Talk:Northern Cyprus

From Wikitravel

[edit] Crossing the Green Line : regulations

To clarify this issue a bit : The EU-Commsssion has issued a direct regulation regulating Green Line traffic. Since the EU does not recognize the Green Line as a border it has extended the freedom of movement principle from the Maastricht treaty to all of Cyprus, thus abolishing all restrictions on cross-Green Line movement of people. This means that EU-Citizens (including Republic of Cyprus citizens) may cross the Green Line in either direction, regardless of their point of entry into the island. They may stay on either side as long as they wish. (Note that the TRNC-authorities do impose limitations on the lenght of stay).

Because the freedom of movement clause in the Maastricht treaty only applies to EU-Citizens, the regulation also legally applies only to EU-Citizens. This means that people from countries outside of the EU can be turned back by Greek Cypriot authorities at the checkpoints if they entered the island via the north . In practice citizens of western countries (Switzerland, USA, Australia) are rarely turned back, while Turkish citizens and citizens of other countries that need visas to enter the Republic will almost always be turned back. Travelbird 02:21, 12 June 2006 (EDT)

Great info! I tried to summarize this in Get in, please correct any mistakes. Jpatokal 03:44, 12 June 2006 (EDT)