‘NEW PATH TO CITIZENSHIP’
‘Automated’ process could enable foreign residents to become citizens
“RADICAL” new changes to the way citizenship is granted could be on the way, the TRNC’s new Deputy Prime Minister has told CyprusToday.
Erhan Arıklı spoke exclusively to this newspaper after taking up his new post on Thursday.
Dr Arıklı, who is also chairman of the Rebirth Party (YDP), said one of his top priorities will be to make changes to the citizenship law to enable foreign residents to become citizens through an “automated” system.
“This is an ongoing problem of the country,” he said. “We recognise that there are foreign residents – irrespective of their country of origin – who own property and pay their taxes and love the TRNC, who are having to renew their residencies yearly.
“Our objective will be to pass new legislation that will take away the ‘discretion’ factor – that is, taking the matter away from the hands of politicians as to whether or not to grant citizenship to people, and placing it in the hands of legal certainty. It will restore trust and confidence in the country.”
Dr Arıklı added that there are “3,000 people who are eligible to become TRNC citizens through marriage who haven’t been granted citizenship, and 8,000 people in total who, despite having the right, have still not been granted citizenship”.
Asked if he was planning to meet expat groups to discuss the matter, Dr Arıklı said: “This will be a matter for the new Interior Minister [Kutlu Evren], however this is one of the key positions of the YDP.”
Human Rights lawyer and former foreign minister Emine Çolak said she would back a law to bring in an “automated system” for citizenship that is “just, reasonable and which conformed to universal human rights laws”.
“Unfortunately, at present, TRNC citizenship can be granted to people who do not fulfil the conditions through bribes, but is denied to those who are fully entitled,” she said.
“There will be a need for a country-wide debate on the sort of criteria that will be needed. I think a five-year period of residing in the country [to become eligible for citizenship] is reasonable.
“However it needs to be worked out in a manner that also protects the demographics of the country, which is indeed possible under human rights laws. There must not be discrimination based on nationality, age or gender.”
The Foreign Residents chairman Horst Gutowski, 71, and wife Monika, 74, who live in Lapta, moved to North Cyprus 16 years ago.
Mr Gutowski said that while he appreciated the idea of an “automated citizenship” system “it would be much better for the new government to look into how improvements can be made to long-term residency permits and abolish this yearly [renewal] requirement.
“It would be much better for all of us aged over 60 not to have to undergo annual permit procedures and running around,” he said.
“They should [instead] make long-term residency permit renewal
applications once every five years.
“However, for people who own property here and who have lived here for a long period of time, affording them the right to citizenship is a positive development.”
British Residents Society (BRS) chairman Peter Wilkins said it would be a “very radical move” for the TRNC to place the issue of citizenship “into a legally certain process based on set criteria”.
“It would show that the TRNC recognises the value of expats and foreign residents both economically and in other areas,” he said.
“The matter of citizenship had
actually been raised at the last BRS annual general meeting in July in the presence of Prime Ministry legal and political affairs director Serap Destegül Rediff, where then Prime Minister Ersin Tatar said he would back such a move to enable foreign residents to become citizens.
“This is fair and equitable and does relate to human rights. It also takes away the ‘discretionary factor’ from politicians and provides confidence and certainty.
“It is a positive development and we look forward to cooperating with the new government and put forward our views related to these and other issues.”
PRESIDENT Ersin Tatar approved on Wednesday the TRNC’s new list of ministers after the leaders of the National Unity Party (UBP), the Democrat Party (DP), and the Rebirth Party (YDP) agreed to form a coalition government.
The deal brought to an end weeks of wrangling after the previous UBP-People’s Party (HP) coalition collapsed in early October following the HP’s decision to withdraw from the government in protest at then prime minister Tatar’s surprise decision to reopen parts of the fenced-off town of Maraş.
UBP interim leader Hamza Ersan Saner, who is the new PM, presented his all-male cabinet to President Tatar on Wednesday for approval after his second attempt to form a government was successful. The names of the ministers were read out in Parliament on Thursday.
