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kmfw72
Villager
Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Posts: 34
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As I understand it, international direct dialling is now in place, so 00 90 392 to call the North from the South instead of 0139 and 00357 to call the South from the North instead of 0123. Can anyone confirm this? And can you phone Turkey from the South now?
And what happens with post between the North and South? Can you send a letter from one side to the other?
My brother got a really strange postcard from Cyprus - it had a Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus stamp and a postmark in Greek and English telling people to use the postcode - clearly not from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which doesn't have a postcode system. (I'm surprised Turkey hasn't extended its one yet!) The four-digit postcode system used in the South is supposed to be island-wide, so could be extended across to the North if circumstances permitted, and could allow overseas mail to the North to come in via the South. |
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erolz
Site Admin
Joined: 11 Aug 2005
Posts: 4195
Location: Kyrenia / Girne
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| kmfw72 wrote: |
| As I understand it, international direct dialling is now in place, so 00 90 392 to call the North from the South instead of 0139 and 00357 to call the South from the North instead of 0123. Can anyone confirm this? |
I beleieve this tobe the case now. Certainly I can personally confirm that dialing 00392 from a Turkish Cypriot/Turkish mobile is now possible where as it was not historically. I beleiev ti is also true of land lines now as well.
| kmfw72 wrote: |
And can you phone Turkey from the South now? |
Do not know.
| kmfw72 wrote: |
And what happens with post between the North and South? Can you send a letter from one side to the other? |
In international postal terms the Republic of Northern Cyprus is a postal district of Turkey (mersin 10). Sending a letter from Republic of Northern Cyprus to the Republic of Cyprus I believe would mean it going to first to Turkey and then onto the Republic of Cyprus, like any other mail from Turkey sent to Republic of Cyprus.
| kmfw72 wrote: |
My brother got a really strange postcard from Cyprus - it had a Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus stamp and a postmark in Greek and English telling people to use the postcode - clearly not from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which doesn't have a postcode system. (I'm surprised Turkey hasn't extended its one yet!) The four-digit postcode system used in the South is supposed to be island-wide, so could be extended across to the North if circumstances permitted, and could allow overseas mail to the North to come in via the South. |
I think there are plans for a postcode system , and a 'basic address' system to be introduced in the North. Certainly recently we had postal workers here in Kyrenia/Girne going round and sticking 'offical' house numbers on each building.
Before I moved here from UK (3 years ago ish) I asked my relatives what the postal address was for the house, as I needed to change bank details and the like. We got 3 different answers. So we sent letters to ourselves from the UK to each of these addresses. One day in Cyprus the postman arrived out side the house with all 3 letters 
Still in the north when you ask for someones address, you are less likelt to get in the form of 'house number, road name, town/village' but more in the form of 'from this land mark you go right, then turn left at that landmark carry on and we are the 4 house on right with fig tree outside'. At least in my expereince. Essentialy there are very few 'abslute' address, most of them are 'relative' (to some common land mark - the roundabout, ezic chicken, tempo supermarrket, the traffic lights etc) |
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brother
Warnings : 3
Site Admin
Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Posts: 8920
Location: London/Cyprus
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| kmfw72 wrote: |
As I understand it, international direct dialling is now in place, so 00 90 392 to call the North from the South instead of 0139 and 00357 to call the South from the North instead of 0123. Can anyone confirm this? And can you phone Turkey from the South now?
And what happens with post between the North and South? Can you send a letter from one side to the other?
My brother got a really strange postcard from Cyprus - it had a Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus stamp and a postmark in Greek and English telling people to use the postcode - clearly not from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which doesn't have a postcode system. (I'm surprised Turkey hasn't extended its one yet!) The four-digit postcode system used in the South is supposed to be island-wide, so could be extended across to the North if circumstances permitted, and could allow overseas mail to the North to come in via the South. |
Hi kmfw72 and welcome to the forum  |
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Kifeas
Warnings : 6
Ministerial
Joined: 26 Aug 2005
Posts: 2733
Location: Location: Pafos-Cyprus, since 1974 ethnic cleansing. Originally, Lapithos, northern occupied Cyprus.
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| kmfw72 wrote: |
| As I understand it, international direct dialling is now in place, so 00 90 392 to call the North from the South instead of 0139 and 00357 to call the South from the North instead of 0123. Can anyone confirm this? And can you phone Turkey from the South now?. |
The old system (0139 and 0123 respectively) is a system that the UN established to allow some minimum communication between the north and the south that can allow just a few lines (5-10) to simultaneously be engaged.
As from 2003, Turkey opened the international Republic of Cyprus access code (00357) for incoming and outgoing phone calls between the Republic of Cyprus and Turkey. Therefore, now it is possible to call in the north Cyprus through Turkey's international access code (0090) and from the north of Cyprus to the south through the Republic of Cyprus international code (00357.) This stands for both mobile and land line communications. As you might know, north Cyprus telephone system was re-directed after 1974 from functioning under the Republic of Cyprus telephone system, and it ever since functions as a part of the mainland Turkish one.
