THE GOVERNMENT yesterday denied all knowledge of reports that Turkish Cypriots were being forced to pay hefty fees to secure passports from the Republic, said a senior Interior Ministry official.
According to Politis newspaper, Turkish Cypriots wanting to acquire Cyprus Republic passports are forced to pay fees as high as £1,000 to Turkish Cypriot ‘Mafiosi’ and their associates in the government controlled areas.
The law states that any Turkish Cypriot wanting to require a passport must apply to the relevant Interior Ministry service in Nicosia. A group of Turkish Cypriots helped others cross over from the north, posing as workers, for a fee of £500-£1,000. They were then shuttled down to Nicosia in groups, where they were met by Greek Cypriot associates who obtained false documents for them, which are necessary in any citizens passport application (birth certificate and identity card). The reason Turkish Cypriots went along with this procedure, said Politis, was because anyone that applied through normal channels ran the risk of being turned over to Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash’s regime by Greek Cypriot accomplices.
But Interior Minister Andreas Panayiotou said he was not aware of such illegal practise.
“I don’t know where this information has come from,” he said. “Five or six months ago we had similar anonymous allegation made to us and we looked into them. A thorough police investigation uncovered nothing.”
“I have no way of knowing if in the occupied areas Turkish Cypriots are given false promises, but in the free areas there is no way this can happen since it a simple procedure to acquire a passport,” he pointed out. Panayiotou said Turkish Cypriots merely had to apply to their local authority with documents proving they were in fact Turkish Cypriot and that from that point on they were free to obtain a passport like all citizens of the Republic.
“I don’t see why such a gang should be in operation. There is no need for one in the government-controlled areas because it is easy to get a passport (here). I don’t know about the occupied areas,” he said.
If this phenomenon were true, however, it had to be “uprooted and crushed,” said Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou, who expressed his shock at the mere thought that such suspicions existed.
“The last thing we can accept is some people financially gaining from Turkish Cypriots’ political wish to see Cyprus united and to function like citizens of the Cyprus Republic,” he said, promising that the allegation would be investigated in depth.
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.
