President: Citizenship for children of mixed marriages is a human rights issue

In a written statement, Erhürman said he shared the view that the issue went beyond confidence-building.

“As we have always said, in our view this is not, fundamentally, a confidence-building issue either. It is a question of human rights and the prohibition of discrimination,” he said.

However, he noted that the issue was among the seven confidence-building measures raised by the UN Secretary-General in Nicosia.

Erhürman argued that addressing what he described as an ongoing violation affecting children on the Turkish Cypriot side would itself help build trust.

“There can, of course, be no doubt that one side ending an ongoing violation of human rights and the prohibition of discrimination affecting children on the other side would also have a confidence-building effect,” he said.