October
17, 2003
Turkish
Cypriot Citizenship for Settlers Becomes Contentious Campaign Issue
Washington,
D.C. - Several thousand Turkish Cypriots
staged a demonstration against what they alleged were attempts by the
Turkish Cypriot administration to illegally grant hasty citizenship in the
self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to large numbers
of Turkish nationals in the north to expand support for parties allied
with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash in the December 14 elections.
Turks
from the mainland generally support these parties, which back Denktashs
opposition to U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annans plan for the
reunification of Cyprus.
Under
Turkish Cypriot law, a person must live for at least five years in the
north before being eligible for TRNC citizenship.
The
demonstration was accompanied by a general strike called by 15 trade
unions and major opposition parties who have pledged to resume
reunification negotiations with Greek Cypriots on the basis of the Annan
plan if they win the elections.
Denktash
denied claims that TRNC citizenship was being granted to Turkish nationals
in northern Cyprus in an attempt to influence the elections. He said he
would have the election board investigate the allegations so there would
be no doubt cast over the elections.
A
senior Turkish Cypriot official, Serdar Denktash, stated that about 2,500
people had been granted Turkish Cypriot citizenship since July, and all of
them had been eligible to receive it.
Mustafa
Akinci, who heads the opposition Peace and Democracy Movement, has called
on the Turkish Cypriot supreme court to rule against the alleged illegal
naturalizations of mainland Turks.
In
August, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) agreed to accept a
lawsuit filed against Turkey by the opposition Patriotic Unity Movement,
claiming that Turkish nationals who had settled in northern Cyprus should
not be allowed to vote in the Turkish Cypriot elections since Ankara had
violated the Geneva Conventions by moving these individuals into the
region in order to change its demographics.
The
number of settlers from Turkey in northern Cyprus, estimated in 2001 to be
about 115,000, outnumber the 87,000 Turkish Cypriots. At the time of the
1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus in response to a Greek-inspired coup
against the democratically elected government, there were 118,000 Turkish
Cypriots in the country, comprising 18 percent of the total population
