Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman has said that granting EU citizenship to children of mixed marriages should not be viewed as a confidence-building measure (CBM), responding to recent remarks by government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis that the issue does not fall within the CBM framework.
According to reports from the north, Erhürman said in a social media post that the Turkish Cypriot side shares the same assessment.
“As we always say, this is not, in our view, a confidence-building measure issue. It is a human rights issue and an issue of non-discrimination,” he said.
Human rights dimension
Erhürman noted that the matter is included among the seven measures discussed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres in Nicosia.
He argued that addressing what he described as an ongoing violation of human rights and non-discrimination affecting children also has an element of building trust between the two sides.
“There is no doubt that eliminating an ongoing violation of human rights and non-discrimination concerning children also has a confidence-building aspect,” he said.
The comments come amid continuing discussions over the status and rights of children born to mixed-marriage families and broader efforts to advance practical measures between the two communities.
Source: CNA
