The north’s ruling coalition on Tuesday issued a decree stipulating that Turkish Cypriot public sector workers will not be paid the cost-of-living allowance until next year at the earliest after this month, hours after failing to pass a bill to do the same through the Turkish Cypriot legislature.

The legislature had been in session from Monday afternoon until the early hours of Tuesday morning, with Turkish Cypriots staging a general strike on Monday, blocking key roads through northern Nicosia and descending on the legislature building in their thousands.

With proceedings underway in the legislature, 62 trade unions and civil society organisations announced their intention to continue the general strike into Tuesday and once again march on the legislature.

However, when ‘parliament speaker’ Ziya Ozturkler adjourned the session without the bill having been put to a vote in the early hours of Tuesday morning, and then announced that the legislature would not sit on Tuesday so as to allow for talks on the future of the cost-of-living allowance to go ahead, the unions also pulled back.

They announced their willingness to engage in talks with the coalition, and also cancelled the strike and the march planned for Tuesday.

At midday on Tuesday, the coalition then issued the decree, with ‘labour minister’ Oguzhan Hasipoglu appearing on the north’s public broadcaster BRT to defend the decision, saying that attempting to pass the bills through the legislature would have taken too much time, with Tuesday the last day of the month.

“There are 11 bills. The opposition party’s MPs requested to speak on all of them. If it were to be like this, the sitting would have continued until Wednesday or Thursday. From a financial and technical standpoint, it should have been implemented today,” he said.

He then promised that the issue “will not remain a matter of a decree”, and said that “bills will be passed”, and that “discussions will continue in parliament next Monday”.

Additionally, he said that if the coalition had not acted to cut the cost-of-living allowance, deeper problems would have arisen.

“If we had not taken precautions during this crisis, if the government had not had this foresight, we would have fallen into the same mistake that the CTP made years ago, and we would have been unable to pay salaries. We have not forgotten those days. As of now, no one’s pocket has been touched,” he said.

He also called on those opposed to the coalition’s plans to take stock of the current geopolitical climate and the conflict in the region.

“We are not living in Los Angeles or in Miami. We are in the heart of the Middle East, and we had to take these measures,” he said.

His mention of the CTP is a reference to 2013, when a CTP-led ruling coalition paid public sector salaries late, though similar late payments had also occurred with Hasipoglu’s party the UBP in power, most notably when it was in power without coalition partners between 2009 and 2013 in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

The CTP’s current leader Sila Usar Incirli, however, was less than impressed by the ruling coalition’s actions, saying, “this is blatant political fraud”.

“This is deception of the public. This is a hammer-blow to the democratic process. The government has now collapsed politically. It has completely lost its legitimacy and credibility in the eyes of the public. This country has no more time to lose. There is no way out other than early elections,” she said.

Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman, meanwhile, who typically sits above domestic politics in keeping with his role, was also scathing of the coalition.

“This is decree with the force of law which shatters the very thing we need most in terms of constitutional order, relations within the state structure, and most importantly in crisis management, trust,” he said.

He also pointed out that in his role, he is “obliged to ensure respect for the constitution and the uninterrupted and orderly conduct of public affairs”, and as such, said that it is “impossible” for him to remain “indifferent”, given that the issuing of the decree took place “behind the backs of all segments of society, including the institutional structure of the state”.

As such, he said, “this will not be ignored”.