Apr 16, 2025
An estimated 2,000 Turkish Cypriots gathered outside the north’s ‘parliament’ on Monday evening for the first of the planned nightly lighting of fires to protest against the ruling coalition’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs by children at public schools.
The protest began with speeches from trade union leaders and political figures, with Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union (Ktoeos) leader Selma Eylem first to speak.
“We have gathered here to say once again ‘no way’ to those who leave our secular education exposed, to those who make decisions in line with the instructions they receive, to those who use our children to impose political impositions on our education, our society, and our will, to those who threaten and insult us to try to polarise our society,” she said.
She went on to criticise the north’s ruling coalition for “condemning our society to poverty”, for “creating a corrupt swamp system”, and for “bowing to reactionary, dark instructions”.
“This fire will continue to burn every day from Monday to Friday during the same hours until April 28. This fire will burn until this change made to the law, which is a reactionary move made in spite of the will of the people, is withdrawn,” she said.
Cyprus Turkish teachers’ trade union (Ktos) leader Burak Mavis decried what he described as attempts to “drive a wedge between those who are Turkish and those who are Cypriot” on the part of ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli.
“They say, ‘we fed you’. My grandfather spent three months in Limassol so that ships would not come from Greece … Arikli, you tried very hard to drive a wedge between those who are Turkish and those who are Cypriot, but you are wrong, and you will apologise!”
Trade union Turk-Sen leader Arslan Bicakli was next up to speak, and took umbrage with some supporting the ruling coalition’s decision who have gone on the record saying, “if you don’t like it, you can go to the Greek Cypriot side”.
“You are telling me if I don’t like it, I should go to the Greek Cypriot side! Who are you?”, he asked, before going on to criticise the ruling coalition’s insistence that the new law is a matter of freedom.
“A child’s head is covered and that is freedom. Anyone can go to school as they wish. So, I am asking, can I now go to the mosque in a pair or shorts? Freedoms also have limits,” he said.
Opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman was next to speak, saying that the ruling coalition “had hoped to divide the country with this law”.
“In a way, they have succeeded, though not in the way they first thought. Those who love this country, those who think of their children, those who suffer for this country, those who say ‘we will not let our children down’ are on one side, and these people, those who bear grudges, those who do not even know this country and these people, those who tell us to leave if we do not like it are on the other side!”
“None of us are going anywhere! We have always existed, we exist, and we will continue to exist”
He then returned to speaking about how the ruling coalition’s “attempt to divide this country” had failed, and then said, “and there is one more thing they will soon know”.
“In this country, there is a people. Yes, this people feels strong ties of brotherhood with the people of Turkey, and when the people of Turkey is happy, it is happy, and when the people of Turkey cries, this people cries too, but this people has its own rules, its own agreements, and its own traditions, and if they come and they don’t know it, this people has its own history, it had to fight for its own existence … it had to pick up weapons to defend itself and it was displaced in its own lands. No one can come to this people and try to give it a history lesson! It knows its history well, and it knows its future well, too!”
Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci briefly spoke, and sent a clear message in Turkey’s direction.
“They have told us for years that we are not religious enough. That we have not paid enough homage. They accused us of being cold towards them. Yes, we think, yes, we do not pay homage, yes, we have an identity of our own, and we will look after it!”
Once the speeches had concluded, poets and dancers were invited to perform by the fire until the event drew to a close later in the evening, with the promise that the teachers would return on Tuesday evening and every evening until April 28 – the deadline they have set the ruling coalition to change the law before measures escalate.
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