TRNC Representative Office to the United States

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The Representative Office of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in Washington, D.C. is the de facto embassy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to the United States.

[edit] Status

As the United States does not officially recognize the TRNC as an independent country, the mission does not have formal diplomatic status under the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. As such, the United States Department of State does not have the TRNC flag as part of its collection of national flags (denoting nations with which the USA has diplomatic relations with) at its headquarters at Foggy Bottom, nor does the President of the United States accept credentials from the head of mission.

[edit] Ranking Diplomat

Hilmi Akil serves as the current de facto TRNC Ambassador (officially regarded as the Washington D.C. Representative of the Turkish Cypriot Community). He succeeded Osman Ertuğ, who served as the TRNC representative from 2002 to 2007.

[edit] Further information

As well as representing the TRNC, this office supervises the other TRNC Representatives and Honorary Representive offices in the United States (these serve as de facto Consulates-General and Honorary Consulates, with the exception of the TRNC Representative Office in New York, which is the TRNC's unofficial mission to the United Nations).

Objections to the presence of this office by the internationally recognized government of the Republic of Cyprus are countered by the fact that as the mission - and its staff - has no official diplomatic status. Under United States law, the presence of the mission is not illegal as it is regarded simply as an information center run by persons with non-diplomatic visas and as such does not imply formal recognition of the TRNC by the United States.