The north’s religious affairs director Ahmet Unsal was sacked on Thursday.

The news was confirmed by ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, who told news website Gundem Kibris that Unsal will officially leave the post on February 1.

Reports of Unsal’s sacking were first published by news website Bugun Kibris, which claimed that Ustel had raised the matter during his most recent visit to Ankara in December.

The website reported that Ustel had “conveyed to [Turkish President] Recep Tayyip Erdogan and [Vice President] Cevdet Yilmaz that [Unsal] had caused problems among religious officials, that lawsuits had been filed against him, and that he was perceived negatively by the public”.

As such, Erdogan and Yilmaz acquiesced to Ustel’s proposal to relieve Unsal of his duties.

Unsal was appointed as religious affairs director in 2021, and found himself at the centre of controversy in January 2023 after telling a seminar in Famagusta what he believed an “acceptable wife” should do, with one of those things being that “you must accept your husband’s invitation to bed”.

He also criticised women for having cats and jobs, and said women should “stay away from all men except their husbands”.

On the matter of marriage, he said, “marriages are expensive now, ladies are very expensive. You used to be able to buy four, so if one woman wasn’t enough, there would be three more”.

Additionally, he said, “Allah loves his married servant more than his single servant, and the thing Allah hates most is divorce”.

The fiercest criticism came from opposition political party CTP ‘MP’ Dogus Derya, who called for him to be “immediately sacked”, and insisted that “Cypriot women do not ask men how many children they have, what job they will do, whether they will get divorced, or who they will spend time with”.

“Because of your reactionary mentality, Turkey has become a country where three women are killed every day. We will not allow you to impose your bigoted lifestyle on women or on this country,” she added.