ONE of Namibia’s best-known soccer coaches, Ali Akan, on Friday finally scored a goal he has been trying to achieve for years: obtaining Namibian citizenship.
More than six years after he applied to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration to be given Namibian citizenship, the Kurdish Akan on Friday obtained a court order in which he was declared to be a Namibian citizen by marriage.In terms of the court order, which follows on a settlement reached between Akan’s lawyer, Lucius Murorua, and Government lawyer Tinashe Chibwana, the Minister of Home Affairs was also directed to issue Akan with a citizenship certificate and to enter his name in the register of Namibian citizens within thirty days from September 2.Akan filed a case against the Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration on July 13 to ask for the order that was given on Friday.He has been married to a Namibian citizen since June 2000, Akan informed the court in an affidavit.Akan was born in Turkey in 1960, and was part of the Kurdish minority in that country until he left Turkey.In his affidavit Akan describes himself as a stateless political refugee who ‘initially fled Turkish repression’ related to ‘the ongoing Kurdish political struggle’, and obtained a German refugee passport in 1988. He relocated from Germany to Namibia in 1995 and, having been married to his Namibian wife for more than 11 years, intends to remain in Namibia for the rest of his life, Akan stated.He relates that he applied for Namibian citizenship in April 2005. The response from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration was that he had to renounce his Turkish citizenship.According to Akan he does not have a Turkish passport, but he provided the Ministry with sworn declarations in which he renounced his Turkish nationality in July 2009 and again in July 2010.The Ministry however wanted Akan to also provide it with proof that the Turkish authorities – represented by the nearest Turkish embassy, in South Africa – had accepted Akan’s renunciation of his citizenship.A year after the Ministry had forwarded Akan’s declaration of the renunciation of his Turkish nationality to the Turkish embassy in South Africa no response had been received from the embassy.According to Akan he has complied with the requirements of the Namibian Citizenship Act by renouncing his Turkish citizenship. The long delay in approving his application for citizenship is unreasonable and unjustified, he remarks in his affidavit.
