Emergency Numbers and Duty Pharmacies

North Cyprus has its own set of short emergency numbers. They differ from the ones you may know from Turkey, and the Republic of Cyprus in the south runs a separate system — the list below applies in the north. Save these to your phone; this page is worth printing.

Official emergency numbers

North Cyprus's official emergency numbers are 112 (ambulance/medical), 155 (police) and 199 (fire), among others listed below. All of these are published by the TRNC Police General Directorate; 112/155/199/177/101 are also confirmed by the Public Information Office:

• 112 — Emergency (ambulance / medical)
• 155 — Police
• 156 — Narcotics
• 199 — Fire brigade
• 177 — Forest fire
• 101 — Civil defence
• 158 — Coast guard
• 188 — Electricity faults (Kıb-Tek; general call centre 0392 600 09 60 — source: Kıb-Tek regional contact page)

No separate traffic line: the Police General Directorate does not publish a dedicated traffic number — lines such as Turkey's 154 do not operate here. Report everything police-related, including traffic accidents, to 155. The fire brigade (199) operates under the Police General Directorate.

There is no island-north-wide short number for water faults; municipalities handle these through their own switchboards. Nicosia's Turkish Municipality is reported to run a separate 24/7 line (185); confirm the current arrangement with your own municipality.

Regional police directorates

North Cyprus has six regional police directorates beyond headquarters — Nicosia, Famagusta, Kyrenia, Güzelyurt and İskele — each with its own phone line listed below. Source: Police General Directorate contact page:

• Headquarters — tel +90 392 228 3411 / +90 548 811 2000
• Nicosia (Lefkoşa) — tel +90 392 228 3311 / +90 548 811 3000
• Famagusta (Gazimağusa) — tel +90 392 366 5310 / +90 548 811 4000
• Kyrenia (Girne) — tel +90 392 815 2125 / +90 548 811 5000
• Güzelyurt — tel +90 392 714 2140 / +90 548 811 6000
• İskele — tel +90 392 371 2333 / +90 548 811 7000

Numbers can change; verify the current ones on the directorate's page.

Hospital emergency rooms

In a medical emergency call 112; state hospitals run 24/7 emergency departments. For hospital contact details and how the state/private split works, see the Student Health guide — the hospital information there applies to non-students too.

The duty-pharmacy system

Outside working hours and on public holidays, medicine access runs through duty pharmacies ("nöbetçi eczane"): in each region, pharmacies take turns staying open on a rotation.

The Turkish Cypriot Pharmacists Association (KTEB) publishes each day's duty pharmacies for every region (Nicosia, Kyrenia, Famagusta, Güzelyurt, Lefke, Upper and Lower Mesarya, İskele, Karpaz) on a single page: kteb.org/dp — with the pharmacy's name, hours, phone, address and map location. The site is in Turkish but the daily cards are easy to read, and there is a mobile app on Google Play (package: com.kteb.dutypharmacy.kteb_app).

There is no uniform timetable; hours depend on the region and the season. The summer/winter changeover itself follows roughly fixed dates: the summer roster starts around mid-May (around the week of 4 May in 2026), and the winter roster starts around mid-to-late September (around the week of 22 September in 2026). A summer-period example: duty pharmacies in Nicosia, Famagusta, Kyrenia and Güzelyurt run 08:00–24:00; Lefke runs 08:00–22:00 (on-call after that); İskele 08:00–22:00; Karpaz keeps weekend/holiday duty 08:00–20:00. In areas without a rotation, pharmacies open weekdays 08:00–19:00 and Saturdays 08:00–16:00, and close on Sundays. Check the current table on KTEB's working-hours page.

"On-duty" and "on-call" are different arrangements. An on-duty (nöbetçi) pharmacy has its doors physically open and serves customers normally. An on-call (icapçı) pharmacy is locked, with the lights off — the pharmacist is inside or upstairs, and you reach them by ringing the bell and then by phone. This is the usual pattern in smaller regions (Lefke, İskele, Karpaz) or in larger towns overnight, roughly 00:00–08:00. There is no fee difference: charging extra for a night shift or an on-call visit is illegal, and medicine prices are fixed by the state regardless of the hour.

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