Lawyer claims results in ‘mixed marriage’ cases
A TURKISH Cypriot lawyer says he has achieved the first results from cases filed in Greek Cypriot courts by people born from “mixed marriages” who have been denied “Republic of Cyprus” ID cards and passports.
Murat Metin Hakkı said in a written statement that two of his clients had recently “won” their “administrative negligence” cases after Greek Cypriot authorities had for years ignored their “petitions” asking for citizenship.
Mr Hakkı explained that in a ruling made in case no. 944/18, filed with the Administrative Court in South Cyprus against the South’s interior ministry and the population registry department, Judge Komodromos said that “political uncertainty or [Cyprus problem] negotiations do not constitute an excuse for unanswered petitions”.
He noted that in another case concluded earlier this month, numbered 943/18 and involving an applicant who has an Egyptian father and a Turkish Cypriot mother, Judge Serafim said that “by leaving petitions unanswered beyond a reasonable amount of time” the Greek Cypriot authorities had been “found to have acted in violation of the law”.
Indicating that the next step will be to have the “official responses to citizenship petitions questioned as to whether or not they are in compliance with local or international law” in local courts, Mr Hakkı noted that applications to the European Court of Human Rights will be a “last option”.
Mr Hakkı added that more than 10,000 people are estimated to have been born from “mixed marriages” and that the Greek Cypriot administration’s refusal to grant them citizenship “limits the opportunity for children to receive education in European countries”.
He said that applications are being held up for “political reasons” and that there are people who “meet the criteria sought by the Greek Cypriots but were denied citizenship, as well as those who do not meet these criteria but have the right to citizenship according to international agreements and conventions”.