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Except
for a few Maronites in
the Kormakiti (Koruçam)
area, at the western end of the
Kyrenia range, and several hundred Greek
Cypriots in the Karpas Peninsula,
the people living in the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC)
were Turkish Cypriots, descendants
of Turks who settled in Cyprus
following the Ottoman
conquest in 1571. With the
Ottoman conquest, the ethnic
and cultural composition of Cyprus
changed drastically. Although
the island had been ruled by
Venetians, its population was
mostly Greek. Turkish rule brought
an influx of settlers speaking
a different language and entertaining
other cultural traditions and
beliefs. In accordance with the
decree of Sultan Selim II, some
5,720 households left Turkey
from the Karaman, Içel,
Yozgat, Alanya, Antalya, and
Aydin regions of Anatolia and
migrated to Cyprus. The Turkish
migrants were largely farmers,
but some earned their livelihoods
as shoemakers, tailors, weavers,
cooks, masons, tanners, jewelers,
miners, and workers in other
trades. In addition, some 12,000
soldiers, 4,000 cavalrymen, and
20,000 former soldiers and their
families stayed in Cyprus.
The
Ottoman Empire allowed its non-Muslim
ethnic communities (or millets,
from the Arabic word for religion, millah)
a degree of autonomy if they
paid their taxes and were obedient
subjects. The millet system
permitted Greek Cypriots to remain
in their villages and maintain
their traditional institutions.
The Turkish immigrants often
lived by themselves in new settlements,
but many lived in the same villages
as Greek Cypriots. For the next
four centuries, the two communities
lived side by side throughout
the island. Despite this physical
proximity, each ethnic community
had its own culture and there
was little intermingling. Both
communities, for example, considered
interethnic marriage taboo, although
it did sometimes occur. Also,
in spite of relations that were
often cordial, there was little
possibility of serious intimacy
between the two communities.
In fact, according to the American
psychologist, Vamik Volkan, the
two groups seemed to have a psychological
need to remain separate from
each other.
Until
the island came under British
administration in 1878, there
were only rough estimates of
Cyprus's population and its ethnic
breakdown. In more recent times,
population figures became highly
controversial after it was agreed
that the government
established in 1960 was to
be staffed at a 70-to-30 ratio
of Greek and Turkish Cypriots,
although the latter made up only
18 to 20 percent of the island's
population. For this reason,
the population figures were a
vital issue in the island's government,
likely to affect any far-reaching
political settlements in the
1990s.
About
40,000 to 60,000 Turks lived
on Cyprus in the late sixteenth
century, according to Ottoman
migration figures. In the eighteenth
century, the British consul in
Syria, De Vezin, believed that
the Turkish population on the
island outnumbered the Greek
population by a ratio of two
to one. According to his estimates,
the Greek Cypriots numbered between
20,000 to 30,000 and the Turkish
population around 60,000. Not
all historians accept his estimate,
however. If there was a Turkish
majority, it did not last. By
the time of the first British
census of the island in 1881,
Greek Cypriots numbered 140,000
and Turkish Cypriots 42,638.
One reason suggested for the
small number of Turkish Cypriots
was that many of them sold their
property and migrated to mainland
Turkey when the island was placed
under British
administration according
to the Cyprus Convention of 1878.
There
was a significant Turkish Cypriot
exodus from the island between
1950 and 1974 when thousands
left the island, mainly for Britain
and Australia. The migration
had two phases. The first lasted
from 1950 to 1960, when Turkish
Cypriots benefited from liberal
British immigration policies
as the island gained its independence,
and many Turkish Cypriots settled
in London. Emigration would have
been higher in this period, had
there not been pressure from
the Turkish Cypriot leadership
to remain in Cyprus and participate
in building the new republic.
The
second and more intense phase
of Turkish Cypriot emigration
began after inter-communal strife
increased in late 1963. Living
conditions for Turkish Cypriots
worsened as about 25,000 of them,
faced with Greek Cypriot violence,
gathered in several enclaves
around the island. In addition,
all Turkish Cypriots working
for the government of the Republic
of Cyprus lost their civil service
positions. Aid from Turkey allowed
those in the enclaves to survive,
but life at a subsistence level
and the constant threat of violence
caused numerous Turkish Cypriots
to leave for a better life abroad.
As before, most emigrants left
for Australia and Britain, but
some settled in Turkey. By 1972
the Turkish Cypriot population
had declined to around 78,000,
and prospects for the community's
survival on the island looked
bleak.
After
the de facto partition of the
island in 1974, Turkish Cypriots
began to return to Cyprus, and
the decline was reversed. In
addition, some 20,000 Turkish
guest workers moved to the island
to revive the Turkish Cypriot
economy. Many of these workers
eventually decided to remain
permanently and take TRNC citizenship.
Some immigration from Turkey
continued in subsequent years.
Largely as a result of this dual
immigration, the Turkish Cypriot
population totaled 167,256 in
1988, according to the TRNC
State Planning Organisation.
The
average annual rate of population
increase during the period 1978-87
was 1.3 percent. In 1987 the
rate was 1.5 percent. Despite
the smallness of most age cohorts
(that is those born in a particular
year) born in the 1970s (a probable
reflection of the decade's turbulence),
more than half the population
was less that twenty-five years
of age (see fig. 6). The age-sex distribution
matched standard patterns, with
males in the majority in the
first few decades, and women
in the majority thereafter.
Data
as of January 1991 |
