North Cyprus ‘should change to right hand drive: TRNC’s ‘parliament speaker

Cars in the north should drive on the right hand side of the road, the TRNC’s ‘parliament speaker’ Zorlu Tore said.

Speaking on Turkish television, Tore said tourists travelling to north Cyprus struggle to deal with driving as traffic flows in the opposite direction to most countries.

“This British law should be changed, traffic should drive on the right hand side,” he said, adding that the TRNC’s authorities “must start working on this”.

Pointing out that cars in Turkey drive on the right hand side, he added that, “I want to integrate with Turkey in every aspect.”

Tore’s intervention drew ridicule from opposition party CTP leader Tufan Erhurman, who wrote on social media, “should traffic flow on the right or the left in our country? We have started to see the benefits of the intense foreign contacts of our statesmen!”

“The most serious problems our country faces are being brought to the agenda. Solution proposals are being developed. What more could we possibly want?” he asked.

Cyprus is one of 76 countries and territories around the world in which cars drive on the left hand side of the road, compared to 163 in which cars drive on the right hand side.

Additionally, Cyprus is one of just three European Union member states in which cars drive on the left, the other two being Malta and the Republic of Ireland.

The island’s left-hand traffic is a remnant of its former status as a colony of the British Empire.

During the 20^th century, a number of countries switched to right-hand traffic so as to easier facilitate transport and trade with the growing majority of countries across the world. Yemen was the most recent country to do so, switching to right-hand traffic in 1977.

However, the only country to switch its direction of traffic this century is Samoa, which switched to left-hand traffic in 2009 to be able to import cheaper cars from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.