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Cyprus Population
Unavailable
Figure 6. "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus": Population by Age
and Sex, 1989
Source: Based on information from "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,"
State Planning Organisation, Statistics and Research Department, Statistical
Yearbook, 1988, Nicosia, 1989, 12.
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, çel,
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, DeVezin,
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 intercommunal 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
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