Category: Cyprus/TRNC

CYPRUS- TRNC A VIGIL FOR FREEDOM

CALLING ALL TURKS &FRIENDS OF TURKEY
A VIGIL FOR FREEDOM OF TURKISH CYPRIOTS
Sunday, July 19, 2009 / 6:00pm to Monday, July 20, 2009 / 12:00pm

IN FRONT OF THE TURKISH EMBASSY, DC
2525 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C 20008

Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) is leading a VIGIL to respond to the extremist Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA). We will always be grateful to the Turkish Armed Forces for the Cyprus Peace Operation of July 20, 1974 which stopped the savage ethnic cleansing of the Turkish Cypriots by Greek Eoka guerrillas.

Please contact us at 202.483.9090 or 240.888.2860 and let us know you are coming.

What is happening to our Uygur brothers and sisters to day, has happened for years to Cypriot Turks and still happening.

A look at the history of Cyprus, shows that it was never a Greek island.
1571-1878 Ottomans ruled, Turkish and Greek Cypriots lived in peace.
1878 Britain took over the provisional administration.
1914 Britain annexed Cyprus.Terrorist acts by Greeks started

Statrting 1955, the Cypriot Turks were subjected to increased repression, cruelties, intimidation by the terrorist organization EOKA. From 1955 to 1958 Turkish Cypriots were driven from the mixed villages, their houses were burnt.
EOKA’s aim, supported both the extremist Greek Cypriots and Greece was to annihilate the Turkish Cypriots and achieve union (Enosis) with Greece.

Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots resisted.
1960 Republic of Cyprus was established based on the equality and partnership of the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, with Turkey, Greece and Britain as guarantors.
After 1960, the terrorist acts and ethnic cleansing by the Greek Cypriots, and EOKA continued and became worse.

Nearly 30,000 Turkish Cypriots were forced from their homes and became refugees in enclaves which corresponded to 3% of the territory of Cyprus, whereas the Turkish Cypriot community previously inhabited on nearly 30% of the island. The refugees lived according to a UN statement in “veritable siege”. All necessities as well as utilities had to be brought in through the Greek Cypriot lines. The Greek Cypriots placed embargoes, control points and other restrictions on the enclaves which largely cut them off from the outside world. The UN moved in to supply a lifeline to the people in the enclaves.
More than 100 Turkish Cypriot villages were destroyed, hundreds of Cypriot Turks were murdered, wounded, taken hostages. Many went missing.
Greeks sent secretly 20,000 troops to the island with the aim of eventual take over of the island to realize Enosis, annexation to Greece.
The world, especially Western Powers looked the other way.

July 15,1974 there was a coup in Cyprus, a terrorist group took over the island’s government.
Of the guarantor nations, Greece itself was instigating the coup, Britain refused to get involved.
July 20, 1974, Turkey had no choice but to intervene militarily and started the Peace Operation in Cyprus.

Around that time, US Ambassador to Cyprus, Rodger Davies and his aide were assassinated by Greek EOKA terrorists, one of the many Greek terrorist acts against US and Turkish diplomats over the years.

Since July 20, 1974 when the Turkish Armed Forces took over the Northern part of Cyprus and brought order to the island, there were no deaths, terrorist acts, coercion or ethnic cleansing in the island.
Two communities live in peace, each separate with its own independent government and administration.
In 1983 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was established.
In 2004 the Turkish Cypriots overwhelmingly voted for the Annan plan (unification of the island) and the Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected it.

However an unprecedented injustice against the Cypriot Turks continues to this day.
In 1990 Greek part of Cyprus applied for membership in the European Union(EU). After intense lobbying and extreme propaganda, Greek part of Cyprus was accepted to EU in 1997, an unlawful, illegitimate, and unwise act by the EU making a federal settlement in the island impossible.

Also since 1974 a most unfair and damaging embargo has been applied to Turkish Cyprus, with the objective to choke the Turkish Cypriots economically.
To this day the embargo continues with its absurd and cruel rules.

