Cyprus-Forum.com

[pantheman]

It is unconstitutional for Greek Cypriots to be granted entry to Turkey with RoC passports and for Turkish Cypriots to be denied entry with the same passports. This affair has probably opened a huge can of worms.

Article 10 of the Turkish constitution reads:

"All individuals are equal without any discrimination before the law, irrespective of language, race, colour, sex, political opinion, philosophical belief, religion and sect, or any such considerations.

No privilege shall be granted to any individual, family, group or class.

State organs and administrative authorities shall act in compliance with the principle of equality before the law in all their proceedings."

Welcome to modern Turkey Tim, really. are you that surprised???

You, I and everyone else knows Turkey does not give a hoot about any law, least of all its own, so don't let this worry you, it is standard barbarian practice. After all in Kiks own words, "If you can't fuck a friend , who can you fuck..."

Have a nice day, thank you.

Sorry, I will have to beg to differ with you there. I lived in Turkey for 12 years, and ran a business there for some time. I translate Turkish legal documents for a living these days. In my opinion, the rule of law works as well in Turkey as it does elsewhere.

Mate, makes no difference how long you were incarcerated for, I know what you do, i have seen your website, but you still felt the need to quote the constitutional law right? Why? because it is not being followed right? So I beg to differ actually.

[Piratis]

if the following statement from the original article is true:

"Greek Cypriots have been free to travel to and from Turkey without restriction since 2003."

This means that the Republic of Turkey now accepts RoC passports. So in theory (even if they are unlikely to do so) could TCs enter Turkey on their RoC passports?

Yes Tim...Republic of Turkey now accepts RoC passports as long as the passport holder has a christian name..
Turkish Cypriots are not allowed to travel to/from Turkey with a ROC passport unless they have a TRNC passport...ROC passport is accepted by airlines and Turkish immigration for satisfying visa requirements of the destination countries.

I suppose on RoC passports it must also state whether the holder is a Greek Cypriot or a Turkish Cypriot. RoC identity cards provide this information, don't they? On mine it reads "Alien".

On my ID and passport it doesn't say anything like that. Maybe you have somehting different because you are not a citizen.

Sorry, I will have to beg to differ with you there. I lived in Turkey for 12 years, and ran a business there for some time. I translate Turkish legal documents for a living these days. In my opinion, the rule of law works as well in Turkey as it does elsewhere.

And that is why they have such laws as Article 301. To overwrite all other laws and human rights whenever they see fit.

[Tim Drayton]

if the following statement from the original article is true:

"Greek Cypriots have been free to travel to and from Turkey without restriction since 2003."

This means that the Republic of Turkey now accepts RoC passports. So in theory (even if they are unlikely to do so) could TCs enter Turkey on their RoC passports?

Yes Tim...Republic of Turkey now accepts RoC passports as long as the passport holder has a christian name..
Turkish Cypriots are not allowed to travel to/from Turkey with a ROC passport unless they have a TRNC passport...ROC passport is accepted by airlines and Turkish immigration for satisfying visa requirements of the destination countries.

I suppose on RoC passports it must also state whether the holder is a Greek Cypriot or a Turkish Cypriot. RoC identity cards provide this information, don't they? On mine it reads "Alien".

On my ID and passport it doesn't say anything like that. Maybe you have somehting different because you are not a citizen.

Sorry, I will have to beg to differ with you there. I lived in Turkey for 12 years, and ran a business there for some time. I translate Turkish legal documents for a living these days. In my opinion, the rule of law works as well in Turkey as it does elsewhere.

And that is why they have such laws as Article 301. To overwrite all other laws and human rights whenever they see fit.

I detest the new Turkish penal code.

[Nikitas]

Under Eu regulations it is not permitted to state any information about the holder's religion or ethnic origin. There was a big hullaballoo in Greece a few years ago when the religion of the holder was taken off the ID card. The church organized a rally attended by several hundred thousand people who demanded that the ability to state the religion should be retained as an option. It could not and so it was abolished.

Obviously this is what applies now in the RoC but is a totally alien concept for the Turkish authorities who are stuck on "Turkishness" and all that nonsense.

As for building long term confidence and reconciliation I think that the ability to understand each other'slanguage is important. Speaking is not necessary. Firstly because it is more difficult and time consuming to learn pronunciation and the retention of syntax etc. Secondly the act of speaking the other language might be emotionally taxing for some, whereas simply understanding it is more palatable.

Further, and this is not my idea, seeing first hadn the way a language is constructed, ie how sentences are put together, will give insights into each other's way of thinking. When I came across this notion I looked up literal translations of Turkish, and was surprised at the relative simplicity of Turkish and the comparative complexity of Greek. This is not a qualitative garding of the two languages, just an observation.