Saving Turkish Cypriots...

Hurrah... Once again Turkey extended its generous helping hand and salvaged Turkish Cypriots from an economic collapse. Deputy Prime Minister Tu?rul Türke? - a Turkish Cypriot from his late father Alparslan Türke? - signed a 62.5-million-Turkish-Lira check to save the Turkish Cypriot economy days before the start of the new year, though on the island the leader of the majority party of the left-right coalition was telling news people that disagreement with Ankara over the administration of water Turkey provided through a suspended pipeline might turn into an unthinkable full-fledged crisis between the Turkish Cypriot and Turkish governments. 

Really?

It has become some sort of a tradition for Turkey, despite all the rhetoric and indeed efforts to build a self-sustainable economic system in Turkish Cyprus, to salvage the Turkish Cypriot budget from the verge of bankruptcy almost every yearend. Do Turkish wage earners receive a 13th salary? They are even unaware of such a payment. Repetitive Turkish Cypriot governments have all hinted at the possibility of giving up the application of 13th salary, a tax-free additional check at an amount equal to around 1.4 the monthly wage distributed every year sometimes in December or January. Yet, neither the conservatives nor the socialists could walk that very difficult road that might end with considerable decrease in their votes. After all, is it not a fact that directly or indirectly some 60 percent of Turkish Cypriots are on the public pay roll?

An economy which is not self-sustainable or surviving every year on loans from Turkey - a penny of which has not been so far paid back - should perhaps have given up the 13th salary practice long ago, as the Greek Cypriots on the southern side of the Cyprus...

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