A total of five people were arrested at a small protest held near the new official residence of Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, which is due to be officially opened by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

A small group of people had gathered at the “civil defence roundabout”, located at the northern end of a complex which also includes a new ‘parliament’ building, to express their disgust at Erdogan’s arrival and recent political developments in the north, which they view as Turkish interference in local politics.

After being stood on the roundabout for an hour, they were asked by the Turkish Cypriot police to move off the roundabout and away, but refused.

The police then moved in to remove the protesters by force, with conscientious objector Halil Karapasaoglu among those continuing to refuse to move.

He and four others were arrested and taken away from the scene in the back of a police van following a scuffle.

All of those arrested were released without charge on Saturday evening, but not before opposition political figures levelled criticism at the police for their handling of the situation.

Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci wrote in a post on social media that “even a peaceful action which does not contain insults or any violence is not allowed“.

“Shame on you for the point to which you have brought this,” he said, before adding, “the will is here”, in reference to the banner the protesters were holding before being arrested.

Ongun Talat, ‘MP’ for opposition political party the CTP and the son of former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, went further.

“Yet again, it is the TRNC’s police. Yet again, it is an intervention which has been found to be unlawful by the courts many times before. Yet again, demonstrators’ constitutional rights have been usurped and they have been detained because Erdogan is here,” he began.

As such, he called for the Turkish Cypriot police to be restructured. At present, it technically falls under the control of the ‘TRNC’s’ security forces command – the military. Talat said the police should instead be run by civilian authorities.