NICOSIA: Turkish Cypriots of mixed marriages protested on Saturday over what they say are inexplicable delays in gaining Cypriot citizenship, a contentious issue on the ethnically-split island.
Campaigners say thousands of people are rendered effectively stateless because they are unable to obtain Cypriot identity cards, falling foul of the politics and conflict which tore Cyprus apart.
“We don’t want any favors. We want our children’s rights,” said Can Azer, a lawyer and father of two children born in Cyprus.
The east Mediterranean island was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek inspired coup. A Greek Cypriot government represents Cyprus internationally.
Its membership of the European Union allows Cypriots visa-free travel throughout the bloc, while in contrast, a breakaway Turkish Cypriot administration in northern Cyprus is recognized only by Ankara.
Families of part-Cypriot heritage living in the north say an inability to get an internationally-recognized ID card issued by Cyprus impacts their children’s prospects if they want to pursue higher education, or employment in the more prosperous south.
About 100 Turkish Cypriots, some holding placards reading “Love Knows No Identity,” marched peacefully through the divided capital Nicosia on the Greek Cypriot side.
In Cyprus, it is highly unusual for members of one community to protest in areas populated by the other community.
By law, a child born on the island with at least one Cypriot parent should be conferred citizenship. But activists say a modification subsequently gave extensive powers to the interior ministry on who among those of mixed descent could get citizenship, with thousands left in limbo.
“From a legal point of view it is a clear violation ... you cannot punish children for political reasons and deprive them of their rights,” said Doros Polycarpou of the Kisa advocacy group.
Cyprus’s interior ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
“They want to belong to Cyprus,” Azer said of his children. “But right now they are made to feel they don’t belong anywhere.”
‘Stateless’ Turkish Cypriots protest over lack of formal IDs
https://arab.news/8vt5e
‘Stateless’ Turkish Cypriots protest over lack of formal IDs
- Campaigners say thousands of people are rendered effectively stateless because they are unable to obtain Cypriot identity cards
- A breakaway Turkish Cypriot administration in northern Cyprus is recognised only by Ankara
US forces withdraw from Syria’s Al-Tanf base: Syrian military sources
- The Americans had been moving equipment out of Al-Tanf base for the past 15 days, one source told AFP
- Following the withdrawal from Al-Tanf, US troops are mainly now based at the Qasrak base in Hasakah
DAMASCUS: US forces have withdrawn to Jordan from Syria’s Al-Tanf base, where they had been deployed as part of the international coalition against the Daesh group, two Syrian military sources told AFP on Wednesday.
One source said “the American forces withdrew entirely from Al-Tanf base today” and decamped to another in Jordan, adding Syrian forces were being deployed to replace them.
A second source confirmed the withdrawal, adding the Americans had been moving equipment out for the past 15 days.
The second source said the US troops would “continue to coordinate with the base in Al-Tanf from Jordan.”
During the Syrian civil war and the fight against Daesh group, US forces were deployed in the country’s Kurdish-controlled northeast and at Al-Tanf, near the borders with Jordan and Iraq.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had been a major partner of the anti-Daesh coalition, and were instrumental in the group’s territorial defeat in Syria in 2019.
However, after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad over a year ago, the United States has drawn closer to the new government in Damascus, recently declaring that the need for its alliance with the Kurds had largely passed.
Syria agreed to join the anti-Daesh coalition when President Ahmed Al-Sharaa visited the White House in November.
As Al-Sharaa’s authorities seek to extend their control over all of Syria, the Kurds have come under pressure to integrate their forces and de facto autonomous administration into the state, striking an agreement to do so last month after losing territory to advancing government troops.
Since then, the US has been conducting an operation to transfer around 7,000 suspected jihadists from Syria — where many were being held in detention facilities by Kurdish fighters — to neighboring Iraq.
Following the withdrawal from Al-Tanf and the government’s advances in the northeast, US troops are mainly now based at the Qasrak base in Hasakah.
Despite Daesh’s territorial defeat, the group remains active.
It was blamed for a December attack in Palmyra in which a lone gunman opened fire on American personnel, killing two US soldiers and a US civilian.
Washington later conducted retaliatory strikes on Daesh targets in Syria.
