By Tania Khadder
MORE TURKISH Cypriots came to the Passport Office in Nicosia yesterday to apply for passports from the Republic of Cyprus or renew their old ones.
“Yesterday was a normal day, we had about 20 Turkish Cypriots coming to apply for passports. But there were more today,” senior official Costas Pilavas said yesterday. By noon, around thirty Turkish Cypriots had been through the Passport Office, he said, making them busier than usual. He said that it could be a problem handling the extra work, but that they would do their best to keep up.
Every day, the passport office sees some Turkish Cypriots who have managed to get permission to come to the free areas to take care of passports, ID cards and birth certificates.
“We have a lot of contact with them and we help them because they are Cypriots and have the right to a passport,” Pilavas added.
The number of Turkish Cypriots applying for passports has soared since the beginning of 2001, mostly due to EU accession and an economic crisis in Turkey and the north. Once Cyprus joins the EU, a Cyprus passport would entitle Turkish Cypriots to unrestricted, travel, residence and employment opportunities within Europe.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has forbidden Turkish Cypriots from applying for Cypriot passports and has been quoted in the north calling on Turkish Cypriots who had Cyprus passports to give them up, saying they would end up “at a loss” if they did not.
Many Turkish Cypriots travel to other countries and apply for Cypriot passports through embassies and consulates or else submit applications through middlemen. Ismet, aged 33, who did not want to be further named spent his first trip to the free areas at the passport office yesterday to renew his passport, which he had originally obtained in London.
With 2,926 Turkish Cypriots crossing to free areas by 11pm on Wednesday, and more doing the same yesterday and today, the recent opening of the checkpoints is an opportunity to catch up on some paper work. Pilavas said that it takes about a month from the date of application for a passport to be issued.
The requirements for Turkish Cypriots to get a passport are exactly the same as for Greek Cypriots. They need to prove they have Cypriot parentage and have Cypriot identity cards. Applications cost £25 and the applicant has to apply at a Cypriot Embassy or at the Nicosia passport office. People born after 1974 can only be issued with passports if their birth certificates have been certified by doctors recognised by Cypriot government.
Minister of Interior Andreas Christou said that by lunchtime Wednesday some 100 Turkish Cypriots had applied for either a passport or an identity card to government authorities. He added that facilities would be increased to handle the number of Turkish Cypriots crossing into the free areas, but that the situation was under control.
