Question about communities in the constitution and their rights
Hey, I’m a Turkish Cypriot and I have a question about how the Republic of Cyprus constitutionally divides citizens into communities, especially today when naturalization and immigration are much more common.
As far as I understand, Article 2 of the 1960 Constitution divides citizens into two communities:
- the Greek Community comprises all citizens of the Republic who are of Greek origin and whose mother tongue is Greek or who share the Greek cultural traditions or who are members of the Greek-Orthodox Church;
- the Turkish Community comprises all citizens of the Republic who are of Turkish origin and whose mother tongue is Turkish or who share the Turkish cultural traditions or who are Moslems;
This could also be reflected in IDs/documents, where Turkish Cypriots have Turkish/English wording (e.g. “Erkek/Male”, “Kıbrıslı/Cypriot”) while Greek Cypriots have Greek/English wording ("Κυπριακή/Cypriot").
My question is: what happens with naturalized citizens today?
For example, if a Muslim person from a Muslim-majority country becomes a RoC citizen (e.g. a Syrian refugee or a Saudi citizen), which community are they placed into in practice?
The constitutional wording says the Turkish Community includes people who are “Moslems”, but politically/administratively I assume most naturalized citizens are probably placed into the Greek Community today because of how the Republic functions after 1963.
Does anyone actually know how this works in practice?
One thing that also confuses me about this constitutional/community system is the following:
If naturalized citizens are in practice usually placed into the Greek Community, doesn’t that create a strange constitutional situation for Turkish Cypriots?
For example, a naturalized citizen with no historical/familial connection to Cyprus could potentially:
- vote in presidential elections,
- run for president,
- and fully participate in the current constitutional system,
while a Turkish Cypriot like me, whose family has lived in Cyprus for generations before British rule, independence, and the founding of the Republic, does not participate in the presidential system in the same way because of the unresolved constitutional situation after 1963.
And I am not saying that naturalized citizens should have fewer rights. I fully understand that citizenship should come with equal rights. But I think we can all agree that someone whose roots have been in Cyprus for centuries not having the same rights as newly naturalized citizens who were basically foreigners before is a bit strange.
And if anyone personally knows a naturalized Muslim RoC citizen, I’d genuinely be curious whether their ID/documents use Turkish-English wording (“Kıbrıslı”) or Greek-English wording (“Κυπριακή”).