the island in the last 23 years and about 100 thousand persons, 93,000 being citizens of Turkey, remained there. If the number of 11,765 university students (10,349 from Turkey, 1,416 from other countries like Pakistan, Sudan, Jordan, Palestine etc.) are reducted from this (Kibris, 12.11.1998), there were at the end of 1998, a total of 87,994 aliens in the TRNC, 82,617 citizens from mainland Turkey and 5,377 citizens of the third countries.

Covered in the departing 41,000 persons are those Turkish citizens who were given the citizenship of the TRNC and those having higher education in Turkey and other countries during the school-year 1997-98 (Statistical Yearbook 1997 of the State Planning Bureau of the Prime Ministry of the TRNC, p.90) If those who are abroad on a travel for touristic and other purposes are also counted, about 38,000 TRNC citizens have already emmigrated from the island.

THE NUMBER OF THE T/C'S ARE NOT KNOWN

The number of the Cypriot-born TRNC citizens, 137,398, does not indicate the actual number of the original T/C's in the TRNC, because it covers the children of the mainland Turkish settlers.

The G/C newspaper Fileleftheros stated in a news-item titled "Revelation: Turks reached 25% of the population. Colonization speeds up and change its dimension" that although all of them have not been given the citizenship of the TRNC, the number of those mainland Turks reached 120,000. There are clear signs that Ankara speeded up the plots of changing the demographical structure radically, both in quantity and in quality.

Fileleftheros, relying on the information collected and evaluated through various channels, alleged that "the number of the T/C's is not more than 86,800 at the end of 1998. This means that their proportion in the Cypriot population has dropped from 18% to 11%."

The newspaper continued: "The number of the colonists is already over 120,000 and is between 125 and 128 thousand. According to the Report of the Statistics Department, the emmigration wave of the T/C's continue and 54,000 of them have already emmigrated. The number of T/C's is only 88,200 at the end of December 1997. Instead of increase, they decreased in number." (extracted in Halkin Sesi, 1.3.1999)

CONCLUSION

In the last 25 years since 1974, the T/C's have become more a minority in their own country, as the 37% northern part of the island is being kept under the occupation and the control of the Turkish Armed Forces. The demographical structure there has been changed in an important scale. The approximately 160 thousand G/C's who used to live on this territory before 1974 and who were displaced to the south of the partition line after the Turkish invasion, are not allowed to return. Whereas, the legal status of an occupational force on an occupied territory, its rights and responsibilities were arranged by international conventions and all of these are written one by one in the Regulations of Den Haag about the Ground Wars, dated 18. October 1907 and the 4th Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civil Persons during the Times of War, dated 12. August 1949. These conventions regulate how the occupational forces would behave according to the international law, when an occupation of a territory was made according to the international law.

Since 1974, the mainland Turkish settlers were first tried to be kept secret as "seasonal workers", today they have a say as the future of the T/C's are being determined as the T/C's are made a minority in the total population of the territory, which is kept under the occupation of the Turkish Armed Forces in the north of Cyprus. The settlers have become a social entity which plays an important role in the stalemate of the Cyprus problem.

(Translated into English by the author from his book "Kibris Nereye Gidiyor? (Quo Vadis Cyprus?)", published in Turkish, in Istanbul/Turkey, in June 2002, by the Everest Publishing House, pp.318-327. The article was originally published under the nickname "M.Sonuç" in "Kıbrıs'ta Sosyalist Gerçek" (Socialist Reality in Cyprus) journal, Issue No.42, July 1999)