Cyprus has never been a Greek Island. It is both useful and important to keep in mind that there has never been in Cyprus a "Cypriot nation" due to the distinct national, religious and cultural characteristics of each ethnic people who, in addition, speak different languages.
It is also interesting to note that although the two peoples had lived together in the Island for centuries there were practically no inter-marriages and not even a single commercial partnership was set up. There are, in fact, two peoples of Cyprus - the Turkish Cypriots numbering about Cyprus lies 40 miles from the coast of Turkey, and Turkish people have inhabited the island since the 12th century.
The Island is miles from the nearest Greek island Rhodes , and Athens is miles away. The Greek and Turkish Cypriots lived relatively peacefully until Greece gained its independence from the Ottomans in The ultimate aim of the Greeks and Greek Cypriots was to oust the British and annex Cyprus to Greece and in order to Hellenize the entire population of the Island. The period following the formal annexation of Cyprus by Britain in can be characterized as the high tide of Greek nationalistic ambitions in Cyprus.
The Greek Cypriots, in conspiracy with Greece, launched a violent campaign for annexing the Island to Greece in Today, the Cyprus question can perhaps be summarized as follows: The partnership Republic formed in between the two peoples of Cyprus broke down in For the time being, Greek and Turkish Cypriots live apart. Does the future of Cyprus lie in a new political integration or in an arms length relationship based on willing and active co-operation between two peoples, each secure in its own sovereign territory and each with its own customs, traditions and identity?
On 15th August The Daily Telegraph wrote "Turkish Cypriots have constitutional right on their side and understandably fear a renewal of persecution if the Turkish army withdraws. Almost nowhere in the world is there a lasting peace that is not based on people's rights to govern themselves. They do not however go back before 20th July Refusal to consider the preceding 15 years means that important legal and political issues wrongly determined in favour of the Greek Cypriots remain as a continuing source of tension between the former partners.
The most important of these issues is international acceptance of the Greek Cypriot regime as the government of all Cyprus and refusal to recognise the right of the Turkish Cypriots to establish their own structure. It is therefore necessary to look in some detail at the reasons why the present situation has arisen and why, in consequence, both sides and particularly the less numerous Turkish Cypriots need reliable safeguards for their future.
One of the most remarkable features of the Cyprus question is the extent to which the Greek Cypriots have been able to repudiate solemn international agreements and violate the human rights of the Turkish Cypriots on a massive scale and yet by a quite astonishing feat of public relations, have secured for themselves recognition as the government of all Cyprus and have persuaded the world that they, and not the Turkish Cypriots, are the victimized party.
The consequence of this is that they have been able to extract one sided resolutions from the United Nations and other international organisations, and have been able to secure court judgments based on the fact of recognition which have been immensely damaging to the Turkish Cypriots.
The Turkish Cypriots have, for about forty years, been deprived of an official voice in the world and have been deprived of the financial resources to match the Greek Cypriots in the presentation of their case to the world community. For more than forty years - ever since the overthrow of the Agreement - the Turkish Cypriots and their government have been faced with one of the hardest tasks in the whole range of international affairs - how to get the world to change its mind after it has got hold of the wrong end of the stick and clung to it year after year.
The alternatives to this partnership were: two separate states, a condominium, division of the island between Greece and Turkey, return of the Island to Turkey under the Lease, or continued British rule. The negotiations in Zurich and London preceding independence were long and difficult, but it was eventually agreed by way of compromise between all five participants; Britain, Greece, Turkey, the Turkish Cypriots, and the Greek Cypriots; that the new state would be a bi-communal partnership Republic with a single international identity, but a unique Constitution which embodied an agreed political partnership between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and which prohibited the political or economic union of Cyprus with any other state.
As a compromise solution to the conflicting aspirations of the two ethnic peoples, the Republic of Cyprus was established in The Zurich and London Agreements of paved the way to a new Cyprus Republic, which was a bi-national partnership State, based on the political equality of the two peoples as co-founder partners of the new Republic.
The sovereignty of Cyprus was limited by the guarantor rights given to three countries, namely Turkey, Greece and the UK. Therefore, the settlement was a "sui generis" one. At the conclusion of the negotiations, the then Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios, said "Sending cordial good wishes to all the Greeks and Turks of Cyprus, I greet with joy the Agreement reached and proclaim with confidence that this day will be the beginning of a new period of progress and prosperity for our country".
On 6th March , President Eisenhower endorsed the agreement as "a victory for common sense" an "imaginative act of statesmanship" and "a splendid achievement. In the first Presidential elections in Cyprus Mr. John Clerides father of Glafcos Clerides stood against Makarios on a platform of opposition to the Agreements and lost by a majority of two to one of the Greek Cypriot electorate. The bi-communal structure was fundamental to the accords, on the basis of which the Republic of Cyprus achieved independence, and recognition as a sovereign state from the international community.
Accordingly, from its very inception the Republic of Cyprus was never a unitary state in which there is only one electorate with a majority and minority. The two communities were political equals and each existed as a political entity, just as both large and small states exist within the structure of the European Union.
They did not however have the same constitutional rights because the agreements took into account the fact that there were more Greek Cypriots than Turkish Cypriots. Knowing that they could not enforce the agreement themselves, the Turkish Cypriots would never have agreed to join the new Republic if the Greek Cypriots had not accepted a Treaty of Guarantee which gave Turkey a legal right to intervene, with troops if necessary.
Independence was formally granted on 16th August As stated above, the case of Cyprus is sui generis, for there is no other State in the world which came into being as a result of two politically equal peoples coming together by the exercise by each of its sovereign right of self-determination, to create a unique legal relationship, which was guaranteed by international treaty, to which each of them consented.
