However, any such person had the right to choose Turkish nationality within two years of the treaty's enforcement, provided that they permanently departed Cyprus for Turkey within 12 months of that choice.
[7] Colonial officials adhered to a policy of divide and rule, pitting the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities against each other to weaken opposition to their own authority.
[8] Beginning in 1926, further Turkish migration to Anatolia was restricted by the colonial government seeking to curb high levels of Muslim population outflow.
They further claimed that the Cypriots who had chosen Turkish nationality and had already departed for Turkey still remained British subjects (unless they otherwise naturalised) because the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne had not been implemented in domestic law.
[12] Greek dissatisfaction with British rule led to open revolt in the 1950s during the Cyprus Emergency, which ultimately resulted in the 1959 London and Zürich Agreements and a multilateral accord between the UK, Greece, and Turkey on Cypriot independence in the following year.
[16] Tensions between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot political leadership led to a collapse of cooperative government in 1963 and triggered a period of sustained intercommunal violence that lasted until 1967.
After travel restrictions between the two regions were reduced after introduction of the Annan Plan, TRNC residents more frequently sought to obtain Cypriot passports.
[21] All British subjects/Commonwealth citizens under the reformed structure of nationality created in 1948 initially held an automatic right to settle in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
[22][23] Non-white immigration into the UK was systemically discouraged, but strong economic conditions in Britain following the Second World War attracted an unprecedented wave of colonial migration.
[26][23] Britain somewhat relaxed these measures in 1971 for patrials, subjects whose parents or grandparents were born in the United Kingdom,[25] which gave effective preferential treatment to white Commonwealth citizens.
[30] Individuals who did not acquire Cypriot citizenship at independence, retained CUKC status, and lacked right of abode in the United Kingdom became reclassified as British Overseas citizens as part of the 1981 reform.
[32] Cypriot citizens have since been able to live and work in other EU/EFTA countries under freedom of movement for workers established by the 1957 Treaty of Rome and participated in their first European Parliament elections in 2004.
[39] Candidates needed to have a clean criminal record, must not have been denied naturalisation in any other EU member state, and were required to purchase a residence in the country valued at least €500,000 that must be retained permanently.
[39] Investors who successfully naturalised are subject to periodic checks that verify their continued ownership of real estate in Cyprus and are liable to have their citizenship revoked if discovered to have divested themselves of that property without a replacement residence.
[41] The European Commission repeatedly condemned this citizenship pathway for its high risks in aiding money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption.
[44][45] Following the release of a video recording showing Cypriot legislators offering to facilitate naturalisation for a fictional convicted investor, the programme was indefinitely suspended on 1 November 2020.
The four-year residence requirement may be partially or completely fulfilled by time employed in government service, but this may not be done for the 12 months immediately preceding a naturalisation application.
Persons who perform extraordinary acts of service to Cyprus may be exceptionally granted Cypriot citizenship without any requirements at the discretion of the Council of Ministers.