POPULATION STATISTICS IN CYPRUS - IN THE MIST OF STATISTICS

Different from ''normal'' demographic patterns in other countries, the structure and development of population in Cyprus is a matter of high political relevance. Similar to the latest tragic developments in former Yugoslavia, numbers and structure of population, its ethnic composition and geographic distribution has been determined by war, dislocation and resettlement. In Cyprus, especially the refugees of the 1974 invasion and the planned settlement of Anatolian population in the years following have attracted the interest of the international media. The latter fact has been repeatedly condemmed by the Greek Cypriot side as ''demographic adulteration''. Whereas this fact is hardly to deny, the number of settlers from Turkey represent a matter provocating a real ''war of figures'' between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides. In general, data concerning population in Cyprus are functionalized as weapons in the struggle of the respective political classes and therefore more than once even manipulated. The article follows two objectives: First, to uncover the motives, strategies and techniques of statistical and argumentative manipulation. Second, the authors try to draw a realistic picture of recent demographic developments in Cyprus by using all available data as objectively as possible. Parallel to the interest of international institutions like the United Nations and the Council of Europe in analyzing the demographic structures in Cyprus, the study is focusing on the demography in the ''Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus''. It is emphasized that the demographic question until today represents one of the major obstacles in the search for a political solution of the Cyprus problem.