Cypriot refugees
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Cypriot refugees are those Cypriot nationals or Cyprus residents, who had been forced out of their homes and properties during, or in the aftermath of, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. In 1974 Turkey without declaring war advanced to occupy ~38% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus and in the process displaced around 200,000 Greek Cypriots[1] from their homes and properties. The human rights of the refugees wishing to return to their former homes and properties are currently being violated as their return is denied by the Turkish Army and according to the UN; illegal TRNC authorities.
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[edit] 1963 background
The Turkish Community of the Republic of Cyprus holds that former Turkish Cypriot properties in the south had been taken over by Greek Cypriots since 1963, and therefore the denial of return of 200,000 Greek Cypriots[1] to their occupied homes and properties is justified. The Republic of Cyprus holds that in 1963 the Turkish Cypriot Community withdrew their participation from the government of the Republic of Cyprus and organized themselves militarily into enclaves forbidding non Turks to enter by the force of armaments. The Republic of Cyprus repeatedly had requested Turkish Cypriots to return to their positions and dissolve their enclaves; however the Turkish Community held that Cyprus should be partitioned. Currently, any Turkish Cypriot citizen of the Republic of Cyprus, can work and reside freely in the south of the Republic of Cyprus or in Europe as the Turkish Cypriot Communitys' rights are safeguarded by the Constitution of Cyprus and the Cyprus membership in the European Union. The majority of the Turkish Cypriot Community refrains to do so, demanding partition of the island.[citation needed]
[edit] After 1974-2002 (pre-Annan plan era)
Greek Cypriot refugees made a number of collective attempts to return to their homes but were denied entry into their occupied homes and properties, while Turkish Cypriots made no demonstrations/attempts to recover their properties left behind[citation needed] when the Turkish Cypriot Community moved into the territory occupied by the advance of the Turkish Army in 1974.
Turkey in 1974 advanced to occupy ~38% of the island in the north of the Republic of Cyprus. Greek Cypriots in the north (nearly half the Greek Cypriot population of the island) were forced by the advancing Turkish Army to flee south. Those that did not flee were captured as prisoners of war; some would later be declared dead; some would return alive and well, and some are still missing.
In the aftermath, Turkish Cypriots remaining in the South and Greek Cypriots remaining in the north (with the exception of a few enclaves) were 'encouraged' to move to their respective areas of control[citation needed]. It is estimated that 40% of the Greek population of Cyprus were displaced, as well as over half of the Turkish Cypriot population by the Turkish Invasion. Since 1974, Greek Cypriot refugees have been demanding recovery of their right to their properties.
Turkey's response is that the invasion, was justified as Operation Attila fought after a coup d'état, in 1974 by Greek Army officers stationed on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus tried to overthrow the President of Cyprus at the time, Makarios, and unite Cyprus with Greece. Makarios in 1974 soon returned to power; the coup d'état was dissolved, nonetheless the Turkish military invasion ensued, claiming that this action was given under the provisions of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee)[2], and that any withdrawal would place the Turkish Cypriots back at risk. Turkey currently does not recognize the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee[citation needed]; a pact designed to preserve the territorial independence of the Republic of Cyprus, since Turkey is the only UN member that does not recognize the existence of Republic of Cyprus. The occupation of ~37% of the island, was condemned by numerous United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
Multiple cases have been filled to the European Court of Human Rights; filling against Turkey. Since the Turkish Invasion thousands of Turks have been brought to the north of the Republic of Cyprus from Anatolia in violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention, to occupy the homes of the Greek Cypriot refugees[citation needed]. In 1983 Turkey declared the 37% territory of the Republic of Cyprus as Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus ignoring multiple UN Security Council resolutions although a UN member herself.
Turkey and TRNC do not deny this policy of encouraging Turkish immigration, and justify the immigration on the following grounds:
- The demographic 'tilt' towards the Greek Cypriots needed to be redressed[citation needed], and
- Turkish Cypriots have been emigrating to Europe in order to find better opportunities since the international embargo on Northern Cyprus has made the economic situation there difficult, and the population drain needed to be redressed[citation needed]. The Turkish government has placed over 100,000 Anatolian Turkish colonists on the island violating Article 49 of the Geneva Convention.
Article 49 of the Geneva Convention states: “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive”.
During the invasion/intervention, Turkish troops arrested thousands of Greek Cypriots that would later be either refugees or missing. Many of them were seen in captivity alive and well by others who were released later[citation needed]. Rauf Denktaş, admitted publicly that many Greek Cypriots prisoners were killed by Turkish militants.[citation needed]
[edit] Turkish reply to a demonstration
Through the years multiple demonstrations and rallies have been made by the Greek Cypriots demanding to return to their properties, some ended with tragic results.
In August 1996, Greek Cypriot refugees demonstrated with a symbolic march towards their properties against the continuing Turkish military presence in Northern Cyprus and the occupation of their homes and properties. The refugees demand was the complete withdrawal of Turkish troops, and their return to their former properties. Starting peacefully at first, the civilian demonstration got noisier and more threatening as the demonstration neared the Green Line.
The toll of the anti-occupation rally was one Greek Cypriot dead and 41 injured, 36 Greek Cypriot civilians, three police officers and two police officers serving with one of the two British bases on the island.
A Greek Cypriot demonstrator, Anastasios (Tasos) Isaak - despite repeated warnings not to do so[citation needed] - managed to cross into the buffer zone and came face to face with Turkish counter-demonstrators and Turkish Military. He was beaten to death with iron bars and clubs. Armed members of the Turkish Cypriot Police participated in the killing[3].