In 1974 The Washington Post reported that “the Greek Cypriots wanted to be left alone to kill Turkish Cypriots, and the Turkish Republic put a stop to that”

The Peace Operation led by the Turkish Armed Forces in 1974, is taught throughout American law school human rights classes as one of few military operations in the world that have resulted in increased human rights and democracy.
—
Oya Bain
oyabain@gmail.com

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Vigil_TurkishCypriots-II.doc

July 14, 2009
Sarkisian Signals Frustration With Turkey

Armenia — President Serzh Sarkisian.

06.07.2009

Sarkis Harutiunian

After months of upbeat statements, President Serzh Sarkisian signaled on Monday his frustration with Turkey’s failure so far to unconditionally normalize relations with Armenia despite concessions made by him.

“We want to eliminate closed borders remaining in Europe and to build normal relationships without preconditions,” he said, commenting on Turkish-Armenian relations after talks with the visiting President Demetris Christofias of Cyprus. “But in that endeavor, we do not intend to allow [anyone] to use the negotiating process for misleading the international community.”

“Unfortunately, in our case, failure to honor mutual agreements leads to greater distrust and a deeper gap and requires much greater efforts in the future,” said Sarkisian. He did not go into further details.

Sarkisian and his foreign minister, Eduard Nalbandian, have until now sounded cautiously optimistic about prospects for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey and the reopening of their border. Both men have effectively downplayed Ankara’s renewed linkage between Turkish-Armenian reconciliation and the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Armenian president has been under fire from his political opponents over a lack of tangible results in Armenia’s unprecedented rapprochement with Turkey that began shortly after he took office in April 2008. He faced particularly strong criticism at home and in the worldwide Armenian Diaspora in late April after Ankara and Yerevan announced a still unpublicized “roadmap” to normalizing bilateral ties.

The announcement came on the eve of the annual remembrance of more than one million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks during World War One. The timing is believed to have made it easier for U.S. President Barack Obama to backtrack on his pledges to officially recognize the massacres as genocide.

Sarkisian’s harshest critics have accused him of willingly sacrificing U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide without securing the lifting of the 16-year Turkish blockade of Armenia. They have also condemned his apparent acceptance of a Turkish proposal to form a commission of historians that would look into the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Armenia — President Serzh Sarkisian (R) meets with his Cypriot counterpart Demetris Christofias in Yerevan on July 6, 2009.

Speaking at a news conference with Christofias, Sarkisian said they discussed the Turkish-Armenian dialogue and the Karabakh conflict in addition to issues related to bilateral ties. In a joint statement, the two leaders said they will strive to deepen the Armenian-Cypriot relationship.

Christofias voiced support for Armenia’s efforts to forge closer links with the European Union, of which Cyprus is a member. “Armenia can regard Cyprus as its envoy to the European Union,” he said.

https://www.azatutyun.am/a/1770699.html

July 6, 2009
Turkey to ‘never give up’ EU bid

Turkey has urged France and Germany to back its bid to join the EU, rejecting calls for a special partnership rather than full membership.

“We will never give up,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters in Brussels.

Turkey’s EU accession talks are going at a glacial pace and risk suspension if Ankara fails to open its ports and airports to Cyprus this year.

France and Germany want to give Turkey a “privileged partnership” with the EU.

But Mr Erdogan insisted “our goal is full membership”.

He also said it was “populist and wrong” to use Turkey’s bid as an election issue.

Some right-wing parties opposed to Turkey’s bid made gains in the recent European Parliament elections.

Slow progress

The BBC’s Oana Lungescu says both opposition inside the EU and insufficient democratic reforms in Turkey are hampering its bid.

Next week will see a small step forward, when Turkey is due to start talks on taxation, one of the 35 areas where it is negotiating EU entry terms.

