Fallout continues after week of protests in north, Ustel heads to Ankara

Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel travelled to Ankara on Thursday with a view to signing this year’s annual financial protocol with the Republic of Turkey, having had his trip to Turkey delayed in light of an ongoing dispute over planned alterations to the payment of the cost-of-living allowance to public sector workers.

That dispute saw protesters descend in their thousands on the Turkish Cypriot legislature on the first three days of the week, thrice breaking through lines of riot police to access the building’s complex, and once entering the building itself to demand Ustel’s resignation from the inside.

Ustel appeared keen to give the impression of business as usual, however, while giving a televised statement before his departure from the north’s Ercan (Tymbou) airport on the north’s public broadcaster BRT while flanked by his ‘deputy prime minister’ Fikri Ataoglu and ‘transport minister’ Erhan Arikli.

He made no mention of the three days of general strikes or the fact that the Turkish Cypriot legislature sat until 4am on Thursday as his ruling coalition attempted to pass alterations to the payment of the cost-of-living allowance, instead speaking only about the financial protocol.

“Tomorrow, we will sign the 2026 financial protocol with [Turkish Vice President] Cevdet Yilmaz. The majority of this financial protocol will focus on infrastructure and, in particular, addressing the significant economic difficulties caused by tensions in the Middle East. We will provide support to industry, tourism, small businesses, and other sectors,” he said.

The protocol is expected to see the Turkish government provide 25 billion TL (€480 million) to the Turkish Cypriot authorities.

However, others were less able to ignore the spectre of the week’s events, with ‘parliament speaker’ Ziya Ozturkler briefly passing comment on the matter upon his arrival in Azerbaijan on Thursday.

Ozturkler had travelled to Baku to meet Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Sahiba Garafova and told BRT that his trip to Azerbaijan was “not related” to issues which had arisen at home.

He said he had chosen to call a halt to proceedings in the legislature on Thursday morning because “parliamentary staff, police, and protesters were all tired”, and confirmed that he will endeavour to restart proceedings next Monday morning.

Back on the island, the coalition’s decision last week to issue a decree cutting the cost-of-living allowance after failing to get the cuts through the legislature last week backfired on it in the ‘TRNC’s’ constitutional court.

Trade unions had last week appealed to the judiciary claiming that the decree ran contrary to the ‘TRNC’s’ constitution, and while the coalition had repealed the decree on Wednesday, the court nonetheless offered a ruling.

In that ruling, the court not only found that the cost-of-living allowance decree had been issued illegally, but that every decree which had not subsequently been voted on in the legislature within 90 days of its issuing was also illegal.

As such, more than 300 decrees issued by the coalition since Ustel came to power in 2022 were annulled on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, Erhan Arikli found himself locked in a back-and-forth with Turkish Cypriot Kyrenia mayor Murat Senkul, with the former having said that the three days of strikes and protests were in fact an attempted coup d’état carried out by opposition political party the CTP, the party to which the latter belongs.

“The crowd participating in the protests did not represent the entire population. Workers from CTP-controlled municipalities were transported to the area by bus. They say the people do not want us, but it is clear who came here: employees of CTP-controlled municipalities, salaried municipal staff, and at the forefront were police officers,” he said.

He then said that “CTP MPs were showing protesters the fire exits, saying ‘come in through here’”, when demonstrators entered the legislature building on Tuesday.

Senkul responded by pointing out that municipal workers and police officers would also be impacted by cuts to the cost-of-living allowance, and said of Arikli, “oh my God, how can one become so detached from society?”.

Arikli remained insistent, however, saying, “you organised them all and piled them up in front of parliament”.

“They are your employees. Of course, they will act on your instructions … If tomorrow, 3,000 to 5,000 UBP and YDP sympathisers come in front of the Kyrenia municipality building and say, ‘the people do not want you, resign’, would you resign?” he asked.

In response, Senkul said, “if you bring 5,000 Kyrenians to call for my resignation, I will”.

While Arikli, and thus his YDP, came to the defence of the coalition, the Ustel’s UBP’s other partner, the DP, appeared to waver, with the party’s secretary-general Serhat Akpinar announcing that the party will not take its place in the legislature on Monday when the cost-of-living allowance will be debated.

Akpinar had poured scorn on the protesters earlier in the week, and maintained his distaste for the protests, saying, “democracy is manifested in parliament, not in the streets, but said that the DP’s stance is “clear”, and that it will not be in the legislature on Monday.

It remains unclear whether that position is shared by the DP’s only other represenative in the legislature, party leader Fikri Ataoglu, who joined Ustel in Ankara on Thursday.