Turkish Cypriots have handed to the United Nations a long list of names of settlers from mainland Turkey who would be allowed to stay in Cyprus in the event of the island's reunification, officials said on Monday.
Turkish and Greek Cypriots are preparing for simultaneous referendums on April 24 on a UN peace plan which envisages a reunited Cyprus joining the European Union on May 1. The plan allows up to 45,000 people of Turkish origin to stay on Cyprus.
"There are almost 41,000 names on our list. This means all settlers can stay," said Huseyin Ozel, an official in Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat's Republican Turkish Party (CTP).
Greek Cypriots say the permission for Turks who have settled in the north of the divided island to stay, part of the plan hammered out recently in marathon UN-brokered negotiations in Switzerland, rewards Turkish "aggression".
Cyprus has been split on ethnic lines since Turkish troops invaded the north in 1974 after a brief Greek Cypriot coup which aimed to unite the island with Greece. The Turkish settlers have moved to the island since 1974.
Ozel told Reuters the list did not include a further 11,000 mainland Turks married to Turkish Cypriots or an undisclosed number of children born on the island to Turkish settlers. Both groups will also be allowed to stay in Cyprus.
An opinion poll conducted in early April and published in the Turkish Cypriot magazine Nokta at the weekend showed 63 percent of Turkish Cypriots would vote 'yes' in the referendum and 17 percent 'no'. About 19 percent were still undecided.
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