Resolution of the National Federation of Cypriots at the UK to the Turkish Ambassador

13 July 2014

His Excellency Abdurrahman Bilgiç
Embassy of the Republic of Turkey
43 Belgrave Square
London
SW1X 8PA

Your Excellency,

It is now 40 years since your country illegally invaded Cyprus, and began its unlawful and unjust military occupation and colonisation of the northern part of the island. In flagrant contravention of the UN Charter, UN Security Council resolutions and international law, Turkey has since occupied the northern territory of the Republic of Cyprus, creating and sustaining an illegal regime which has been declared ‘legally invalid’ by the United Nations and which remains unrecognised by all countries in the world, except Turkey.

Rather than work toward a solution, successive Turkish governments have orchestrated the colonisation of the area under the Turkish army’s occupation, as part of a deliberate strategy to change the demography of the island and thereby hamper reunification of Cyprus and its communities. Your country’s systematic transfer of non-Cypriot Turks from the Turkish mainland to the areas under your army’s effective control now means that the indigenous Turkish Cypriot community on the island is outnumbered by illegal colonists and runs the risk of disappearing completely within a generation.

Turkish Cypriots have repeatedly taken to the streets in mass rallies, in occupied Nicosia, to call for an end to Turkey’s occupation, for “Peace” and for an “independent, United Cyprus”. Today we join them in calling out that “Cyprus belongs to the Cypriots”. Their calls have, of course, been rebuffed by your Prime Minister, in scathing terms, because Turkey’s unlawful presence on the island has nothing to do with protecting Turkish Cypriots and everything to do with enhancing its geo-strategic interests as it sees these.

Hundreds of Cypriots who went missing during Turkey’s military invasion in 1974 remain unaccounted for, causing endless misery to their relatives but your government remains oblivious to this deeply humanitarian tragedy. What is more, the island’s cultural and religious heritage in the occupied areas is being actively desecrated and destroyed.

 

 

More than two hundred thousand Cypriot refugees remain unable to return to the homes and properties, which the European Court of Human Rights has declared to be theirs by right.

Despite the Republic of Cyprus’s EU membership, Turkey’s occupation and colonisation of the northern part of the island continues, even though Turkey itself seeks EU accession. It does so while arrogantly refusing to recognise the Republic of Cyprus, a member state of that Union. There lies the paradox of Turkey’s untenable and absurd position.

Turkey continues to breach the Ankara Protocol by refusing to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic, and it also ignores its obligations under Turkey’s “Negotiating Framework” with the European Union which was adopted nearly a decade ago, and which obliges Turkey to work for a comprehensive settlement in Cyprus within the UN framework and on the basis of the EU’s founding values and principles. Turkey must come to understand and accept that a regard for human rights and adherence to the basic principles upon which the EU is founded are essential prerequisites to its accession to the European Union.

Turkey must now change its intransigent stance on Cyprus and respond with positive actions to encourage progress in the direct negotiations taking place on the island towards a just and lasting settlement.

President Anastasiades continues to approach the current negotiations with good will and determination, driven by one consideration above all others: the delivery of a solution that will serve the interests of all Cypriots and will allow the Cypriots themselves to be masters in their own country. Turkey’s historical stance on Cyprus gives no one hope for progress.

Your country has the power and the means to take the practical steps necessary in order to help bring about a federal state with a single sovereignty, one international legal personality and a single citizenship which are the agreed principles guiding the ongoing negotiations. Yet Turkey chooses not to act in support of this process and is, instead, actively encouraging the creation of two separate states on the island.

Today we call upon you, as the new Ambassador to the United Kingdom, and your country’s Government, to act immediately in the interest of justice and to increase all efforts towards delivering a united, independent, bi-zonal, bi-communal Cyprus where the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all Cypriots will be safeguarded. Only such an outcome will deliver freedom, peace and security to all of the island’s people and bring significant strategic benefits to Turkey and Greece, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the entire region.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Droussiotis
President