-Jag är rätt person för att lösa stora problem, säger hon som är klok, men jag vet inte vad jag ska börja med? Ena cyprioterna, eller hitta svart textilfärg inne i stán som hon ska ha för att färga ett par byxor med? Men först får jag nog hämta en britts barnbarn vid flyget.
“Turkey is our biggest problem,” says Elcil, who heads the Turkish Cypriot teachers’ union and is a vocal proponent of reunification of the war-divided island under a federal umbrella with the Greek-run south. “It should keep its hands off Cyprus and take its lira and go away.”
Elcil, 58, is among the statelet’s most outspoken opponents of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his unorthodox economic policies.
The recent gyrations of the Turkish lira – adopted by the territory in 1976, two years after the Turkish invasion – have had a devastating effect on daily life for a populace that remains under international embargo and cut off from the rest of the world. The use of foreign currency for property transactions and the purchase of imported goods has made a bad situation worse – even if the lira has regained some of its dramatic loss in value against the dollar.
Amid rising desperation, along with demands for the entity to adopt a “stable” currency, Elcil is far from alone.
“People are tired of international isolation, and they’re aware that it will only get worse,” he says. “Five years ago, a teacher first entering our system earned the equivalent of €1,100 (£920) a month. Today, because of the lira, they’d take home €350 a month.” Läs mer
Nuvarande presidenten säger att man ska vara tacksam mot Turkiet, utan dem vore vi mördade allihop. Det är världen som måste bestämma sig för om vi ska få finnas eller inte.
Public opinion: ”Can we trust the Greek Cypriots?”
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