Eight more Turkish Cypriots barred from Turkey

Eight Turkish Cypriots have been barred as of Friday from entering Turkey, after Ankara branded some of them as suspected national security threats and then required them to obtain a special permit.

Some are journalists and others are opposition supporters or activists in the north.

The latest person to be barred is Havadis newspaper journalist Basaran Duzgun, who was notified he needed to meet the requirements of code ‘N-82’.

N-82 seems to have taken the place of G-82, which was used to previously ban five Turkish Cypriots from entering Turkey.

The code G-82 specified that foreigners that have been suspected of involvement in activities against national security and were not allowed to enter Turkey. This code now seems to have been replaced by ‘N-82’, which states that the individual is a foreigner that needs to receive permission before entering Turkey.

The eight people that have been barred entry are Basaran Duzgun, former director of BRTK Aysu Basri Akter, former ‘presidency’ press coordinator Ali Bizden, researcher Ahmet Cavit, journalist union (Basin-sen) chairman Ali Kismir, Left Movement Secretary General Abdullah Korkmazhan, and activists Münür Rahvancioglu, and Okan Dagli.

According to the PIO, Yeni Duzen newspaper’s legal information says that with ‘N-82’ people are not allowed to enter Turkey, unless the status is changed or removed.

Most of the eight people, aside from Korkmazhan, filed for the special permission at the Turkish embassy in the north or through lawyers in Turkey, but all the requests have gone unanswered.

Former Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci’s press secretary Ali Bizden told the newspaper that he even filed a request with the embassy to learn why he had been classed as ‘G-82’ in 2021, but he has not received a reply.

Bizden said: “This excuse is one of the vile tactics of the increasingly normalised senseless politics that we face every day; Let’s forget about it.

“If I had turned my back on Akinci, I would have been a ‘reasonable and acceptable foreign Turk’,” he said,

On his part Kismir told the paper: “Also, before the election, people who said they were MİT [Turkey’s national intelligence agency] officials talked to me, and they told me that if I didn’t stop supporting Akinci, my entry into Turkey would be blocked.”

The former director of BRTK Akter said she had filed her petition with the Turkish ambassador and that she had spoken with him, but he had informed her nothing could be done if she was classed as N-82.

The latest victim of this entry ban, Duzgun said he would also file to the Turkish embassy.

“I have the most natural right to know what I am accused of, but they turn this process into psychological violence,” he told the newspaper.