Cypriot citizenship given to 14 children from mixed marriages
A total of 14 applications for granting Cypriot citizenship to children of mixed marriages between Turkish Cypriots and Turkish citizens have been approved so far, and more applications are gradually being examined, sources have told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) on Thursday.
Regarding information published in the Turkish Cypriot media about the granting of the citizenship of the Republic to 3,500 children from mixed marriages, following the submission of applications, the same sources said that all applications are being examined in the context of the announcements made by President Nikos Christodoulides on the implementation of confidence-building measures towards the Turkish Cypriot community.
The examination of the applications involves an investigation, that also take place in the cases of mixed marriages between a Cypriot parent and a third country national.
According to the sources, as far as the cases in which one parent is a Turkish national are concerned, applications are examined with even more scrutiny, due to the issue of illegal entry of people in the Republic’s territory from the north.
Christodoulides announced confidence-building measures for Turkish Cypriots on January 14. One of them was to initiate the examination of pending applications for Cypriot citizenship, as decided by the Council of Ministers in February 2007.