THE CABINET yesterday approved a bill to allow Turkish Cypriots to marry in Cyprus, which will be tabled before parliament today.
Turkish Cypriots were ignored in a 1990 amendment allowing civil weddings for Greek Cypriots, forcing any Turkish Cypriot wishing to marry in south Cyprus, to convert to Christianity and do so in Church.
The issue shot to public attention last month when the government was forced to pay £8,000 in an out-of-court settlement to a Turkish Cypriot who had to go abroad to marry his Romanian bride in 1999 and then took the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
The government has since promised to pay the cost of a foreign wedding for Turkish Cypriots living in the free areas who wish to marry, until the pill is passed.
Speaking after the Cabinet meeting, Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said the Ministers had authorised Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou to table the bill before the House today.
Christodoulou yesterday met Vice-president of the United Democrat Party George Christofides to discuss the case of a Turkish and Greek Cypriot prevented from marrying for the last 10 years.
The Turkish Cypriot man and his Greek Cypriot partner have a 10-year-old child, but the law and lack of funds to travel abroad has prevented them from tying the knot.
Christodoulou has promised to cover the expenses of a wedding in Britain.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
