NICOSIA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish security forces used teargas to disperse Turkish Cypriot stock-farmer protestors against economic hardship, eyewitnesses said on Friday.
The Turkish Cypriot protestors tried to cross the dividing line in a bid to get support from Greek Cypriots in their strive to get help from the authorities in the north to offset runaway inflation resulting from the depreciation of the Turkish lira.
Turkish Cypriot media reported that the stock-farmers had been engaged in many hours of talks with authorities running the Turkish occupied part of Cyprus, trying to keep barley prices low, but their leader complained that "they are talking only in terms of cents."
After several hours of failed talks on Thursday and Friday, the farmers moved towards the line dividing the capital Nicosia into Greek and Turkish sectors, saying they wanted to cross over and join their Greek Cypriot colleagues.
They shouted slogans saying "we want our salaries in euros, we are going to the south", and "we want to sell our milk in euros".
Witnesses said that just 100 meters from the crossing point security forces moved against them and used teargas to disperse the crowd.
Turkish Cypriot "Dialogue" newspaper reported that one of its journalists covering the event fainted and was taken to hospital by ambulance.
After leaving the crossing point area the stock-farmers headed towards the "embassy" of Turkey.
They were prevented from reaching the building and clashed with security forces before heading to the "ministry of agriculture" to protest the effects of the plummeting of the Turkish lira.
Turkish Cypriot, along with tens of thousands of settlers from Turkish mainland, leave secluded in the northern area of Cyprus, which Turkey occupied in 1974, in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece.
