The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Representative Office is a commercial enterprise of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and is operating in the United States. The United States does not formally recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The staff of the Representative Offices do not have diplomatic visas and only operate within the United States using business visas. It is located at 1667 K Street, Northwest in Washington, D.C. The Representative Office in New York City is the de facto mission of the TRNC to the United Nations Organization (as well as a de facto Consulate-General).
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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 in Foggy Bottom, nor does the President of the United States accept credentials from the head of mission.
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.
Kemal Gökeri serves as the current de facto TRNC Chief of Mission (officially regarded as the Representative of the Turkish Cypriot Community in New York City), succeeding Reşat Çağlar in January 2007.
American Attorney Athan Tsimpedes is currently coordinating legal action against this Representative Office claiming that it is operating as a commercial enterprise and has been selling stolen properties owned by British citizens.[1][2][3][4] The same attorney is also co-ordinating a class action against Northern Cyprus for Greek Cypriots to be compensated for loss of use of their properties since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.[5][6]
Both the British High Commission in Cyprus[7] and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have issued warnings regarding the purchase of property in northern Cyprus.[8]
As well as representing the TRNC, this office supervises the other TRNC Representatives and Honorary Representative 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 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.
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