ACCORDING to the updated decisions by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) Infectious Diseases Supreme Committee, a re-evaluation will be made for the UK traveller, which is on the red list, for July 29.
It has been put forward that those who travel to the TRNC from the UK with the double vaccination need to provide a last 72 hours negative PCR result should enter a 5-day quarantine, those who have not been fully vaccinated will need to show proof of negative PCR result for the last 72 hours before the arrival and carry out a 7-day quarantine.
At London Gazete we spoke with community members planning to travel to North Cyprus for their reaction to the possibility of being subject to quarantine requirements even if they are fully vaccinated.
Recep Hasan Yağmur:
I have lived in London for 54 years and I love Cyprus very much, but the current system and decisions change every day. We want to go to Cyprus, but we are afraid. Decisions change every day. Let fixed decisions be explained to us so that we know what step to take. We want to come and see our families and loved ones, that’s all we ask.
Songul Aydin:
As a tradesman in the Edmonton area, we closely evaluate developments with our community members. We haven’t had a chance to go anywhere for the second year now, for example, most of us want to go to Cyprus because it is the most suitable place for us, Turkey is on the red list. However, we may face a 5-day quarantine requirement even though we are double-vaccinated upon the new decisions announced. If this decision comes true, it will be a great injustice to us.
We want to travel to Cyprus from England by car for our holiday, but we have heard about the possibility of quarantine for five days, especially for double vaccinations. We are tired of this quarantine thing, I turned back halfway into my journey last because of last-minute quarantine announcement. We are both double vaccinated and we will do our tests, we do all were required to, now how come it is five days quarantine for those who are vaccinated and 7 days for those who are not vaccinated. Have we been vaccinated for nothing?
Cem Cemil:
The quarantine events in Northern Cyprus are disturbing us a lot, we can only take a vacation of 2 to 3 weeks a year, and those who are double-vaccinated should not even be able to quarantine for about a week. These developments seem very illogical and demoralize. We think that we should not go to Cyprus until these events are resolved, it is our hometown, but we are being expelled. Great injustice.
I was going to go on holiday to Cyprus, I want to visit my family and relatives there, but after the announcement, I gave up because of the decisions. It is quite unreasonable to apply a 5-day quarantine to those who have double vaccinations, we already do PCR testing before we go, and we test again when we go there. If such a decision is taken, a great injustice will be done to us.
If it is possible to enter people with double vaccinations all over the world without quarantine, why not in the TRNC? We do not accept this application, this quarantine condition, we want to go to our homeland. In Bayram, everything was open for 9 days, and they wandered around, those who travelled from Turkey and they toured comfortably. However, Turkish Cypriots in England have to go to their islands under difficult conditions. Why can’t we go to our island in peace? We want to return to our homeland.