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I would like to discuss this issue as someone who is a part of the struggle put forth by the victims of mixed marriages, which the Republic of Cyprus has turned into a political issue and a stage for unlawful actions.
10 years ago, when we were expecting our child, my wife started a legal struggle so that ‘they would not experience the same kind of problems that she experienced’, and as someone who has been by her side in the struggle that she continues with patience and persistence, I will try to draw attention to the matter in terms of politics and law—without bringing emotional justifications to forth—and I will make an effort to help those who insist on clouding the issue, or ignoring it, understand the issue.
While those who insist on seeing the glass as half-empty try to explain the issue as granting citizenship to an individual from Turkey, or not, those who see the glass as half-full push us to look at the issue from the perspective of the child of a Cypriot.
The arrangement made by the Republic of Cyprus in 2007 to prevent Turkish Cypriots with a Turkish parent from earning citizenship affects, in my opinion, at least 20,000 people living on the island today. However, we learn from the meeting notes of the parliamentary Human Rights Committee that only around 3,000 people have officially applied for an identity card.
In recent months, the Greek Cypriot leadership—under the name of ‘democratic opening’—has been manipulating the issue, without addressing the real essence of it, with the lie of showing flexibility as if it is offering a favor to a part of the population which it granted citizenship to for years, according to the criteria of 2007, and which it has recently suspended.
The political leadership of the Republic of Cyprus, which does not comply with the criteria set out by the EU, which it is a member of, ignores the European Convention on Human Rights, which it signed in 1962, and further ignores the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, and sticks to an administration that is far from democracy, human rights and law.
We had made our application with the belief that the above paragraphs were sufficient for the Supreme Court to render a just decision. However, the fact that the Supreme Court took the case to its agenda only after five years reminded us of the legal principle that ‘justice delayed is justice denied’. It also raised the concern that ‘justice is politicized’.
We hear many stories of people who fight to find solutions to this political problem for which the law does not produce a remedy. I will try to convey how the issue has taken on a new dimension by giving just one example.
In the past, there were hundreds of new couples who got married in Turkey and gave birth to their children in Turkey. Because according to the Republic of Cyprus, being married and born in Turkey is more valuable than being born and living in Cyprus. Even many people whose grandparents, or grandmothers were Cypriots, and whose parents did not even know Cyprus, and did not see it as their homeland, are more Cypriot than a Turkish Cypriot who was born and raised in Cyprus by a Cypriot mother who was born and raised in Cyprus, and married a Cypriot.
In short, with the legal arrangement made to prevent those with Turkish origins from earning citizenship, the republic is acting contrary to its own policy to the extent of issuing Republic of Cyprus identity cards to citizens of the Republic of Turkey who have never been in Cyprus, who do not know Cyprus, and who do not consider themselves as Cypriots.
There are more tragedies to tell. After the addresses were made on Friday, we started to wait for the decision. Our struggle will continue on the path of law. While a negative decision will pave the way to the ECHR, I believe that a conclusion can be reached there with powerful arguments in terms of human rights.
This article was originally published on 24.02.2025
Source: THE STORY OF A CASE OF MIXED MARRIAGE
