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The incidents regarding the housing problems of foreign workers, which have been on the agenda for years, and the man who has been illegally wandering the streets of Nicosia for 5,000-odd days pave the way for us to talk about the issue of ‘foreigners’ in the country again.
In an interview we once published in YENİDÜZEN, a university student from Africa had said “They don’t treat us fairly since my skin colour is darker” about Turkish Cypriots!
There were such lessons in the interviews published in the newspaper years ago that many articles would have been written on this issue…
Let’s write one now.
***
We see and follow what is happening in the USA and to what extent anti-foreigner sentiments can reach in European countries.
Recently, especially in the last five years, the biggest problem of the cities in the northern part of Cyprus is foreign students…
Or, to put it more accurately, to express a view without making generalisations, judicial incidents involving foreign students and the way we explain these incidents pose serious problems…
Have you ever thought where Turkish Cypriots are situated in all of this, especially in the new world order where conservatism is rising by the day?
I think we are becoming increasingly conservative, or new developments reveal that we are already quite conservative. To put it more accurately, our experiences push us to a conservative, anti-foreigner position.
One of these is the issue of ‘African students’…
I have written about this subject before.
Naturally, the first reaction we give to unfamiliar matters and people is generalisation.
Even though it is the wrong kind of reaction, ‘generalisation’ is gradually becoming a problem, like an increasingly widespread disease in the northern part of Cyprus…
***
We have universities by happenstance.
We are an island of education…
Students are arriving in our homeland…
Foreign students… Of course, I would like to make a note of strong rumours that many of them entered the country with a registration as a ‘student’, and are illegally involved in all kinds of dirty matters.
Let alone the rumours, incidents that find reflection in the court, the police openly explain how long the suspect has been on the run…
***
In the past, the majority of students were from Turkey…
Now there are all sorts of nationalities…
Foreign groups of people live together with us in our cities.
This situation paves way for both positive and negative developments.
Looking at reactions coming from various segments of the society, we can see that negative ones are increasing, especially with respect to foreign students. Serious concerns are being voiced, particularly regarding African students.
As I said, although the issue seems to be personal, it is actually ‘general’…
Of course, there are many reasons (right, or wrong) for making generalisations, this is open to debate.
However, it would not be wrong to say that problems between some foreign students (especially from Africa) and local citizens, especially in our big cities, have started to become bigger to a noticeable extent.
***
I would like to add my sentiment that many of the reactions to some students can be justified.
My aim is not to dismiss the reactions by saying “this is racist”, but on the contrary, to discuss how to eliminate the reasons for these admissible reactions, before things get worse…
Our perceptions are picking up signals which provide us with the information that the country is gradually changing, this is a fact…
Social spaces and interactions create concrete opportunities for us to make this judgement.
Those who go to the public hospital decide on the evening of the same day that ‘we are finished.’
The teacher of a school where the majority of the children are Turkish immigrants can make similar observations.
Same observations by those whose houses are broken into in broad daylight…
Now, residents of an apartment building where foreign students live are in a similar mood…
Are these reactions unjust? No, they are not! On the contrary, they are quite right!
Would you be able to say which one is wrong?
***
This crooked system established in the northern part of Cyprus creates problems for us in all aspects of life.
Everything has become complicated, everything has become tangled up.
It is not clear who is a ‘resident’, who is a seasonal worker, who is illegal, who is a student, who is a temporary worker!
In this order we have created in the northern part of Cyprus, how many of the ‘visible’ ones are citizens? We do not know.
And at best, we represent an ‘other’.
Obviously, even the ‘state’ we have established sees us as an ‘other’!
An other!
How can I claim the rights of ‘others’ when my glorious ‘state’ for which I ‘shed blood and fought’ does not even give me the right to say that I am a ‘Turkish Cypriot’? This is the key question, my dear friends.
“How can I protect the rights of foreigners? Especially if they have started to commit crimes, just let them go away”…
This is our state of mind.
“I am already an other in my own land, I am a minority, I am getting lonelier by the day.”
People of the country, who are becoming increasingly isolated, whose will are ignored and who are seen as a cattle to be driven, now see themselves in danger.
This is the danger of extinction…
***
But where is the solution to the problem?
Here is another crucial question: How will this issue be solved?
We need to work harder to succeed in becoming ‘us’.
Most importantly, the politics created by right-wing governments in the northern part of Cyprus, which isolates and marginalizes Turkish Cypriots, will and must end.
We must take steps to end this together.
This is the main issue, this is a must.
In addition to this, we need to respect the identities of the people who come to the island from Turkey, or any other country; especially the poor, the destitute, the marginalized, the despised and the lost ones have no nation—and this needs to be noted…
Of course we need to change, we must change, we must change the course.
While this change and struggle continues, in addition to all these, the administration in the northern part of Cyprus also has some great responsibilities.
For example, the police and the court should penalize the ‘student who causes disturbance in the apartment’, this is not a three-ring circus! Enough is enough!
***
The police, who can act as sharp as an eagle in social incidents, must ensure security and peace throughout the country.
The police, who set up a roadblock at the Kyrenia Gate and fined me because I was one month late in paying my motorisation permit, must also inspect foreigners who commit crimes and students who are likely to be illegal.
They will carry out identity checks one by one, identify those who are walking around illegally, and do whatever is necessary.
Firstly, the ‘state’ needs to fulfil the requirements of being a proper state and pay attention to public order.
And we, as proper islanders, will demonstrate the ability to live together by respecting everyone’s culture, and not marginalizing them. We must.
If these things do not happen, African students, whom we call ‘Blacks’, will continue to keep us awake at night.
And we will continue to react to this…
And the most frightening of all is that this reaction is likely to grow.
We must see this crisis in our society and deal with the problem at an early stage.
It is necessary to deal with the source of the problem without getting into the spiral of racism, by seeing and talking about facts, without unnecessarily bickering with each other.
The General Directorate of Police has the primary duty.
The police should give the feeling of a state, and the citizens should give the feeling of being human.
There is also the work to be done by the state mechanism, namely the social services, which is extremely crucial.
The state must identify the people in need of help, hungry, suffering from housing problems, in short, in an effort to live without humanitarian conditions within this country, and should take steps in this regard.
Whoever employs workers under these conditions must be punished and humanitarian living conditions must be ensured; the role of the state is important here.
It is the right of every human being to live and work under healthy conditions, there is no room for discussion on this!
The colour of one’s skin, or where one comes from, is not and cannot be of any importance for a person to access humanitarian conditions.
This article was originally published on 27.08.2024