The problem that still remains in place is that of roaming of mobile communications between the Republic of Cyprus based telephone companies (CyTA GSM and Arriba) and the Turkish mobile telephone companies (Turkcel, etc,) because Turkey doesn't allow it yet, due to cross charging between the mobile telephone companies between the two countries. As a result, a CyTA GSM based mobile will not shift to a Turkcell GSM based mobile if someone is in the north and vise versa. If someone happens to have a mobile account from a third country (i.e. from the UK,) there is no problem because it will shift automatically between Cyta GSM and Turkcell, as you move around Cyprus from north to south and vise versa. |
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respiridus
Deputy
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 1965
Location: Pera Orinis, Nicosia, Cyprus
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| Do you think that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could adobt, as a sign of good will, the Republic of Cyprus postal system codes and numbering system? And then offer to "return" to a unified postal system for the whole island? |
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brother
Warnings : 3
Site Admin
Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Posts: 8920
Location: London/Cyprus
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| respiridus wrote: |
| Do you think that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could adobt, as a sign of good will, the Republic of Cyprus postal system codes and numbering system? And then offer to "return" to a unified postal system for the whole island? |
That would be a good idea but don't hold your breath |
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respiridus
Deputy
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 1965
Location: Pera Orinis, Nicosia, Cyprus
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| brother wrote: |
| respiridus wrote: |
| Do you think that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could adobt, as a sign of good will, the Republic of Cyprus postal system codes and numbering system? And then offer to "return" to a unified postal system for the whole island? |
That would be a good idea but don't hold your breath |
They'd have very little to use if they did this. The Republic of Cyprus would loose some things if they went along with this, however, as they would have to acknowledge the municipalities in the north as the legal entities responsible for assigning street names and numbers. |
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Crash Test Dummy
Warnings : 3
Ministerial
Joined: 25 Sep 2005
Posts: 4911
Location: London(ish)
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surprised nobody brought this up before. welcome  |
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kmfw72
Villager
Joined: 17 Nov 2005
Posts: 34
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Thanks for all your replies - I thought the short access codes had been superseded. I've been helping this website with non-standard international dialling arrangements (hence Northern Ireland from the Republic can be 048 instead of 004428) and they thought that the UN codes were still in use.
| respiridus wrote: |
| Do you think that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could adopt, as a sign of good will, the Republic of Cyprus postal system codes and numbering system? And then offer to "return" to a unified postal system for the whole island? |
It would make sense as the post could be automatically sorted in the South before delivered in the North. As for telephone numbers, you could add a '2' to landlines in the North, and a '9' to mobiles, so that from the South you'd need only dial an eight digit number 2815xxxx for Kyrenia/Girne instead of 00 90 392 815 xxxx, and possibly as +357 2815xxxx. You could still keep 0392 from Turkey.
| brother wrote: |
| That would be a good idea but don't hold your breath |
The two postal administrations would have to start talking to each other first, so that the North would accept mail from the South, as well as vice versa. Then there would be the issue of pricing - as with telephone calls there is the issue of termination costs charged by one to the other. Would it be charged as inland or international? For everyone's mutual benefit, it should be the former.
As regards postcodes, I understand that the South's postcode system covers streets rather than just towns or suburbs, so for the system to be extended island-wide, the authorities in the North would have to allow their counterparts in the South in to do the 'mapping'.
By the way, I use North and South purely for convenience and because they're geographically accurate. While there is de jure (in law) a Republic of Cyprus covering the whole island, there are de facto (in fact) two jurisdictions on the island, which I refer to by geographical terms.
What's in a name? Plenty! |
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respiridus
Deputy
Joined: 26 Oct 2005
Posts: 1965
Location: Pera Orinis, Nicosia, Cyprus
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| Quote: |
| As regards postcodes, I understand that the South's postcode system covers streets rather than just towns or suburbs, so for the system to be extended island-wide, the authorities in the North would have to allow their counterparts in the South in to do the 'mapping'. |
Yes, this is correct. Also, the street names and numbers are handled by the municipalities in the south. So, for this to work, we would have to aknowledge the existence of municipalities in the north (something that our government currently does not do). |
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anna
Villager
Joined: 26 May 2006
Posts: 6
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My husband worked with a Turkish Cypriot in the UK who eventually built a house in Kyrenia and spends time in both countries. We have visited each other several times and helped him sort out his pension payments.
He qualified for a Cyprus pension as he worked in Limassol before moving to the UK before 1974 as well as a UK pension.
To cut a long story short, we helped him to fill out a form in the Nicosia pensions office and they transfer his pension direct to his bank in Kyrenia.
However, I don't know if the transfer has to go via Turkey - being a personal matter we didn't like to ask.
We also took him and his wife to see their house in Limassol, which was being used by Greek Cypriot refugees from Rizokarpassos - this was very emotional for both parties, but our friends were not seeking the return of their property.
We do telephone each other using the landline. But when we are in Kyrenia our mobile phones go dead!
Funniest thing though was my daughter's experience. She had to visit the Customs Office in Nicosia for bringing her car to Cyprus. During the interview her mobile rang and the message read: "Welcome to Turkey". The Customs Office is almost bang on the crossing point at Ayios Dometios.
Regards,
Anna. |
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cypezokyli
Ministerial
Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 2344
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thats trueish .
when i cross the check points with my german handy i receive i msg in german, saying "welcome" . but i cannot remember if it was welcome to turkey or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. |
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city
Site Admin
Joined: 15 Aug 2005
Posts: 3370
Location: Larnaca area
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| cypezokyli wrote: |
thats trueish .
when i cross the check points with my german handy i receive i msg in german, saying "welcome" . but i cannot remember if it was welcome to turkey or the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. |
It welcomes you not to a country but to the network - to Telsim or whatever the provider there is. I can't remember which of the turkish companies serves the north. However, CYTA definitely does not work. International roaming works as normal and logs you into the turkish net. |
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Bullika
Warnings : 1
Ministerial
Joined: 29 Sep 2005
Posts: 3025
Location: World
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| respiridus wrote: |
| Do you think that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus could adobt, as a sign of good will, the Republic of Cyprus postal system codes and numbering system? And then offer to "return" to a unified postal system for the whole island? |
I think that would make sense, but on the other hand the Greek Cypriot side will receive all the mail for Turkish Cypriots, this could cause potential problems if there is no good will on the greek cypriot side. but one postal code for cyprus is ideally all we need, its a small place. |
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