Re : "Reverting To The 1960 Constitution The Only Solution To The Cyprus Problem"NAIROBI, Dec. 16 - I would like to refer to an article published in your e-paper on November 24 under the title "Reverting to the 1960 Constitution the only solution to the Cyprus Problem" allegedly submitted by two Zambian "students".
At the outset, I would like to express my surprise at the fervor with which these "students" support the Turkish policies regarding Cyprus and completely ignore international law, numerous U.N. Security Council Resolutions and the history of Cyprus itself.
The two "students" should first of all know, when they refer to the 1960 Constitution, that if those Treaties are today tortured and violated, it is Turkey which is to blame. Specifically, in the Treaty of Guarantee, the United Kingdom, Greece and Turkey undertook the obligation to "protect and safeguard the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of the Republic of Cyprus". Turkey, which since July 1974 illegally occupies a third of Cyprus‚s territory, is the one violating its commitments and failing to respect its signature and abide by the rule of international law.
The two "students" keep referring to the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr. Denktash, as so called "president". I would like to remind that the so called "TRNC" was declared as "legally invalid" by UN Security Council resolution of 1983 and that only Turkey, the occupying power, recognizes this illegal entity.
The authors of the article put forth the well known intransigent and unacceptable positions of Mr. Denktash as well as those of the Turkish Government as expressed by Mr. Erdogan. The Turkish side has been singing this deplorable tune for 29 years now thus thwarting every effort undertaken by the international community to find a just, viable and functional solution.
Mr. Denktash and his mentors in Ankara like to distort the truth and facts about Cyprus and insist on referring to the need to accept "the realities". Well, these realities are not the ones that Mr. Denktash and his supporters see but the fact that Turkey in Cyprus, is an aggressor, an occupier which refuses to abide by the provisions of numerous UN Security resolutions requesting it to withdraw its troops from Cyprus (Turkey maintains more than 35000 fully armed Troops in occupied Cyprus) and end the occupation. Under the 1960 Agreements, both Turkey and Greece were allowed to station their military contingents on Cyprus which could not be more than a few hundred men.
In the last twelve months, thousands of Turkish Cypriots have taken to the streets of occupied Cyprus demanding the acceptance of the Annan plan by their leadership, reunification of the island and accession to the EU. Faced with this discontent, Mr. Denktash cynically responded by saying that even if the Turkish Cypriots accepted a solution, he would not accept it if it was not the solution he wants. So much for caring about the interests of his community!
The 1960 constitution makes no mention whatsoever to so called "equal and sovereign peoples in Cyprus" but refers to the two Communities. It is the Turkish side which keeps insisting on using those terms.
Pertaining to the Loizidou case, the two "students" should, before parroting Mr. Denktash, to first get informed. Turkey was found guilty, in 1998 by the European Court of Human Rights, of serious violations of the European Convention of Human Rights and was ordered to pay a compensation of approximately USD 900,000 to Mrs. Loizidou (a Greek Cypriot refugee from the occupied town of Kyrenia) and allow her free access to her property. Until this date, Turkey has refused to comply with the ruling of the Court. At the beginning of the month, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted a fourth interim Resolution calling on Turkey to implement the ruling immediately and without any preconditions. Turkey‚s continuing refusal to abide by the ruling will probably lead the Committee of Ministers to impose sanctions on Turkey.
He who lives in a house of glass should not throw stones. This adage fully applies to Turkey. Turkey, a serial violator of international law, a country which shows no respect whatsoever for the will of the international amphictionia as codified in the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, has no right whatsoever to speak about justice and respect of the rule of law in the case of Cyprus.
Mr. Denktash and the Turkish government insist on living in their paranoia according to which the entire world is wrongly accusing them of being the culprits and the intransigent side in Cyprus and that everybody is fomenting ploys against the Turkish Cypriots whose only blame is "fighting for a just cause".
What the Turkish Cypriot leader and the Turkish government refuse to see is that the first victims of their parochial and intransigent policies are the Turkish Cypriots themselves.
High Commissioner of the Republic of Cyprus
Nairobi, Kenya.
C. Eliades
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