Census in North Cyprus

Census in North Cyprus

Everyone living in North Cyprus was confined to their homes last Sunday due to the execution of the population and housing census. A daytime curfew was imposed from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. In other words it was a historical day for North Cyprus.
Confining people to their homes, like solutions plans, government announcements, constitutional votes, elections, rallies and demonstrations are important historical occasions.
The previous census conducted in 1996 was carried in the same way.
Despite passing of 10 years since the last census, Cyprus, an EU member, is still incapable of conducting a census electronically, so, yes, under these circumstances, confining people to their homes deserves to be marked as an historic occasion. Officials visiting people’s homes on the day posed a total of 61 questions, such as place of birth, level of education, nationality, place of employment, the condition of household and even the total numbers of generators people owned. Some people obediently and quietly answered the questions. Others protested, claiming that the questions were unnecessary and far too personal.
But if you ask my opinion, I think the number of questions was not enough. If you’re asking people questions such as what their nationality is, where they are working and if they have changed employment in the past week, you should also ask them to which Society or Association they belong, and what their political ideology is.
Why? Well, simply because Cyprus is no longer the old Cyprus we knew. 32 years ago Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots were preoccupied with being Turks and Greeks and fighting over ENOSIS and TAKSIM. Turkish Cypriots had their Ataturk Societies and TMT.
But no we have Alevis, Sunnis, secularists and non-secularists living in North Cyprus. We have enemies of Ataturk and cult members. We even have PKK members.
No, you haven’t misread what I have just written! According to a recent US State Department report on terrorism, the PKK had organized and established a strong hold on both sides of the divide. In the past years, Turkish Cypriot leaders were constantly lashing out at the Greek Cypriot leadership, claiming that the PKK was carrying out their military training somewhere in the Trodos mountains. Now the US Administration is naming a location for the PKK: South Cyprus and North Cyprus.
Interestingly, the Turkish government does not deny these reports. So I think they should ask the public in the North:
Do you belong to the TMT or the PKK?

Resat Akar
Editor of Cyprus Dialogue