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CHAFTER 5: Re-establishing economic growth after war; a short
run story.
Related issues
It is important to consider the interplay of politics on the economie direction taken
by the two communities as they began their regionally distinct economic life. The
choices and direction of economic development, both contrasted and reflected
politicai realities. In the short run, large numbers of Turkish-Cypriots displaced
from the south were resettled in rural areas in the north and in agriculture,
seemingly to consolidate Turkish military advances. Many rural Greek-Cypriots
displaced from their farms in the north, were temporally settled in and around urban
areas, where they increasingly found work in factories or on building sites,
reflecting the desired impermanence of de facto changes.
After the events of 1974, the Turkish-Cypriot leaderships' long term politicai
aspirations had been achieved. Their main outstanding politicai objective was to
consolidate; develop de jure from de facto status, for the separate and newly
continuous région under their control. Effectively, the island's minority community
now had access to abundant land and fixed capital resources 1 . Its subsequent policy
of assimilating its displaced population to land and labour applications was as much
to do with politicai as economic objectives. After 1974, politicai motives converged
with attempts to stimulate economic growth in the areas under Turkish-Cypriot
1 Scott J. "Property Values; Ownership, Legitimacy and Land Markets in Northern Cyprus", in
HannC.M. 1998. Property Relations: Renewing the Anthropological Tradition. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, p. 147.
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