Cyprus will assume the rotating presidency of the European Union on January 1, 2026, a position which will give it enhanced influence in setting the European agenda. One item Cyprus should take up is the sanctity of the European immigration system. The European Union is already seeking to become more organized and security minded.
In late 2026, European states will launch the European Travel Information and Authorization System to check travelers against security databases and require them to provide personal and passport information and answer security questions.
Russian and British tourists should face also both fines and multiyear bans for illegal entry if they take vacations in northern Cyprus without first acquiring a Cypriot visa.
One question it asks should be simple: Have you ever traveled to occupied Cyprus? If the answer is ‘yes,’ that is admission of illegal entry into the European Union, the penalty for which varies amongst European countries but usually includes fine, detention, deportation and an entry ban of up to five years.
While Cypriots sometime cross the border, especially to buy basic groceries or get haircuts that are cheaper on the Turkish-controlled side due to the weak lira, as members of the European Union, such a system would not apply to them, nor would it apply to Greeks or other European Union members since there is nothing illegal about their travel. The European Union does not recognize the legitimacy of the Turkish-occupation or Turkey’s establishment of a Donetsk- or Luhansk-like proxy state, and so there is nothing illegal about Europeans traveling within Europe, even if that territory is under Turkish occupation and Ankara’s pretext of statehood.
The same does not hold true for Turkish soldiers; Russian, British, or American tourists; and Israeli, Saudi, or Iranian businessmen. Each of them makes a conscious decision to violate the laws and integrity of the European Union; whether they do so to fulfill an occupier’s military service, for fun, or for profit is immaterial.
European authorities need not treat each case similarly. Turkish conscripts and officers who carry weapons in northern Cyprus are violating European firearms laws and should be subject to hefty fines and imprisonment for their crimes. Not recognizing Cypriot sovereignty is not exculpatory. Should any Turk who served in Cyprus and bore arms there appear at a European airport or land border checkpoint, then they should face tens of thousands of Euros in fines and a decade in prison if they step foot anywhere in the European Union.
European officials should not tolerate any businessmen, whether from Israel, Saudi Arabia, or Iran, seeking to profit off Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus.
Russian and British tourists should face also both fines and multiyear bans for illegal entry if they take vacations in northern Cyprus without first acquiring a Cypriot visa. British citizens might think twice if a week’s beach vacation at the Salamis Bay Conti Hotel Resort, Concorde Luxury Resort, or the Grand Sapphire Resort could mean thousands of Euros in fines and a travel ban to France or Germany. Sanctions due to Russia’s war in Ukraine make travel to Europe difficult, but violation of European Union sovereignty should make such travel bans permanent.
European officials should not tolerate any businessmen, whether from Israel, Saudi Arabia, or Iran, seeking to profit off Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus.
European officials often pay lip service to opposing Turkey’s fifty-plus year occupation, but they forfeit credibility when they tolerate illegal immigration to Cyprus and seek to profit off its occupiers. With Cyprus taking the European presidency and with Brussels trying to regularize immigration, it is time to make the penalties clear and onerous for any individual wantonly violating Cypriot sovereignty. Access to the European Union should be a privilege, not a right.
Published originally on November 19, 2025.
