Turkey’s colonisation of Cyprus continues

As we all know, part of the Turkish plan for the partition of Cyprus – which the Turks came up with in 1956 and have been following consistently ever since – involved not only expelling the Greek population from northern Cyprus, but replacing it with a massive influx of Turks from Turkey, i.e. a process of colonisation. The intention was to create a sufficiently large Turkish population to make northern Cyprus economically viable; to create a population unwaveringly loyal to Turkey and to the policy of partition, which the newcomers had a vested interest in supporting; and to overwhelm any residual Turkish Cypriot feeling that leaned towards a united Cyprus, and which might pose a threat to Turkey’s plan for a permanent presence on the island.

Anyway, after 1974, the process of bringing Turks to occupied Cyprus was begun almost immediately and has continued ever since – boosted even by Bulgarian Turks in the 1980s, brought to the island by the occupation regime following ethnic unrest in Bulgaria. Today, there are some 200,000 Turkish settlers in occupied Cyprus – which amounts to twice the population of Turkish Cypriots – all of whom are entitled to ‘citizenship’ of the pseudo-state and participation in ‘elections’ and so on. Indeed, there appears to be no let up in the policy of colonisation of occupied Cyprus, with reports suggesting that Turkey’s plan is to eventually create a population of 2m Turks in northern Cyprus. On the right are photos published in yesterday’s edition of the Turkish Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen of recently arrived Turkish settlers in occupied Cyprus.