Northern Cyprus Citizenship - Republic of Cyprus Viewpoint

Republic of Cyprus Viewpoint

It has been the policy of the de facto state Northern Cyprus to encourage non-Greek immigration into the country. It has also been the policy of the Republic of Cyprus to do the same thing since taking advantage of British occupation of Cyprus. This was decided upon shortly after the Declaration of Independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in order to increase their numbers vis-a-vis the population of the Greek-Cypriots in the Republic of Cyprus. Most of the immigrants come from the Anatolia region of Turkey, though a few others from the United Kingdom do come to live in Northern Cyprus in order to take advantage of property sales. No immigration is permitted however that would threaten the demographic status of the ethnic Turkish majority. The Government of the Republic of Cyprus views the immigration policy of Northern Cyprus as a means to upset the island's demographics, and as a theft of Greek-Cypriot owned property. It is the policy of the Republic of Cyprus to refuse naturalized Northern Cyprus citizens entry into the Republic of Cyprus through the Green Line checkpoints, since they have entered into Cyprus through what is considered as an unlawful port of entry. So the refusal of entry to the Republic mainly applies to the Turkish settlers, as Turkish citizens of Turkey are permitted to enter the Republic of Cyprus, but only through the lawful ports of entry. However, naturalized British citizens of Northern Cyprus own British passports anyway, so they are not affected by this policy. The Republic of Cyprus has declared any Northern Cyprus seaport or airport as an unlawful port of entry; however, in practice, Ercan airport is used as the principal civilian airport of Northern Cyprus, and the same applies to the ports of Famagusta and Kyrenia. Furthermore, the government of the Republic of Cyprus considers the immigration policy of Northern Cyprus to be in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 ("Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War"), which prohibits the transfer by an occupying power of its own civilian population into the territory it is occupying. Also, in Resolutions 33/15 (1978), 24/30 (1979) and 37/253 (1983), the United Nations General Assembly deplored "all unilateral actions that change the demographic structure of Cyprus".