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useful here mostly because they are the only statistics that exist. The statistics are
also useful because they illustrate something of the economic growth experienced by
the Turkish-Cypriot community before the breakdown of the constitution, at the end
of December 1963. The data used to generate the chart above is a partial extract
from data used in table 3 of Bicak's paper 83 . It visually demonstrates something of
the economic impact of the breakdown of the constitution in terms of the collapse of
Turkish-Cypriot income and the very slow recovery that followed. The figures for
1960-3 derive from survey data 84 , whilst the 1964-72 data is based on Bicak's
educated guesses and the 1973 data dérivés from 1977 "Federated Republic of
Northern Cyprus" estimâtes.
If the object of Bicak's figures is to estimate Greek-Cypriot debt, and therefore
minimise Turkish-Cypriot contributions to proposed politicai compromises, it is
unlikely that the estimâtes of income during the period 1964-72 will be overly
exaggerated. Regardless of the reasons for the move into fortified enclaves, clearly
income must have collapsed for the Turkish-Cypriot community at a time when
Greek-Cypriot income rose sharply. Bicak's figures were designed to conform, in
quantitative terms, to contemporaneous reports by Turkish-Cypriot "authorities",
although these reports can no longer be located. What the figures also do,
ironically, is support the economic rationale of inter-communal co-operation, at
least for Turkish-Cypriots. Although contrary to the dominant Turkish-Cypriot
picture of communal life in post independence Cyprus, the 1960-63 data tends to
support a more positive view of economic co-operation prior to the constitutional
crisis. Whilst the Turkish-Cypriot population declined 85 , the proportion of GNP
83 Bicak H.A. 1993. "An Evaluation of the Turkish Cypriot Position: Debts of the Greek Cypriot
Community", article submitted to the UN Resident Représentative of the Secretary General.
^This data seems to be more reliably based on survey data, quoted by Ozalp Sarica ("Provisionai
Turkish Administration". 1970. op. cit., p. 15.)
85 In seven out of eight successive censuses between 1881 and 1960, the Turkish Cypriot population
declined as a proportion of the total Cypriot population, from nearly 25% in the former census, to
18% in the latter.
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