Cyprus 1974-2022: 48 years of enduring Turkish occupation and impunity

On 20 July 2022, while the attention of the world is on war in Ukraine, Lobby for Cyprus marks the passage of 48 years since Turkey launched the first of two brutal invasions of the Republic of Cyprus.

As has been well-documented, Turkey used a coup against the government of the Republic of Cyprus, which was orchestrated on 15 July 1974 by the junta then ruling Greece, as a pretext to invade the Republic and implement a premeditated plan.

As a result of its two invasions, the second of which was launched on 14 August 1974, three weeks after the collapse of the coupist regimes in Athens and Nicosia, Turkey ethnically cleansed as well as illegally occupied 36 per cent of the Republic of Cyprus and 57 per cent of its coastline.

Turkey thereby enforced a de facto apartheid-style segregation, with Cypriot citizens of Greek and Christian heritage forced to live in the south and Cypriot citizens of Turkish and Muslim heritage forced to live in the Turkish-occupied north.

In 1974, Turkey not only undermined the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of a virtually undefended member state of the UN, the Council of Europe and the Commonwealth. Turkey, a country with the second largest military in NATO, flagrantly violated the UN Charter, international humanitarian law, European human rights law and numerous treaties.

In pursuit of its premeditated plan and segregationist agenda, Turkey was responsible for multiple illegal outcomes, including:

• the forcible transfer of approximately 170,000 Greek and Christian Cypriot citizens from their homes in the Turkish-occupied north of the Republic of Cyprus, while coercing tens of thousands of Turkish and Muslim citizens of the Republic to move in the other direction;
• the mass colonisation of the Turkish-occupied north with citizens of Turkey;
• the mass murder of people;
• the mass rape of women and girls;
• the enforced disappearance of prisoners of war;
• the systematic destruction of the Greek and Christian heritage of the Turkish-occupied north;
• the plunder of the natural resources of the Republic of Cyprus in the Turkish-occupied north as well as in the Turkish-occupied territorial sea of the Republic; and
• the creation of an illegal state of affairs which has enabled the criminal underworld and fugitives from justice to flourish.

In 1974, as the world looked the other way, illegality triumphed and a culture of impunity was reinforced in south-east Europe, decades before Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Since 1974, the Republic of Cyprus has been held hostage by Turkey and those powerful states that, via the UN, have attempted to appease Turkey and foist on the Republic a so-called ‘bi-communal, bi-zonal federation’, a proposed ‘solution’ in line with the long-standing demands of Turkey.

Today, 48 years on, Lobby for Cyprus not only reiterates its condemnation of the enduring occupation, colonisation and exploitation of the areas which Turkey seized by force in 1974. Lobby for Cyprus also restates its long-standing opposition to any ‘solution’ based on the ‘bi-communal’ segregation of the citizens of the same sovereign state and the ‘bi-zonal’ carve-up of its territory into two homogeneous ethno-religious ‘zones’. Any such ‘solution’ would validate Turkey’s aggressive, discriminatory and segregationist policies.

It would turn a post-‘solution’ Cyprus into a satrap of Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian, irredentist, Islamist and nationalistic Turkey. And it would set a dangerous precedent for democracy worldwide.

Western states have been resolute in opposing Russia’s invasion and occupation in Ukraine, but why have they tolerated Turkey’s invasions and occupation of the Republic of Cyprus? Are Western states promoting, in plain sight, a two-tier system of principles, international law and human rights standards with one tier applied to ‘enemies’ and another applied on a politically expedient basis for one of their ‘partners’?

Lobby for Cyprus will never lose sight of the fact that this organisation was founded 30 years ago, in 1992, by ordinary people who were forcibly displaced from their homes by Turkey and compelled to rebuild their lives in the United Kingdom. As a defender of the rights and freedoms of all forcibly displaced citizens of the Republic of Cyprus, irrespective of ethnicity or religion, Lobby for Cyprus continues to campaign for a democratic, humane and just settlement that establishes an international legal framework which: enables all forcibly displaced citizens of the Republic of Cyprus to return to their homes and properties; removes all Turkish military personnel from the Republic; and humanely repatriates all Turkey’s colonists, subject to legitimate exceptions.

48 years on since Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus in 1974 and 30 years on since the establishment of Lobby for Cyprus in 1992, Lobby for Cyprus continues to reject the discriminatory ‘solution’ envisaged by Turkey, as it would reward aggression, occupation, illegality and impunity. At the same time, Lobby for Cyprus continues to call for a settlement that promotes democratic values, human rights, individual freedoms and the rule of law.

• #FreedomForCyprus
• #Δενξεχνώ

Invading Turkish troops in Cyprus, 1974.

The European Commission of Human Rights documented many of the appalling atrocities that were committed by the Turkish military.

Forcibly displaced persons fled from the Turkish-occupied north of the Republic of Cyprus.

Seminar: The de-facto Turkification of occupied Cyprus

Join us for a seminar to mark the passage of 48 years since Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus, to highlight the ongoing attempts to illegally transform the occupied north into a province of Turkey and to warn about the dangers lying ahead.

Wednesday 20 July 2022 • 7pm

Theatro Technis, 26 Crowndale Road, London NW1 1TT

The seminar will focus on ongoing systematic attempts by Turkey to transform the Turkish-occupied area of the Republic of Cyprus into an appendage of Turkey. The panelists will explore efforts sponsored by the Turkish government to erase the cultural and historic identity of the occupied area; the alteration of the demographic strucure of occupied Cyprus with Muslim Turkish colonists; the destruction of Greek and Christian heritage such as the conversion of churches into mosques; and the renaming of towns and villages from Greek to Turkish. The event will address the dangers that lie ahead for the Republic of Cyprus.