Turkish Cypriots in mixed marriages appealing to EU

Turkish Cypriots in mixed marriages will be filing an appeal to the European parliament committee of petitions over the denial of Cypriot citizenship to their children, reports said on Wednesday.

According to Vatan, the group ‘Ucredentialeds’ has begun collecting signatures, with their team of lawyers behind them, to file an official appeal online with the European Parliament Committee of Petitions.

The appeal said that people in mixed marriages have been victimised and seen a violation of the rights of their children by the Republic of Cyprus which refuses to grant Cypriot citizenship to children with one Turkish Cypriot parent and one non-Cypriot parent.

Also referring to the children of mixed Turkish-Cypriot marriages, the head of teachers’ union, KTOS, Burak Mavis called on the government to resolve the problem that exists with failing to grant citizenship to these children, while at the same time he appealed to the government to support the efforts being made in order for the Turkish language to become one of the official languages of the EU.

Expressing the opinion that the European Commission should rediscuss the Green Line regulation and the regulation providing financial support to the Turkish Cypriots, Mavis said that the commission needs to lead the Turkish Cypriot community to achieve Europe’s educational vision, through the regulation on education and culture that they prepared.