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The co-operative movement in general, and the Co-operative Central Bank in
particular, were highly strategie institutions during the transition to a separate
Turkish-Cypriot economy. In the aftermath of 1974, co-operative institutions coordinated
by The Ministry of Resettlement, the CTCCB and lubricated by Turkish
finances, channelled Turkish-Cypriot development along a designated path, repopulating
an ethnically cleansed région at the same time as it re-commenced
economic activity in one of the régions three main sectors, agriculture. The
continued pervasiveness of both central and locai co-operative institutions, suggests
that these Substitutes for free market activity have sueeeeded in providing for the
transition of a constrained, primitive economy based in fortified refugee camps into
something vastly more complex and superior. They have done this while also
providing an element of continuity. If the recent performance of the industrial and
commercial divisions of the CTCCB is représentative of something more
widespread, then there were costs involved in confining an economy within an
improvised institutional framework, essentially designed and expanded to fulfil short
term necessities and politicai objectives.
The economic role of organised religión
New state sector companies were created to re-establish economic activity in the
north, abandoned by most of its workforce and managers. The co-operative
movement assisted this process, concentrating on the key agricultural sector. The
co-operative movement also provided continuity with the past. Another important
economic institution which could likewise assist in the economic adjustment
process, aiding re-development with management skills and financial capital, whilst
also providing some continuity, was the religious foundation, Evkaf.
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