North ‘must limit and stop’ naturalising ‘citizens’

The north “must limit and stop” its handing out of ‘citizenships’, ‘MP’ and university owner Serhat Akpinar told the Cyprus Mail.

Akpinar, a senior member of ruling coalition party the DP, said suspending the handing out of ‘citizenships’ is “of great importance”.

“If we want the Turkish Cypriots to hold on to their future and their own will, we must limit and stop citizens of third world countries from obtaining citizenships, as they do under our current legal framework.”

“In addition to the cultural erosion we are experiencing, we must prevent ourselves from possibly becoming a minority in our own lands,” he said.

He said that instead of naturalising large numbers of people, “it would be more correct to issue residence permits based on work permits.”

He added that while migrant workers are necessary, he would rather see a revolving door of people entering and exiting the north rather than the current state of influx and naturalisation.

“We can achieve economic maturity and demonstrate self-sufficiency by forming a mobile population, as in other island countries,” he said.

On Thursday, he had said the north’s population had reached a million and called on the ‘government’ to work to determine the exact number of people living in the north.

“Our population needs to be determined to be able to properly manage the processes of all kinds of criminal incidents, to support the police force, and to carry out health reforms,” he said.