The Ankara 1st Administrative Court, following an interim decision dated January 9, 2024, requested a document from the Directorate General of Migration Management explaining the reason for an entry ban. The National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) responded, stating they could not provide a written file to the court due to confidentiality, the necessity to safeguard information, and source security. However, they agreed to present the relevant issues to the committee for review.
The case has been postponed indefinitely for a final decision.
BACKGROUND
Münür Rahvancıoğlu, the Deputy General Secretary of Independence Road (Bağımsızlık Yolu) was denied entry to Turkey with code N-82 at Esenboğa Airport on September 27, 2022, while travelling to Ankara with the Independence Road delegation for a series of meetings.
Independence Road and Rahvancıoğlu announced plans to initiate a legal process within Turkey for Turkish Cypriots banned from entering the country, arguing that the entry ban constitutes a human rights violation. They engaged their lawyers in Turkey to take action.
After being denied entry to Ankara with code N-82, Rahvancıoğlu, through his lawyer, challenged the decision, seeking clarification on the code, its issuer, and the removal of the entry ban. The Turkish Ministry of Interior’s Directorate General of Migration Management acknowledged that they had imposed the requirement for Rahvancıoğlu to obtain prior permission to enter Turkey and rejected the request to lift this requirement. Consequently, on February 17, 2023, Lawyer Sercan Aran, Legal Secretary of Halkevleri, filed an administrative lawsuit on behalf of Rahvancıoğlu with the Turkish Directorate General of Migration Management to annul the decision.
In March 2023, during the initial examination of the lawsuit seeking the annulment of the N-82 restriction code related to Rahvancıoğlu’s entry ban to Turkey, the Ankara 1st Administrative Court decided that copies of identification and other documents proving Rahvancıoğlu’s citizenship in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) should be submitted by his attorney, Sercan Aran.
Following his denied entry to Ankara with code N-82, Rahvancıoğlu, through his lawyer, filed an objection to the decision, aiming to understand the code, its issuer, and to lift the entry ban.
*Independence Road (Bağımsızlık Yolu) is a left-wing non-governmental organisation which has tried to get elected to the TRNC Assembly.
