I hit a car in front of me at the first traffic lights in north Nicosia while coming back from some work I was doing in Famagusta last Saturday. It was my fault and there is no doubt about it. But there were a few other factors:
a) There was no real damage to the car I hit except for few scratches
b) The owner of the car I hit was a policeman
c) I live in the south
d) I was driving a car with Turkish Cypriot plates it but was insured to drive it.
I called the owner of “my car”, and he said not to worry as the insurance would cover the damage. The police came. They looked around and had in their eyes this funny expression that said, “People are killing each other here every day and you are calling us for this”.
We went to the police station and this is where the real fun started. You see, the owner of the hit car wanted a new bumper…
A police officer came to me and said: “He is a trouble maker. But we explained to him that there is no way he would get a new bumper from the insurance. So he agreed that if you just give him some money, you will be allowed to go.”
“Wait a minute,” I answered, absolutely sure that there is no real money in this case anyway. “What do you mean? You have my insurance in front of you. Why should I give him cash if we can deal with it in a normal way?”
“Well, you see, you don’t live here. So even if there is insurance we can’t trust that it would be paid. So unless the real owner of the car comes here and vouches, we can’t let you cross to the south without settling.”
“But you do have the insurance and you have just talked to the car’s owner over the phone.”
“Never mind. We do not have a guarantee that on Monday he will confirm again. It is better to pay now. Otherwise we won’t allow you to go back”
Had a farewell coffee with a friend who just got a scholarship to do his MA in England. He is half Turkish Cypriot, half Turkish, born in Kyrenia, and we spent two hours discussing the situations he had to go thorough in order to obtain a passport of the Republic of Cyprus. And believe me, he needed one, as one of the sine qua nons of getting the scholarship was being a member of the EU.
Now, my friend is unlucky because according to the law of the Republic of Cyprus, a child of a mainland Turk and a Turkish Cypriot is entitled to the citizenship only if the parents can prove that they met and married abroad. If they married in Cyprus, as my friend’s parents did, this means that the Turkish part of the family came here as a settler and therefore has no rights whatsoever. But, after all, my friend had some luck. After several interventions, a new category of the citizenship has been created. It is for children of mixed marriages between Turkish mainlanders and Turkish Cypriots who, although married in Cyprus, can prove that they had met and fell in love while studying in Turkey. In order to fit the profile, one has to supply the pictures of the parents together studying, wining and dining in Ankara or Istanbul.
Another friend of mine, this time from Poland, while visiting Cyprus last week, decided to go for a walk to the north via Ledra. She was stopped by a Greek Cypriot policeman who after inquiring about her activities in Cyprus and learning that she was a tourist, informed her that the crossing was open only until 5pm. Now, this is new. I thought it was open 24 hours a day.
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