TRNC residents more depressed and angry, less hopeful for the future - Study

People living in the TRNC are more depressed, more angry and less hopeful for the future than they were in June, a new study has claimed. 

The latest quarterly telephone-based questionnaire with a sample of 500 people by the Centre on Migration, Identity and Rights Studies (CMIRS), conducted in September, also revealed that fewer people thought North Cyprus was a “liveable” country.

The gloomy picture was partially tempered, however, by a large decrease in those who believed personal and national economic conditions would worsen.

According to the survey results,the proportion of respondents who said they felt “hopeless” stood at 31.2 per cent, up from 23.25 per cent in June.

The percentage of those who “often felt depressed” rose from 17.2 per cent to 26 per cent over the same period.

Just under a third (32.6 per cent) said they felt “angry” in September, a rise from 23 per cent three months earlier.

The TRNC’s “liveability score” fell from 5.93 to 5.62, out of a maximum of 10.

When asked to assess economic conditions, the study revealed that the rate of those who believe their own financial circumstances will get worse in the coming years fell from 54.57 per cent to 37.57 per cent.

Members of the public were also less pessimistic about the TRNC’s economic outlook, although more than half (57.65 per cent) still believed its economy would deteriorate, compared to nearly 70 per cent of respondents in June.

The proportion of those believing that “things are moving in the wrong direction” dropped from 80.75 per cent to 69.48 per cent.

CMIRS director Mine Yücel put the slightly more positive attitude down to reduced anxiety of the state of the Turkish lira, following last year’s crisis which saw a steep fall in its value against major foreign currencies.

People living in North Cyprus were becoming more “apolitical” due to the “ineffectiveness” of successive governments in “solving the many problems in the country, she added.

Source: Cyprus Online Today