I was treated like a second class citizen

Sir,
I was born in Cyprus in the Larnaca district in a village called Kalo-Khorio, and I have been living in England since 1975. I have been a British citizen for the past 23 years.

I began to visit Cyprus in 1990, and I was always treated deferentially by immigration officers. I was always asked how long I was going to stay and where I was going to stay. But when the visa requirement was abolished for all the countries in the EU, for three years I have been treated same as other British citizens: no more questions were asked.

On November 22, however, on my departure I was stopped at the immigration desk at Larnaca Airport and asked if I was a Turkish Cypriot. Then I was asked when I had arrived in Cyprus and where I had stayed. I protested and asked to see his superior. When I explained that this hadn’t happened for the past three years, I was told that it should have happened — but that immigration officers had not seen in my passport that I was a Turkish Cypriot. They could see no problem in treating me as a second class citizen.

I would like to know from the Cyprus government why I, a Turkish Cypriot holding a British EU passport, am treated like a second class citizen. Is this government policy or not?

I am all for a united Cyprus — as long we get treated the same as Greek Cypriots. But I understand the fear of 50 per cent of those Turkish Cypriots who do not want a united island. We have been treated like a second class citizens in the past, and I have been treated like a second class citizen just recently. Will we still get second class treatment in future in a united Cyprus?

Please clarify the situation: is this government policy? If it is not I am owed an explanation. I thought, as I am of Cypriot origin, that I would get better treatment than ordinary British subjects or other EU citizens. But instead I was treated worse — like a second class citizen.
Ilkay Bati Hussein,
London