Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip ErdoÄan, has warned protesters in breakaway northern Cyprus that they would fail.
He said the protesters must not “sow seeds of hatred”; amid mounting discord over Turkey’s attempts to Islamise one of the world’s most secular Muslim societies.
In a whirlwind visit to the Turkish-occupied territory on Saturday the leader had tough words for Turkish Cypriots who have stepped up demonstrations against policies he openly endorses, not least a controversial law allowing headscarves to be worn in schools.
He said as he inaugurated a new presidential residence and parliament in the self-styled state, “those who try to disrupt our brotherhood, to create a rift between us, and to sow the seeds of hatred ... will not be successful.”;
Later, as he addressed a technology festival, he went further, telling trade unions that opposed the measure: “If you try to mess with our girls’ headscarves in the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus, I am sorry, you will find us against you.”;
On Friday thousands of Turkish Cypriots took to the streets of Nicosia, the country’s war-split capital, chanting “hands off our land”; as they denounced the legislation.
In a speech before a crowd metres away from Turkey’s embassy compound, Selma Eylem, who heads the Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union, said the regulation was tantamount to imposing political Islam on a society that not only prided itself on its secular identity but inherently secular way of life.
“We say, once again, to the representatives of the AKP [ErdoÄan’s Islamist-rooted party]: Keep your hands off our children and keep your hands off our society.”;
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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