Turkish Cypriot sues Turkey for being denied entry to Turkey

Turkish Cypriot left-wing activist Munur Rahvancioglu on Wednesday announced that he will appeal his denial of entry to Turkey at the country’s constitutional court.

Rahvancioglu is one of around 15 people who appear on Turkey’s N-82 or G-82 lists. Having one’s name on the former means that one must apply in advance to the Turkish embassy in their country for pre-clearance to enter the country, while being on the G-82 list entails an outright ban from entering Turkey.

Neither list is publicly available, and as such, those on it generally do not find out until they arrive in Turkey.

Rahvancioglu had initially sued at Ankara’s first administrative court, but his case was rejected. The court had requested that Turkey’s migration management directorate issue a document explaining the reasons behind Rahvancioglu’s placement on the N-82 list.

However, the migration management directorate said it “did not have any documents” on the matter and that his name had been added to the list after a letter had been sent by Turkey’s national intelligence organisation (Mit).

As such, the court requested that Mit disclose the reasons behind Rahvancioglu’s adding to the N-82 list, but Mit informed the court that such information is classified.

Rahvancioglu’s lawyers had argued that he had a clean criminal record, and that “the claim that he was among people who posed a danger to national security was an abstract claim”.

The court did not overturn Mit’s ruling, however, saying his name had been added to the N-82 list “within the scope of sovereign authority and also taking into account reports issued by state security units in the context of preventing participation in terrorist activities, preventing travel to conflict zones, and protecting the country’s security”.

“There was no unlawfulness during the process in question,” the court said.