The high level of MPs’ salaries in the Northern Cyprus has once again come under scrutiny, after economist Engin Kara pointed out that Turkish Cypriot MPs earn more than their counterparts in the United Kingdom.
According to Kara, MPs in the Northern Cyprus receive £8,500 per month, compared to £7,825 paid to MPs in the UK.
Kara noted that while an MP’s salary in the UK is about 2.5 times the average income of £3,119, in the TRNC an MP earns roughly 8.1 times the minimum wage, which currently stands at £1,045.
He argued that this places the political elite in North Cyprus at a significantly higher income level than the rest of society, adding that the media, academia and civil society have become part of what he described as an institutional “rent-seeking coalition.”
Kara also stressed that even in the UK, which has the world’s sixth-largest economy, income inequality between the upper and lower classes is not as stark as in the Northern Cyprus, warning that such disparities have increasingly been normalized within Turkish Cypriot society.
( Source : Social media)
