Erdogan issues warning to TRNC unions over opposition to hijab law

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday issued a warning to Turkish Cypriot trade unions over their opposition to the government’s decision to legalise the wearing of hijabs at public schools, telling them, “you will find us against you”.

“Nobody can stop you from doing your trade unionism. Do your unionism, we are used to it. Unionism has a long history in Turkey. But non-governmental organisation need to know how to act like non-governmental organisations. If you try to mess with our girls’ headscarves in the TRNC, I am sorry, you will find us against you,” he said.

His comments were made at Teknofest, Turkey’s aerospace and technology festival which this weekend is being held at the north’s Ercan airport. Teachers’ trade unions had refused to take part in the event, despite the TRNC’s ‘education ministry’ calling for all schoolchildren to attend it on Friday.

“It is natural that those who act as subcontractors for those who cannot tolerate the existence of Turkish Cypriots are disturbed by Teknofest. It is natural that the fascist mentality, which seeks modernisation not in progress in science, technology, culture, and art, but in dress codes and clothing bans, is afraid of this technology festival we have here,” he said.

He added that “we will not give up on the spirit of Teknofest because a few marginal people might be disturbed”.

Earlier, Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union (Ktoeos) had explained her reasoning for boycotting the event, stressing that teachers are not against science and progress, but against the ruling coalition and the Turkish government which has organised the festival.

“Let no one try to manipulate or divert the issue. Whoever wants to go to the ‘science’ festival of those who want to impose political Islam on the bodies of our girls can go,” she said, referencing the new hijab law.

Turkish Cypriots have in large numbers rejected the hijab law, taking to the streets of Nicosia in their thousands on three separate occasions since the law was enacted, with numerous smaller such protests having taken place in the meantime.

Erdogan’s comments on Saturday are, according to reports, not the first time he has expressed an opinion on what has been dubbed by the media as the “headscarf crisis”.

Turkish newspaper Turkiye reported last month that he had spoken about the matter at a meeting of his AK Party’s central administration board, and that he had been scathing of the teachers.

“This is impudence. We will visit the TRNC in the coming days. We will give the necessary messages, there. If you don’t come down hard on this lot, they don’t know their limits,” he is quoted as saying.

While the quotes are not verifiable, Turkey’s presidential communications directorate, which is typically proactive in denying quotes misattributed to Erdogan and other members of the Turkish government, did not disavow the story.

Frustration over the “headscarf crisis” has been tangible in Ankara, with Oktay Saral, one of Erdogan’s top advisors, having taken to Twitter to attack the TRNC’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel over his handling of the matter.

Saral described Ustel as a “bosbakan”, a play on the word “basbakan”, which means “prime minister” in Turkish, with “bos” meaning “empty”, and added, “what a shame, we could not save Cyprus from Greek Cypriot-ness”.

Cyprus Mail