Turkish Cypriot unions are demanding the resignation of top officials after two 16 year old school girls and a bus driver died in a road traffic accident.
The Turkish Cypriot platform of unions announced that they would be continuing with industrial action until the heads of the relevant offices in the TRNC resign and the time zone north of the island is put back one hour to implement Daylight Saving Time (DST).
The Turkish Cypriot public protested after a head-on collision took place between a school bus and a lorry on the Girne-Değirmenlik mountain road on Tuesday. The driver has been blamed for negligent driving, but many have taken to social media to condemn the government’s decision not to revert to DST and the state of the road where the accident occurred.
The collision took place just before 7am TRNC time, when visibility would have been poor.
The union platform issued a statement saying that from Friday evening and every evening onward, there will be a bonfire lit outside the coalition government offices and workers will stage a series of strikes on the day that the council of ministers meet. Separate demonstrations are also planned.
The statement read:
“The demonstrations will intensify until the head of the transport office, Kemal Durust, the head of education, Dr Ozdemir Berova, and the head of labour, Ersan Saner, resign,” read the statement which added that the protests “will continue on until the clocks are set back by one hour, implementing DST like the rest of Europe.”
Cyprus Weekly