Northern Cyprus citizenship

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Northern Cyprus

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
Northern Cyprus

See also: Politics of Cyprus
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Naturalized TRNC (Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) Citizens are persons granted TRNC Citizenship by the Government of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey and Nakhichevan

Contents

[edit] Republic of Cyprus viewpoint

It has been the policy of the de facto TRNC to encourage non-Greek immigration to northern Cyprus. This was decided upon shortly after the UDI in order to increase their numbers vis-a-vis the population of the Greek-Cypriots in the Republic of Cyprus. Most of the immigrants come from the Anatolia region of Turkey, though a few others from the United Kingdom do come to live in the TRNC in order to take advantage of property sales. No immigration is permitted however that would threaten the demographic status of the ethnic Turkish majority. The Government of the Republic of Cyprus views the TRNC immigration policy as a means to upset the island's demographics, and as a theft of Greek-Cypriot owned property. They therefore officially regard any naturalized TRNC citizens as 'illegal settlers', who would be subject to deportation in the event of Cypriot reunification. With this in mind, the Republic of Cyprus refuses to allow any naturalized TRNC citizen to visit the Republic of Cyprus, and this extends to tourists from non-EU countries who arrive in Cyprus on the TRNC side as they regard any TRNC seaport or airport as an unlawful port of entry. Furthermore, the government of the Republic of Cyprus[1] considers the TRNC's immigration policy to be in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 ("Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War"), which prohibits the transfer by an occupying power of its own civilian population into the territory it is occupying. Also, in Resolutions 33/15 (1978), 24/30 (1979) and 37/253 (1983), the United Nations General Assembly deplored "all unilateral actions that change the demographic structure of Cyprus".[1]

[edit] Practical difficulties

As the TRNC passport is not recognised by most national governments (much like the republic itself), naturalised TRNC citizens have to resort to other nations' passports in order to travel internationally. Actually many Turkish Cypriots who born in Cyprus with parents who can trace their Cypriot and legal residence before the partition applied and took a Cypriot passport from the recognised Republic of Cyprus. Despite that and because of the abandon of the Republic of Cyprus as a Turkish Cypriot community since 1963, none of them can be elected in elections of the legal state.

[edit] Recent policy changes

In 2005, the unrestricted immigration policy for Turkish migrants was tightened up, following an increase in both crime and unemployment. In the wake of this new policy, a number of Turkish migrants have been deported and immigration procedures made more cumbersome so that the TRNC can better screen migrant applicants. Turkey itself regards the TRNC policy change as a heavy-handed reaction, thus causing the first major area of disagreement between the TRNC and Turkey.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Illegal demographic changes (HTML). The Cyprus question. Retrieved on 2007-02-21.