By Jean Christou
BRITONS LIVING in the north have complained that the government was not allowing them to cross to the government-controlled areas.
However the government, the EU and the British High Commission said yesterday the prohibition on crossings by Britons and other EU nationals was not an issue.
Government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday: “It’s a question of internal illegality. If they haven’t entered through a legal port of entry they will not be allowed to come across.”
Britons who resided in the north or owned property there before 1974 are allowed to cross to the south.
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, one British woman living in Kyrenia said EU nationals were being turned away at the border “despite showing EU passports”.
“And this from a country who signed the Treaty of Accession in Athens ten days ago,” the letter said. “Is this the way a country that hopes to enter the EU in 2004 should treat citizens who are already members?”
During a press conference at the office of ‘TRNC’ at the weekend, ‘Deputy Prime Minister’ Serdar Denktash said one journalist with a British passport also complained that he could not cross to the south. Denktash pointed out that the EU acquis did not apply to the north of the island.
Both the British High Commission and the EU delegation in Nicosia yesterday said there was no onus on the Cyprus government to allow in anyone other than Turkish Cypriots and neither office would be raising this issue with the government.
“It’s up to the Greek Cypriots, who hold that these people are illegal immigrants into the country because didn’t come through a recognised port of entry and therefore are in Cyprus illegally,” said a High Commission spokesman.
“We accept the Cyprus Republic’s position on this. They are not legitimate ports of entry as far as the republic are concerned and the EU argument doesn’t apply because Cyprus has not joined yet.”
A spokesman for the EU delegation reiterated that the acquis would not be fully implemented until May 1, 2004 but also pointed out that even when Cyprus becomes a full member, the government would still retain the right to deal with issues of this nature. “It’s valid now and it will be valid later,” the spokesman said.
Diplomatic sources said that when Cyprus joins the EU it will have an obligation to control its borders.
“If the Cyprus government doesn’t have control over who enters the north, they have to put checks below that level,” he said. “If they can’t guarantee the integrity of the island as a whole they can guarantee the integrity of the part they control so they would have to put in some checks. They just can’t accept anyone the Turkish Cypriots accept because the EU doesn’t apply in the north as yet and it won’t apply when Cyprus joins unless there is a settlement.”
The diplomat added that those non-Cypriots should have known what they were doing when they went to live in the north. “If can prove they lived there before 1974 it would be a different issue but post-1974 it’s entirely up to the authorities to decide what they want to do,” he said.
