More settlers will reportedly be granted the “citizenship” of the regime; Columnist refers to at least 54 thousand new “citizens, “Under the title “5 thousand 800 citizenships”, Turkish Cypriot daily Havadis (18.05.11) reports that the self-styled government of the breakaway regime is preparing a new “law” for massively giving rights to those waiting to obtain the “citizenship” of the regime and gain the right of becoming “citizens”.

The paper writes that if the “draft-law” is implemented without any amendments, “white card” will be given to those who work “legally” for eight years in the occupied area of Cyprus, to those who work for 14 years with interruption but completed a period of eight years of “legal” continuous work in occupied Cyprus and to those who live “illegally” in occupied Cyprus without taking into consideration whether they have “work permit”. The “citizenship” of the regime will be granted to the foreigners who were born in occupied Cyprus and completed their 18th year of age and to the members of the so-called separated families.

The paper reports that the holders of “white card” will not have the right to vote and to be elected or to be employed as “civil servants”.

According to the new “law”, from now on “work permits” will be issued for a maximum period of four years and therefore foreigners who obtain this “permit” will not have the right of obtaining the “citizenship” of the regime. After this “law”, the “citizenship’ will be given to no one except for cases of marriage and “very special investors”.

According to the paper, if the “law” is enforced, at the first stage, around ten thousand persons will be given “white cards” and around five thousand persons the “citizenship”. A foreigner should be married to a “TRNC citizen” for more than three years in order to gain the right of becoming a “citizen” of the regime. The couple should live together within the above-mentioned period and should not be divorced when the “citizenship” is granted to the foreigner. Moreover, the “citizenship” will be granted to children born in the occupied part of Cyprus and have a foreign mother or father, on the condition that these children lived in occupied Cyprus for 15 years and their parents resided “legally” there.

Meanwhile, commenting on the issue in his daily column in Havadis, Huseyin Ekmekci recalls the statements made by Halil Ibrahim Akca, self-styled Turkish ambassador to occupied Lefkosia, when he visited Havadis. Akca had stated that 29 thousand persons are registered as foreign workforce in the occupied part of Cyprus, that 13.500 of these people gained the right to become “citizens” of the regime and 5.800 persons have been given their “citizenship” right.

Ekmekci writes that officials from Turkey and the occupied area of Cyprus have agreed on radically solving the above-mentioned problem. He notes, inter alia, the following:

“Those who according to the existing TRNC laws have gained the right to become citizens will be given this right. This number is ‘maximum 13.500 persons’. Together with their spouses they are 27 thousands (if everyone is married). If to these 27 thousands you add their children, a group of at least 54 thousand persons have gained the right of becoming citizens. This issue came onto the agenda between the Turkish embassy and the TRNC government and reconciliation was achieved on the issue of ‘cleaning up the past?”