Turkish diplomats argue that their country is of strategic importance to Europe and that its eventual accession would send a positive signal to the whole Muslim world.

So far, Turkey has opened talks on 10 out of the 35 “negotiation chapters” in the accession process, which started in October 2005.

But eight chapters have been frozen because of Ankara’s refusal to open up its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus, an EU member.

Turkey says it will not do this until the EU takes steps to end the Turkish Cypriot community’s economic isolation.

BBC

June 27, 2009
ORDER OF MAKARIOS GIVEN TO ECJ HEAD JUDGE

turkish forums note: Makarios is a gradute of Heybeliada Ruhban Okulu, Same as many greek-pontos terrorist groups lieders as in the ISTIKLAL Savasi (War Of Independence) . These terrorist groups fight against Mustafa kemal’s ARMY and killed innocent civilians to increase their local population index in that region.. same as the works of terrorist armenian groups.

It has been revealed that the President of the Court of Justice of the European Communities (ECJ), Greek Vassilios Skouris, was awarded the Grand Collar of the Order of Makarios III on 2 November 2006 for ‘His sincere and strong feelings for the people of Cyprus (Greek Cypriots)’.

It is the same Greek ECJ President Vassilios Skouris who signed the verdict of the ECJ dated 28 April 2009 regarding the Orams Case – the case that is so closely related to the Property Issue in Cyprus and that has a potential to cause a negative influence on the economic and political life in North Cyprus. The Grand Collar of the Order of Makarios III is an honor given by South Cyprus and is the lowest of the six levels in the Order. Further information shared by Ajans Kibris is that Skouris visited Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and other high executives in the South during his visit in February 2009 just 3 months before the Orams verdict was announced.

Honor just after Orams case

Skouris was awarded the Order by then Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos at the Greek Cypriot Presidential Palace a year after the Orams were taken to court in the South in 2005. The case was sent to the ECJ at the end of 2007 by the English High Court supported by the Greek Cypriot side with the approval of the Turkish side.

Papadopoulos thanked

During the ceremony held to award the honor to Skouris, the then Greek Cypriot President Papadopoulos was noted to have “Thanked Skouris for his support to Cyprus” Skouris thanked Papadopoulos for the honor and said that receiving the Order was an honor both for him personally and the Court of Justice of the European Communities. Vassilios Skouris has been the President of the ECJ since 7 October 2003 and he was re-elected for another term through 9 October 2006-6 October 2009.

Verdict not judicial but political

One of the Turkish Cypriot Senior Executive Officers commented on the issue and said that the honor conferred on Vassilios Skouris proved that ECJ’s verdict was not judicial but was political. The Executive Officer emphasized that Turkish Cypriot should raise their voices against this verdict and he said: “If the public take to the streets, the verdict won’t be effective.” ‘Orams verdict Reaction Platform’ was founded in the TRNC as a reaction against the Orams verdict and members of the platform protested the verdict in front of Northern Cyprus representative offices of Britain and the EU.

June 27, 2009
Health Reasons Force Erdogan to Cancel Athens Visit

Health Reasons Force Erdogan to Cancel Athens Visit

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 6 Issue: 119

June 22, 2009

By: Saban Kardas

On June 20 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled a planned trip to Athens. Although his health condition was offered as the reason for the last-minute cancellation, it did not prevent speculation that Erdogan sought to use the pretext of his health concern to protest about recent Greek diplomatic initiatives against Turkey.

Erdogan was scheduled to visit Athens to attend the opening the new Acropolis Museum. Prior to the opening ceremony, Erdogan was expected to meet Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, and both were to address bilateral issues including the conditions of minorities, as well as recent developments regarding the Cyprus dispute (Cihan Haber Ajansi, June 19). On the morning of June 20, Erdogan attended some meetings in the Aegean town of Izmir. He was expected to fly to Athens later that afternoon and return to Turkey that night. It was later announced that Erdogan had telephoned Karamanlis and informed him of his cancellation. He told Karamanlis that he would like to visit Athens at the earliest opportunity. A statement from Erdogan’s office explained that due to sunstroke, which Erdogan experienced during his visit to Edirne on June 19, his doctors had recommended rest. On June 21 he also cancelled the rest of his program in Izmir and his trips inside Turkey, and returned to Istanbul to rest over the weekend (ANKA, June 20).

Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told reporters on June 21 that Erdogan was in good condition, and would resume his functions the following day. Arinc added that Erdogan had experienced temporary hypertension related to weariness, but this was not a serious problem. After resting in Istanbul, Erdogan was expected in Ankara on June 23, to attend an AKP party meeting and also have a working lunch with E.U. ambassadors (Anadolu Ajansi, June 21).

However, the official statement did not satisfy some diplomatic observers who believe that political motives were behind Erdogan’s last-minute decision. They suggested two issues which might have influenced Erdogan’s decision: Karamanlis’ public complaints about the Turkish Air Force allegedly violating Greek airspace in the Aegean Sea and the E.U. Presidency’s latest conclusions which referred to Turkey as a country of origin and transit in illegal immigration, at Greece’s urging (Radikal, Hurriyet Daily News, June 21). The Greek media also speculated that Erdogan might have cancelled his trip to express his displeasure over these developments. They argued that Erdogan might have wanted to avoid confronting Karamanlis on the Aegean and illegal immigrants’ issues (Anadolu Ajansi, June 20).

An interrelated set of disputed claims by Ankara and Athens in the Aegean Sea has proved a major long-standing bilateral source of tension between the two countries. Due to the ongoing controversy over the delimitation of national airspace, Flight Information Regions (FIR) and military over-flight rights, Turkish and Greek fighters engage each other in tactical military provocations (so-called “dog-fights”), which frequently heighten tensions between the two countries. Greece considers the flights of Turkish jets in the disputed zones as violations of its national airspace or transgressions of the FIR. During his contacts in Brussels in the context of the E.U. Summit, Karamanlis reiterated Athens’s complaints concerning Turkish jets’ “violations of Greek airspace,” and added that he “discussed this issue with Obama and would raise it during [his] meeting with Erdogan” (www.cnnturk.com, June 19).

The Greek attempt to use the E.U. as leverage to pressure Turkey on a different issue also reportedly angered Ankara. Last week, the European Council discussed the challenge of illegal immigrants, and ways to improve cooperation with countries of origin and transit. The presidency conclusions issued at the end of the summit announced that, as part of its external policies, the E.U. will seek to sign readmission agreements with major countries of origin and transit. By the time such agreements are concluded, the E.U. will require the implementation of existing bilateral agreements (www.eu2009.cz, June 19). Greece reportedly threatened to veto the presidency conclusions, if the European Council did not specify Turkey, along with Libya, as a key country of origin and transit. Although Turkey was not mentioned in the draft document, following last-minute changes, the final communiqué made reference to it (www.abhaber.com, June 19).

Athens claims that a great majority of illegal immigrants arriving in Greece transit Turkey and it expects Ankara to be more cooperative in the readmission of those immigrants. Ankara claims that since the final destination of those immigrants are E.U. countries, Turkey cannot be expected to bear the heavy financial burden of readmitting them, which would cost over 1.2 million Euros and demands fairer burden-sharing (Hurriyet, June 20).

