In the north of the Cypriot capital Nicosia, a huge Turkish-funded mosque is opening and has caused a stir in the Muslim society. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to attend the opening ceremony, expected to take place tomorrow, Tuesday, July 9, at the 3,000-capacity mosque.
While many have welcomed it, the mosque has fuelled concern among some Turkish Cypriots that Ankara is increasing its dominance over the north of the divided island.
"This mosque symbolises the Islamist mentality, the Sunni Islam mentality and also an imperialist mentality," Sener Elcil, head of the Turkish Cypriot Teachers Union, told AFP at his Nicosia office.
"The Turkish Cypriot community is secular. We are not a fundamentalist Islamist community."
Turkey is the only country to recognise the unilaterally declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, whose administration it bankrolls and where it has some 35,000 soldiers stationed.
"Erdogan's policy is to transform the Turkish Cypriot identity," said Izzet Izcan, a former member of parliament and founder of the socialist United Cyprus Party who has urged members of the government to boycott the opening ceremony.
"Our identity is based on Cyprus. We have a lot of common identity with Greek Cypriots, and Armenians and Maronites, all of which have a presence on the island," said Izcan.
"What Erdogan is trying to do is to annex the north, to build another identity... They are trying to make us good Muslims for their way of life, and pure Turks as they wish to see us."
"We all know (the goal) behind this is to assimilate and to integrate the north part of Cyprus to Turkey," Izcan told AFP.
In a rare protest in Nicosia on Friday, members of Elcil's teachers union demonstrated against the mosque under the slogan "put schools and hospitals first".
"What our country needs is science, education and health, (but) priority is being given to investments in religion," demonstrators said in a statement.
The Hala Sultan mosque is the centrepiece of a string of Turkish-funded projects in the same area on the capital's outskirts, including an Islamic high school, several universities and housing projects for students, many of them from Turkey.
"This is the policy of Erdogan. To occupy the northern part (of the island). It's not an innocent thing to build a mosque in Cyprus."
*Source: AFP