In , the two peoples brought about the bi-national state of Cyprus in line with the Zurich and London Agreements of They together, under agreed terms of cooperation and partnership, shared the legislative, executive, judicial and other functions. Matters which the two peoples had managed on a "Communal" basis over the centuries - like education, religion, family law, etc. In effect, a "functional federative system" had been established by the two co-founder peoples of the Republic.
On 28th July the Greek Cypriot President Makarios said "the agreements do not form the goal -they are the present and not the future. The Greek Cypriot people will continue their national cause and shape their future in accordance with their will. They were told that the statements were just rhetoric, or were for internal consumption within the Greek Cypriot community. However, the Turkish Cypriots were to discover very soon that when Greek Cypriot leaders make statements of that kind they should be taken seriously.
Similar statements are still being made by Greek Cypriot leaders even today, and Turkish Cypriots are still being urged not to take them seriously. The Constitution provided that separate municipalities be established for Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. The Greek Cypriots refused to obey this mandatory provision and in order to encourage them to do so the Turkish Cypriots said they would not vote for the Government's taxation proposals. In February Cyprus Mail On 25th April the Court did rule against them and they did ignore it.
The President of the Court a German citizen resigned and the rule of law in Cyprus collapsed. Even Greece was embarrassed by this Greek Cypriot behaviour. On 19th April , Greek Foreign Minister Averoff had written to Makarios "It is not permissible for Greece in any circumstances to accept the creation of a precedent by which one of the contracting parties can unilaterally abrogate or ignore provisions that are irksome to it in international acts which this same party has undertaken to respect.
The aim was to reduce the Turkish Cypriot people to the status of a mere minority, wholly subject to the control of the Greek Cypriots, pending their ultimate destruction or expulsion from the island. Insofar as the Constitution became unworkable, it was because the Greek Cypriot leadership refused to fulfil the obligations to which they had agreed. The doctrine of necessity in international law applies to supervening impossibility due to extraneous and unforseen causes. It does not apply to self-induced causes.
There is in particular no doctrine of necessity known to international law which could justify the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children. At Christmas the Greek Cypriot militia attacked Turkish Cypriots across the island, and many men, women, and children were killed. On 2nd January the Daily Telegraph wrote "The Greek Cypriot community should not assume that the British military presence can or should secure them against Turkish intervention if they persecute the Turkish Cypriots.
We must not be a shelter for double-crossers. A UN peace-keeping force was stationed in the Island in March , which was not able to improve the situation since political power was usurped by the Greek Cypriots. The United Nations not only failed to condemn the usurpation of the legal order in Cyprus by force, but actually rewarded it by treating the by then wholly Greek Cypriot administration as if it were the Government of Cyprus Security Council Res. This acceptance has continued to the present day, and reflects no credit upon the United Nations, nor upon Britain and the other countries who have acquiesced in it.
Judging from the English newspapers and many others, the feeling is very strong indeed against Makarios and his so-called government and nothing would please the British people more than to see him toppled and the Cyprus problem solved by the direct dealings between the Turks and the Greeks.
As a result of the Turkish military invasion and occupation, , Greek-Cypriots fled their homes becoming refugees in their own country. To this day the occupying forces impede the return of refugees to their homes and property. By the end of , the vast majority of Turkish-Cypriots living in areas controlled by the legitimate government were forced to leave their homes and move, owing to Turkey's coercive policy, to the Turkish-occupied territory of the Republic of Cyprus.
Most of those who remained, mainly on the Karpasia Peninsula, were gradually forced to abandon the area. The number of Greek-Cypriots and Maronites currently living in the area has plummeted to persons. This dramatic decrease in the number of enclaved people is striking considering that based on the agreement reached in Vienna on 2 August , the Turkish side would have to provide the enclaved population with "every help to lead a normal life, including facilities for education and the practice of their religion, as well as medical care by their doctors of preference and freedom of movement in the North".
In breach of this agreement, on a practical level, the Turkish side subjected the enclaved to constant harassment, restrictions on movement, denial of access to adequate medical care, denial of adequate facilities for education, especially beyond elementary education, restrictions on the right to use their property and the free exercise of their religious rights.
It was, thus, a deliberate policy of national cleansing, forcing the enclaved to flee their homes. At the same time, Turkey has implemented a systematic policy of settlement of the occupied part of Cyprus since with the mass transfer of more than , Turks from Turkey in order to change the demographic profile and alter the population balance on the island.
This policy, together with driving the Greek -Cypriot inhabitants out of the region, the destruction of the cultural heritage, and the illegal change of geographical place names in the occupied part of Cyprus, aims at the elimination of every single, centuries-old Greek and Christian element, and eventually the "turkification" of the region. For Cypriots, the ongoing crime of the Turkish occupation of their beloved country seems as fresh at each anniversary as it was then. It was a day that no Cypriot and no Greek will indeed ever forget.
The eerie sound of sirens broke the warm stillness of that July day in both countries, signaling the end of an era. But only Cyprus felt the horror of the invading Turkish troops and the mayhem they unleashed on the unsuspecting people — mostly women, children and the elderly.
It was in the morning when the war sirens signified the descent of hell upon the beautiful country of Cyprus. This was only the first part of the Cyprus tragedy, however.
On August 14, , the tragedy was compounded by the occupation of the beautiful seaside city of Famagusta and the Karpas Peninsula. An estimated 5, people were killed during the invasion and 1, were reported missing, but many historians believe the true toll of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus could be much higher.
0コメント