TRNC People’s Party: 200 citizenship cases submitted to the government for review in a single day

Aral Moral, a representative of the TRNC People’s Party (Halkın Partisi), said that 200 citizenship applications were submitted to the Northern Cyprus Council of Ministers for consideration on 17 September. He said this during the “Gündem” programme on Kıbrıs Postası TV.

Moral stressed that he does not object to citizenship being granted to those who have lived in Northern Cyprus for a long time. His party’s objection concerns the timing: the package of cases was sent to the government ahead of the 6 December elections, and the People’s Party believes that the decisions are being made in the interests of the election campaign.

The party is proposing a separate restriction: anyone who has obtained TRNC citizenship should not be allowed to vote in the first elections held after they receive it.

During the same programme, Moral presented labour market data for March 2026. A total of 89,322 people were working in Northern Cyprus, including 46,266 arrivals from Turkey and 43,056 from third countries. In total, citizens of 138 countries are employed in the TRNC.

Pakistan provided the largest number of workers — 13,622 people — followed by Turkmenistan with 9,612 and Bangladesh with 9,172.

Moral also called for restrictions on the permanent relocation to the island of the families of workers from third countries, saying that public services can no longer cope with the workload.