Debate over the country's population

President Ersin Tatar's decision to reduce the country's population from 410,000 to 407,000 has sparked wide public resonance.

"Assessing the population of the country based on scientific data on garbage waste, 825,000 people reside in the TRNC," said Mayor of Kyrenia Murat Shenkul. "The daily volume of garbage in Kyrenia is 160-170 tons; accordingly, the projected population of the city is 155,000 people. We can make predictions based on these data. Stating that the daily volume of garbage in Northern Cyprus ranges from 800 to 900 tons, Shenkul said: 'In this case, we can predict a figure of 825,000 for the country's population.

"Like thinking about it and believing in incorrect data—it's better to make predictions based on scientific data," he said. "Let's take garbage, for example. 160-170 tons of garbage are collected and disposed of in specific areas daily in Kyrenia and approximately 800-900 tons of garbage across the TRNC territory. Since Turkey is the closest country to us in all respects, we can use data on waste disposal there as a basis. On average, one person produces 1.03 kilograms of waste per day.

According to this scientific calculation, we can predict the population of Kyrenia to be 155,000. "If we take the entire TRNC, take the average daily waste volume of 850 tons and divide it by 1.03 kilograms, we can easily predict that the number of people living in the TRNC will be approximately 825,000."