However the new administration is not expected to last more than 10 months, according to the text of a “government protocol” released on Wednesday.
It says that an early general election is planned for October 2021 and that the government’s priorities are to get the recently opened Emergency Hospital in Lefkoşa working “efficiently”; secure the supply of Covid-19 vaccines and start administering them to people in the “risk groups”; push the 2021 Budget through Parliament; create an “economic advisory board” to “overcome economic problems”; and sign a new “economic and financial assistance protocol” with Turkey.
Other aims include plans to make it easier for people with work permits to become citizens; “concluding” the Gazimağusaİskele-Yeniboğaziçi zoning plan; “standing up for our rights” in the Eastern Mediterranean; and continuing the process of reopening Maraş “in cooperation with the President and Turkey”.
The coalition government protocol also supports a two-state solution to the “Cyprus problem”.
There were familiar faces
among the “new” ministers, only two of whom have never run a government department before.
The two entering government for the first time are YDP leader Erhan Arıklı, who becomes Deputy Prime Minister and Economy and Energy Minister, and the DP’s Koral Çağman, who is the new Labour and Social Security Minister, replacing ousted Faiz Sucuoğlu.
Just last month Dr Sucuoğlu had been tipped to become the new UBP leader and prime minister before the party’s leadership race was cancelled.
Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu is once again Foreign Minister, replacing Kudret Özersay, who took over from him in 2018. It is Ertuğruloğlu’s third stint in the role, having served from 1998 to 2004 and from 2016 to 2018.
This time the 67-year-old, an
ardent supporter of TRNC recognition, is returning as a “technocrat” having previously stepped down from front-line politics.
Another person returning to his previous job is Kutlu Evren, who is Interior Minister for a second time, replacing the HP’s Ayşegül Baybars, who was the only woman in the previous Council of Ministers. Before the reshuffle Mr Evren was the Tourism and Evironment Minister, a post he only took up in June 2020 after Ünal Üstel was sacked following a furore over the decision to a grant a group of businessman from Turkey exemption from quarantine measures for a trip to North Cyprus.
But Mr Üstel was back in a job this week, making a return as the new Public Works and Transport Minister, taking the reins from the HP’s Tolga Atakan.
Dursun Oğuz has been shuffled from the Agriculture and Natural Resources Ministry portfolio to the Finance Ministry in place of Olgun Amcaoğlu, who is the new National Education and Culture Ministry, a post previously held by Nazım Çavuşoğlu who is now the Agriculture and Natural Resources Minister. DP leader Fikri Atatoğlu is Tourism and Environment Minister for the third time in his career. The only minister to keep his post is Ali Pilli, the Health Minister.
The new government commands 25 of the 50 seats in Parliament (UBP 20, DP three, YDP two) but it was not clear how it will be able to push legislation through Parliament as one of the UBP’s MPs, Hüseyin Özgürgün, has been in self-exile for a year after his immunity against prosecution was lifted.
However three of the nine HP MPs quit the party this week, becoming independents, raising speculation that they could support the coalition in Parliament on certain issues.
And while former DP leader Serdar Denktaş announced his resignation from the party earlier this year, he is still officially classed as a DP MP.
Speaking following his meeting with Mr Tatar, Prime Minister Saner said the new government would “take determined steps on every matter without delay”.
Stating that there was a “change of place” between ministers in the Cabinet, he said Mr Ertuğruloğlu “had an important place in the political party”.
Other ministers also issued statements following their appointments. Dr Arıklı claimed that up to 8,000 foreign nationals are eligible for TRNC citizenship, including 3,000 through marriage.
“We are determined to introduce a law that automates this [citizenship] process,” he said.
Mr Oğuz said he would “make use of the knowledge” of his predecessor, Mr Amcaoğlu.
Mr Amcaoğlu said he “was surprised” at being named the new National Education and Culture Minister and that he had not been consulted by Mr Saner.
Meanwhile People’s Party founder Özersay said the new coalition was a “makeshift” government “which will not go on for too long”.
“I do not believe that the community and even the supporters of the [political parties] will be able to stomach it,” he said.