Police said in a statement that “the dead, Anastasios (Tasos) Isaac, a recently married 24-year old man whose wife is pregnant, from Paralimni, was trapped in barbed wire in the buffer zone and was beaten by the Turkish occupation troops with stones and batons”.
More than 2,000 people were involved in the demonstration.[citation needed] President Glafkos Clerides condemned the killing of a Greek Cypriot demonstrator by the Turkish forces and called on the international community to “understand that the continuing Turkish occupation of part of Cyprus is a provocation”. In a statement, issued after the killing, the president said “This criminal and abhorrent act is another example of the ruthlessness of the occupation troops and constitutes a blatant contempt of every principle of international law and violation of UN fundamental principles”.
The President extended his condolences and sympathy to his widow and his family. The government has announced that the funeral of the dead Greek Cypriot will be at the state's expense.
Solomos Solomou (26) Tasos Isaaks first cousin was among hundreds of mourners who entered the U.N. buffer-zone after Tasos Isaak's funeral, on 14 August 1996, to lay a wreath on the spot where Isaak died. Solomou was shot dead at close range as he was climbing a flag-pole in order to tear down a TRNC flag. He had crossed the Green Line in order to climb the flag, pointedly ignoring warnings from the Turkish Cypriot police that he would be shot if he did not desist.[4]. Following an investigation by the authorities of the Republic of Cyprus the killers were identified on video and pictures and legal proceedings were taken against them, to be applied when they are found outside Turkey or the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus. The two suspects, both officials of the illegal TRNC, are:
- Kenan Akin, Minister of Agriculture, Forest and Natural Resources at the time.[citation needed]
- Erdan Emanet, Chief of Special Forces at the time.[citation needed]Rauf Denktaş, the President of the TRNC, was alleged to be himself present at this incident, watching and photographing the last few moments of Solomou’s life.[citation needed]
Solomos shot by Kenan Akin and Erdan Emanet.
Both killings were witnessed by UNFICYP personnel (two of whom were injured by the Turkish shootings) and by the United Nations Force Commander [5].
None has ever been prosecuted to date. [citation needed]
In a UN Press Briefing right after the Solomou events New York Congressman Eliot Engel said: “For the first time in many years, the Turkish Government was not secular, and since it had come to power, "we've seen one provocation after another". The recent actions in Cyprus might be a symbol that the new Turkish Government was trying to provoke a war, he said[citation needed]. "The solution is the immediate demilitarization of Cyprus." [6]
[edit] Greek Cypriot Women Demonstrating against Turkish Occupation
Greek Cypriot women repeatedly made attempts to return to their homes and properties and were stopped, many arrested by the de facto Turkish Cypriot police. The case of Loizidou v. TURKEY for instance, began in 1989, when Turkish military forces, which currently occupy 37% of Cypriot land, disallowed Ms. Loizidou, a Greek Cypriot citizen, from entering land which was legally hers.[7]
On July 24, 1989, several thousand Greek-Cypriot women attempted to return to their homes and properties.[1]
"Stop," a Turkish-Cypriot guard pleaded as the first phalanx of women waving white flags and banners reading "We Come in Peace" swarmed past him near the village of Lymbia southeast of Nicosia.
Six Greek Cypriot women were sexually assaulted and beaten by Turkish-Cypriot prison guards[citation needed] and police after being arrested for taking part in the protest demanding to return to their homes and properties.
Several hundred Greek-Cypriot women were in the fourth day of a sit-in outside the headquarters of the 2,300-man United Nations peacekeeping force. They were demanding freedom for 108 Greek Cypriot women arrested by Turkish-Cypriot police when they stormed across the U.N.-patrolled buffer zone to protest the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus.
On March 20, 1989, about 3,000 Greek-Cypriot women stormed past troops into North Cyprus to protest the division of the island. Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, said anyone crossing the UN buffer zone would be arrested. Witnesses said women were dragged kicking and screaming into Turkish-Cypriot custody. Some had their hair pulled, received bruises or were cut by barbed wire.[citation needed] The Greek women, organized by a committee called Women Walk Home, ended both protests after about three hours. Many were among 200,000 Greek Cypriots who left their homes in the north after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
Officially, any Turkish Cypriot living in the north (providing that he or she could prove Cypriot lineage before 1974), can work and reside freely in the south of the Republic of Cyprus or in Europe as the Turkish Cypriot Communitys' rights are safeguarded by the Constitution of Cyprus and the Cyprus membership in the European Union.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c http://countrystudies.us/cyprus/32.htm
- ^ http://countrystudies.us/cyprus/15.htm
- ^ http://www.hr-action.org/chr/tassos.html
- ^ http://www.hri.org/Cyprus/Cyprus_Problem/bikers/murder_2.html
- ^ http://agrino.org/humrights/hr06/derynia.htm
- ^ http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs/1996/19960816.cyprus.16a.html
- ^ http://www.hr-action.org/action/loizidou.html
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- U.N., U.S. fault Turkey for Greek Cypriot deaths
- UN Press Briefing in response to the recent killings of two Greek Cypriot demonstrators
- Turkish Brutality
- Associated Press: Greek prime minister warns Turkish troops on Cyprus
- Associated Press: Greek leader to visit Cyprus amid tension over killings
- Police account of anti-occupation
- Demonstrations for missing persons
- The Loizidou case
- Women of Cyprus Demonstrations
