The government of the breakaway Turkish state in the north of divided Cyprus Tuesday ordered crucial public sectors to end a strike against an economic program of austerity measures.
Under the decision, based on a provision in Turkish Cypriot law allowing the government to suspend strikes for 60 days, air and maritime transport as well as electricity-supply institutions began to operate after having halted services on Monday.
Employees in other public offices, including schools, continued to strike, while hospitals were only treating urgent cases.
The indefinite strike, which started Monday with some 40,000 taking part, is in protest at a tight economic program recommended by Turkey, the only country to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), in return for financial aid for the ailing TRNC economy.
The package includes tax hikes, an end to the recruitment of new public workers and the abolition of periodic salary hikes in line with inflation.
Each year Ankara allocates hundreds of millions of dollars to the TRNC, hit by a long-standing international embargo.
The government's decision Tuesday to halt the strike triggered a demonstration by trade unions in the capital Nicosia as well as other big cities in the TRNC.
Police prevented some 500 people, led by an opposition center-left party, from staging a demonstration in the Turkish Cypriot parliament.
The strike follows an earlier stoppage, on October 17, organized after the TRNC government decided to go ahead with the economic package.
The Turkish government itself faced a massive demonstration by thousands of public workers Friday protesting against austerity measures to comply with an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied the northern third of the island in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia seeking to unite the island with Greece – NICOSIA (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
