Population of occupied areas leaps above 200,000

THE results of a census taken in the occupied areas last year are expected to be announced at a press conference today, Turkish Cypriot papers have said.

The papers yesterday quoted the Turkish Cypriot news agency TAK, which was told by the ‘Undersecretary of the State Planning Organisation’ that the population of the north had risen to 200,587.

A recent announcement by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CoE) expressed concern at the increase in the population of the occupied areas.

According to 1992 figures, the population in the government controlled rose from 505,000 in 1974 to 575,000 at the end of 1990, an increase of 13.7 per cent.

The population of the occupied areas increased from 115,600 in 1974 to 171, 500 in 1990, an increase of 48.35 per cent in the same period.

The conclusion was that the rise could only be accounted for by an influx of migrants to the north.

Now, according to yesterday’s press reports, the population there has jumped to over 200,000.

It is though at least 60,000 of the 115,000 original Turkish Cypriots have left the island. If these figures are true, and unless there has been a significant rise in the reproduction rate of Turkish Cypriots, it would mean almost three-quarters of the population of the occupied areas was now made up of settlers. Turkey also stations 35,000 troops on the island.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.