‘You’ll fail’ – Turkey President, Erdoğan warns those against Islamization of northern Cyprus

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has warned protesters in breakaway northern Cyprus that they would fail.

He said the protesters must not “sow seeds of hatred” amid mounting discord over Turkey’s attempts to Islamise one of the world’s most secular Muslim societies.

In a whirlwind visit to the Turkish-occupied territory on Saturday the leader had tough words for Turkish Cypriots who have stepped up demonstrations against policies he openly endorses, not least a controversial law allowing headscarves to be worn in schools.

He said as he inaugurated a new presidential residence and parliament in the self-styled state, “those who try to disrupt our brotherhood, to create a rift between us, and to sow the seeds of hatred … will not be successful.”

Later, as he addressed a technology festival, he went further, telling trade unions that opposed the measure: “If you try to mess with our girls’ headscarves in the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus, I am sorry, you will find us against you.”

On Friday thousands of Turkish Cypriots took to the streets of Nicosia, the country’s war-split capital, chanting “hands off our land” as they denounced the legislation.

In a speech before a crowd metres away from Turkey’s embassy compound, Selma Eylem, who heads the Cyprus Turkish secondary education teachers’ trade union, said the regulation was tantamount to imposing political Islam on a society that not only prided itself on its secular identity but inherently secular way of life.

“We say, once again, to the representatives of the AKP [Erdoğan’s Islamist-rooted party]: Keep your hands off our children and keep your hands off our society.”

‘You’ll fail’ – Turkey President, Erdoğan warns those against Islamization of northern Cyprus