Action

Campaign of Action

On June 1st 2005 members of the US congress including Democrat Congressman from Florida Robert Wexler and Kentucky Democrat Congressman Wayne Edward Whitefield as well as representatives of American businesses plan to visit the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus via the Illegal Airport of Tymbou. This visit is totally illegal and violates US, EU and Cyprus laws. Please write to Congress and demand it be called off.

Campaign of Action

On May 4, 2005, it was reported that the Powell Dobson Partnership based in Wales had won an illegal contract from the Turkish occupation regime to design 250 holiday apartments for a new £15m scheme in occupied Cyprus on land and property belonging to Greek Cypriot refugees in the Karpass peninsula without their permission or the permission of the government of the Republic of Cyprus in violation of Cyprus and EU law.

Campaign of Action

On April 7, 2005, HEC became aware that an illegal football match was being arranged between Huddersfield Town and a team of the illegal Cyprus Turkish FA. Prompt action to inform the relevant authorities and Huddersfield Town that they had been mislead and that match’s in the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus are illegal resulted in the cancellation of the proposed event. We congratulate Huddersfield Town on their decision to cancel so as not to cause offence.

Campaign of Action

On March 17, 2005, officers of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) visited Occupied Cyprus via the Illegal airport of Tymbou violating the property rights of 200 Greek Cypriot refugees on whose property the illegal airport is built on, who have pending case in the European Court of Human Rights.

Draft Letter of Protest

On Friday February 18^th, 2005 an advert appeared on page 70 of the London Evening Standard promoting illegal holidays in occupied Cyprus and travel to the occupied areas by an illegal port of entry thus violating the laws of the Republic of Cyprus and encouraging its reads to commit a criminal act.

Campaign of Protest

On February 11^th, 2005 it was announced that the trade attaché of the US Embassy in Ankara and 10 American companies are to visit the occupied areas of Cyprus illegally through the illegal occupied Tymbou airport with the aim of facilitating the unrecognised illegal occupation regime through trade which has not been approved by the legal Cyprus government.

This is not only a deliberate violation of the laws of the Republic of Cyprus which apply to all the territory on the island and to all companies operating in the EU but it is also in direct contravention of UN resolutions 541(1983), 550(1984) and US congressional law.

Draft Letter of Protest

On February 4^th, 2005 the British Liberal Democrat MEP for London, Baroness Sarah Ludford entered into the Republic of Cyprus illegally through the illegal airport in the occupied village of Tymbou along with leading Liberal Democrat local councillor Meral Ece who is of Turkish-Cypriot background.

Not only is this a deliberate violation of the laws of Cyprus but it is also in direct contravention of UN resolutions and the European Parliament’s code of conduct.

In-Depth Analysis of the Annan Plan

Petition to Change the Annan Plan

OXI ! NO to the Annan Plan

In November 2002 the dubious UN Secretary General Kofi Annan proposed a plan to partition Cyprus and create an apartheid state that would legalise the Turkish invasion and ethnic cleansing of Cyprus forever in complete disregard of the principles of the UN Charter over 130 UN resolutions and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Under the Annan Plan none of the over 200,000 Greek Cypriot refugees would have been able to return and reclaim their properties which would have been kept by the illegal occupiers including 150,000 illegal Turkish colonists who were transplanted into Cyprus in violation of the Geneva Convention, nor would they have received any compensation. Not one Turkish soldier or Turkish colonist would have forced to leave Cyprus soil while the government of Cyprus would have been effectively handed over to Turkey making Cyprus into a Turkish protectorate.

Not surprisingly the people of Cyprus rejected this unethical plan resoundingly.

The Facts vs. The Claims

On July 20, 1974 Turkey invaded Cyprus in violation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter and existing UN Resolutions and seized 5% of Cyprus territory in the Kyrenia district, which was overwhelmingly populated by Greek Cypriots. (See Maps).

Turkey claimed that Cyprus was invaded in-order to protect the Turkish Cypriots yet none had claimed that they were ever in danger and there were very few Turkish Cypriots living in the areas Turkey seized, which it proceeded to ethnically cleanse of their Greek Cypriot inhabitants.

On August 15 1974 Turkey violated a UN cease-fire and proceeded to attack Cyprus and annexed 38% of its territory, occupying it with 40,000 troops, 400 tanks, a division of the Turkish Navy, attack helicopters and other military hardware, which were supported by warplanes based in Turkey.

The invasion and ethnic cleansing of Cyprus was a long stated Turkish aim which had been planned since the 1950's and first attempted in 1964, even though Turkey had signed away all claims to Cyprus including the right of intervention in the 1923 Lausanne Treaty. The Green Line splitting Cyprus in two matches exactly that of the Atilla Line found on Turkish invasion maps of the 1950's and the plan for ethnically cleansing the Greek Cypriots from the north behind this line had been suggested to the UN Secretary General Galo Plaza in 1964 and is published in his report to the UN Security Council.

200,000 Greek Cypriots over 1/3 of the total Cyprus population were brutally ethnically cleansed by Turkey and made refugees in their own country.

In the wake of the Turkish invasion there was no reciprocal action or reprisals against the Turkish Cypriots by the Greek Cypriots. Cyprus did not attack Turkey nor were any Muslim Cypriots ever hurt.

Turkey held over 70,000 Cypriot Civilian Prisoners in Concentration Camps in occupied Cyprus and in Turkey as hostages. Over 1600 of these prisoners which included the old, women and children, whose names were known to the Red Cross but to which access was denied, have never returned. A further 8000 Greek Cypriots were killed by Turkey in the invasion.

Under instructions from Turkey which threatened to use force against civilians in the free areas and people held captive and which was already napalming civilian populated villages, the United Nations organized the transfer of 50,000 Muslims from the free areas into the occupied areas, none of whom had been harmed or threatened in any way or at any time by the Greek Cypriots.

In 1975 20,000 Greek Cypriots and Maronites remained enclaved in the Karpas Peninsula and Kyrenia. Since then all but 600 have be forced to leave through denial of basic rights including health care and education.

Since 1974 over 150,000 illegal Turkish colonists have been implanted into the occupied areas in violation of the Geneva Convention and now outnumber the Muslim Cypriots who now number less than 85,000. The Muslim Cypriots and are being forced to emigrate because of persecution by the illegal military occupation regime and nationalist gangs of Turkish colonists.

Over 90% of the Land, Property and Businesses in the occupied areas is legally owned by the Greek Cypriot Refugees as adjudged by the European Court of Human Rights.

Even though the Muslim Cypriots own less than 10% of the land and property in the occupied areas (which amounts to less than 4% of Cyprus territory) the illegal occupation regime which is seen a puppet of Turkey by ECHR denies the Greek Cypriot owners of the majority of the land and property in the occupied areas the right to return and reclaim it, while the Muslim Cypriot property owners are able to return to the free areas any time they wish.

Common Misconceptions

When referring to the issue of the illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of Cyprus by Turkey many journalists and politicians make use of terms or refer to historical positions that are sometimes inaccurate or contradict established legal precedents and UN resolutions. This page is has been created to give guidance on how to prevent these mistakes from occurring in future.