South sued over citizenships,
ABOUT 1,000 Turkish Cypriots are planning to sue South Cyprus for discrimination over its alleged refusal to grant them citizenship — and may take their fight to Europe.
The case concerns applicants with one Turkish Cypriot parent and one from Turkey or another country who have applied for “Republic of Cyprus” citizenship and either been refused or have not received an answer.
The action has been in the pipeline for months now, largely coordinated by TRNC senior and middle school teaching unions Ktös and Ktoeös.
“We are going to use all legal ways through the courts but also protests in front of Parliament and the presidential palace,” said Ktös general secretary Şener Elcil.
Hundreds attended a meeting on the issue at Lefkoşa’s Atatürk Cultural Centre on Thursday, organised by the unions.
Speaking during the meeting, Mr Elcil said there were thousands of applications submitted in the South for “Republic of Cyprus” citizenship, but in the case of “mixed” parentage the approaches had either been rejected or ignored. In the past, he added, there had even been cases where applicants had had to turn to bribes.
Mr Elcil said he had met with Greek Cypriot Ombudsman Maria Stylianou Lottides on the subject in November, but she had not been particularly helpful.
“She was afraid to even have a picture taken with us,” he said.
“That’s why we decided to join forces to fight against this unjust treatment.”
Both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot lawyers were present at the meeting to brief participants on the regulations regarding the granting of the citizenship.
One of the lawyers, Murat Hakkı, said he had agreed on principle to take on the case.
“Some children are being punished for having parents from mainland Turkey,” he said, adding: “The action or inaction of the Republic of Cyprus is [thus] discriminatory and an abuse of discretion.”
As the first step, Ktös plans to submit collective applications of similar cases to the Greek Cypriot Interior Ministry, to be followed by legal action — taking the case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary, said Mr Hakkı.