The declared justification for Erdogan’s cancellation of his trip is perhaps true; yet, the very fact that it resulted in such speculation indicates the level of tension between the two countries. Athens has long blocked the progress of Turkish-E.U. relations, and the two neighbors even came to the brink of war over the Aegean issues in the 1990’s. In the post-1999 period, when the Turkish-E.U. talks were revitalized following the Helsinki Summit, bilateral relations entered a new phase. The resulting normalization of the relationship produced concrete results; in addition to launching diplomatic talks to discuss a resolution to the bilateral issues, Athens removed its objections to Ankara’s entry into the European Union. During the rapid wave of domestic reforms following the AKP’s accession to power in 2002, which resulted in the launch of membership talks in 2005, Erdogan developed a close working relationship with his Greek counterpart and visited Athens twice in 2004. However, parallel to the stalling of Turkey’s E.U. accession process since 2005, Turkish-Greek relations also experienced a downturn, which largely resulted from Turkey’s inability to resolve its differences with Greek Cypriots. If he is serious about his claim to revive Turkey’s E.U. bid, Erdogan must talk to his Greek counterpart and reach a consensus on bilateral and E.U. related issues. In this context, he might soon visit Athens.

https://jamestown.org/program/health-reasons-force-erdogan-to-cancel-athens-visit/

June 23, 2009
Greek Cyprus and Turkey clash over oil exploration

Published: Thursday 11 June 2009

Cyprus said on 10 June it would press on with offshore oil exploration, despite strong objections from Turkey, and would open new fields for hydrocarbon research by early next year.

Cypriot Industry Minister Antonis Paschalides told Reuters in an interview that Turkey’s decision to send warships to the area last year had not deterred investors eager to search for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean.

The first exploration deal was clinched with US company Noble Energy, which has already found a large gas reservoir off nearby Israel.

“The first round has been completed,” he said. “We expect that around the end of this year, the beginning of next, we can proceed with the second licensing round.”

In 2007, Cyprus launched its first licensing round for hydrocarbons in 11 offshore blocks, most in deepwater locations, despite objections from Turkey, which invaded the north of Cyprus in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup.

In November last year, EU member Cyprus protested to the United Nations that Turkish warships had repeatedly harassed Norwegian research vessels off the southern rim of the island over blocks earmarked for exploration.

Turkey, which lies north of Cyprus, said the research ships had encroached on its continental shelf.

On Wednesday, Turkish officials called on Cyprus to abandon the project, saying the Greek Cypriot government in the south did not represent the whole island.

“We expect the Greek Cypriot authorities to end their calls for international tender,” said a Turkish foreign ministry official who requested anonymity. “Insistence […] will adversely affect the peace and stability on the island of Cyprus, as well as in the Eastern Mediterranean region.”

Paschalides said the incidents involving Turkey were not deterring companies from a second round, which would offer 12 blocks in a process where companies acquire data with the option of moving on to exploration, then exploitation.

“From the interest shown, there is no discouragement. We are optimistic that big companies are interested, international companies from many countries such as the United States, Russia, China and European countries.”

Israel’s find encouraging

The 12 plots include 10 from the first round but with more research data, and another two which have just opened for exploration.

Cyprus, over-reliant on heavy fuel oil imports and slow to switch to cleaner energy, was encouraged by Israel’s discovery because the area is only 65 km from the Cypriot field that Noble Energy will be exploring.

“We are optimistic if we take into account the Israel plot, where huge quantities of gas were found, neighbouring our own,” Paschalides said.

Asked whether Cyprus would change its planning after Turkey’s reaction, he said: “Not at all […] any natural wealth of Cyprus belongs to the Republic of Cyprus and the Cyprus people, and only them. We wish that the Cyprus problem would be solved so the Turkish Cypriots, as citizens of this Republic, could reap the same benefits.”

Turkish Cypriots in the north of the divided island say their Greek Cypriot rivals have no authority to explore for oil or gas and have warned the dispute could upset reunification talks.

Paschalides said Cyprus would continue to block EU aspirant Turkey’s energy negotiations with Brussels as a result of this dispute and intended to open more areas for exploration in future.

“How can Turkey stake claims and want to get into Europe, want to open the energy chapter, yet question the sovereign rights of an EU member state?,” he said. “What will Turkey do? Go and attack US research vessels?”

(EurActiv with Reuters.)

June 11, 2009