Cyprus-Forum.com

[iceman]

Turkey barring Turkish Cypriots from travelling with Cyprus passports
By Jean Christou

TURKISH Cypriot holders of a Republic of Cyprus passport are not being allowed to exit Turkey for a third country unless they have a ‘TRNC’ passport, reports from the north said yesterday .

The new ‘rule’ came into effect from July 1 and Turkish Cypriots have complained they were not informed they needed a ‘TRNC’ passport to go on to another country.

A number of families going on holiday were not allowed to leave Turkey with their Cyprus passports and did not have ‘TRNC’ ones so they could exit ports and airports in Turkey.

Most Turkish Cypriots can enter Turkey with an identity card but if they want to travel further they need to show a passport to exit Turkey for third countries.

Thousands of Turkish Cypriots hold Republic of Cyprus passports which gives them free access to EU countries.

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

Ortam newspaper said the new rules were agreed between Turkey and the administration in the north, and had upset many Turkish Cypriots. It also pointed out that the move would probably just prompt more Turkish Cypriots to use Larnaca airport to leave the country.

Mehmet Cakici, chairman of the Social Democrat Party (TDP), was quoted yesterday in Afrika newspaper as saying the move was a restriction of the free movement of Turkish Cypriots.

The paper also said the Turkish Cypriot Travel Agents’ Union had issued a statement advising Turkish Cypriots to use a ‘TRNC’ passport when travelling in and out of Turkey.

Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer denied there had been an agreement with Turkey over Cyprus passports. He said the agreement concerned only the use of identity cards between the north and Turkey.

Asked about the difficulties being experience by some Turkish Cypriots when travelling through Turkey, Soyer said: “The practice of entering-exiting with an identity card is valid in the journeys between the TRNC and Turkey. The exit from Turkey for abroad is made with passport. Therefore, exit with the passport of the TRNC can be made,” he said.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2008

Correction to Cyprus Mail's header...Turkey has NOT barred TC's from Travelling with ROC passports..
By request of Soyer & Co administration,Turkish immigration have started asking people for a valid TRNC passport now.
Any TC with a valid TRNC passport (accompanied with a ROC to eliminate visa needs) can use Turkish ports for travel abroad.
Without a ROC passport or a Visa issued from the country of destination to the TRNC passport holder,Turkish immigration will not allow exit.
So,this means Turkey has not barred ROC passport holder TC's from travel they are simply trying to collect more revenue for Soyer & Co.
They know damn well once people exit Turkey they will not need to use the TRNC passoport.
(issue or renewal for a five year TRNC passport is 166YTL (approx €87 with today's rates)

by the way,non Turkish ROC passoport holders have no problem Traveling to or through Turkey.

I guess it will be Larnaca from now on to many TC's.( that is if Soyer & Co don't come up with a new way of taxing TC's for crossing the checkpoints)

[Tim Drayton]

Does this mean that TCs could still (if they wished) enter Turkey by showing a RoC passport, but may not exit Turkey again on this passport to travel to a third country? That is pretty weird.

[Paphitis]

So what happens if a TC only has a RoC passport?

[Tim Drayton]

So what happens if a TC has no other passport and only has a RoC passport?

As iceman says, the whole point is to force them to fork out for one.

The Turkish Cypriot trade unions are threatening an all-out general strike unless COLA continues to be paid at two-monthly intervals, and not at the six-monthly intervals that the government has proposed. Is this an attempt to find the cash for this?

[halil]

Does this mean that TCs could still (if they wished) enter Turkey by showing a RoC passport, but may not exit Turkey again on this passport to travel to a third country? That is pretty weird.

No Tim ,

TC's used to travel Turkey by İD (TRNC) or TRNC passports .From now on only we can travel to Turkey by TRNC passports .

İf you want to travel rest of the world . First u can get TRNC passport than you can apply to get Turkish Passport from the Turkish embassy in Nicosia .
With this Turkish Passport you can apply to get visa from other countries embassies .

What the TC's were doing . They were travelling to Turkey by their own TRNC İD's without problem . where they were landing end they were showing the ROC İD's or passports . This was saving them money for visas and all the formalities .

İ am agree with İceman , this one of the Soyer's government tricks to get money from us .

As long as Cyprus problem goes on we can have these kind of things .
Tim we had worse days than this before .

[Oracle]

But surely all these Turkish imposed restrictions, habits, customs, rules, settlers, troops, "laws" etc that are slowly being felt by the TC community .... must be better than any fantasies of possible nasty stuff from the GCs

[Nikitas]

The more I read about these tax tricks the more I understand some practices of the Greek tax system. Greeks have retained a lot of these Ottoman tricks, ie in order to do A you must have a certificate that you have complied with B and the certificate costs X Euros and takes so many days to get.

[Agios Ionas]

So TC's are effectively being held as POWs by the Turks and the 'TRNC' unless they 'pay up'? What's next? Penalties for those who choose to visit the RoC? Nice 'government' you have up there... and nice 'brothers' you got in Turkey as well.

Maybe now you'll see that you're victims of the Pan-Turkism and nothing but pawns in a bigger game? Your safety back in 1974 was just an excuse for Turkey to do something they had planned for a long time.

Maybe it's time to make a choice whether you want to be secondary citizens being dominated by mainland Turks and their cronies or choose to be free Cypriots being embraced by the EU.

Seriously... I can't understand why someone would keep supporting a 'government' who seem to have no other goal than to rip you off and leave you high and dry.

You'd be better off betting your money on EU and the GC's because most of us definitely want you to kick out the Turks, join us, settle the differences and property issues and get on with our lives hand in hand.

[Tim Drayton]

Does this mean that TCs could still (if they wished) enter Turkey by showing a RoC passport, but may not exit Turkey again on this passport to travel to a third country? That is pretty weird.

No Tim ,

TC's used to travel Turkey by İD (TRNC) or TRNC passports .From now on only we can travel to Turkey by TRNC passports .

İf you want to travel rest of the world . First u can get TRNC passport than you can apply to get Turkish Passport from the Turkish embassy in Nicosia .
With this Turkish Passport you can apply to get visa from other countries embassies .

What the TC's were doing . They were travelling to Turkey by their own TRNC İD's without problem . where they were landing end they were showing the ROC İD's or passports . This was saving them money for visas and all the formalities .

İ am agree with İceman , this one of the Soyer's government tricks to get money from us .

As long as Cyprus problem goes on we can have these kind of things .
Tim we had worse days than this before .

Yes, but 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?

[Oracle]

So Turkey may be trying to please the EU by recognising the RoC, but squeezing the TCs to get them to take some responsibility and finally come to their senses to oppose Turkey's presence so that Turkey can find that face-saving method they have been looking for to withdraw from Cyprus and leave the TCs where it found them ....

TCs ... I think Turkey is hinting it has had enough of nurturing you .... come back to mamma RoC