NICOSIA – The prototype of a new car, the Gunsel, has been produced in a Turkish-Cypriot enterprise on the occupied northern third, with officials there hailing the achievement after almost four years of work by the Near East University.

The electric-powered B9 and SUV-type J9 were unveiled at a ceremony in Kyrenia, which Turkey calls Girne, with Ersin Tatar, self-declared premier of a republic recognized only by Turkey, which invaded in 1974, and which has a 35,000-strong on the occupied side.

Tatar said the car would put Turkish-Cypriots on the map, if only in a business sense with the Turkish pro-government The Daily Sabah newspaper reporting he said that, “We are the descendants of a successful nation that embraces and glorifies our state.”

Also speaking at the ceremony, Turkey’s Ambassador Ali Murat Basceri congratulated everyone and said the automobile would produce an industry there and would also create electric power and network technologies.

The car is named for Suat Gunsel, the founding rector of the university. In English, it’s a slang word meaning criminal with a gun.