My country, Cyprus, became an independent state in 1960 after the 1955-1959 armed struggle of the Greek Cypriots against the British colonial rule. As of May 1, 2004, Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.  Cyprus is also a member of the United Nations, the Council of Europe, and the British Commonwealth.

In setting up the Republic of Cyprus, the British intended to accomplish three things :

(1) To plant the seeds of ethnic division between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, keeping them forever at odds with each other and allowing the British to intervene as and when their interests dictated. Divide and conquer was to apply to Cyprus as well.

(2) To keep for themselves two huge areas on the southeast and southwest coasts in the form of sovereign military bases as well as rights to conduct military exercises in the northwest national forest reserve of Akamas, bombing, burning, and littering it at will.

(3) To entice Turkey to implement its plans for capturing or partitioning Cyprus, ensuring that the region remained in tension as Britain's and NATO's great, trusted, and worthwhile friend and ally, Turkey bullied, ravaged, massacred, and raped.

These objectives were accomplished through much political mischief. Without just cause, Turkey was invited in 1956 to participate in talks for the future of the island, despite the fact that Turkey had, since the Treaty of Lausanne in 1926, abandoned all its interests over Cyprus. The 1956 talks lead to the Treaties of London and Zurich which formed the basis on which the Cyprus Constitution of 1960 was drawn. This Constitution became effective on August 16, 1960, by virtue of it having been dictated by the Treaties of Zurich and London and not by the Cypriots exercising their democratic right to vote for it!

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This Constitution (or rather the Treaties which prescribed it in detail) was, of course, by design non-functional and negotiations to amend it in 1963 failed, leading to a Turkey-incited mutiny by Turkish Cypriots who ceased participating in state affairs and functions and barricaded themselves in enclaves they created in Nicosia and other cities. Over the following decade, Turkey's continuing reluctance to come to an agreement, along with the rapid alienation between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, saw the gradual strategic positioning of Turkey to grab whatever opportunity would arise to capture Cyprus.

INVASION, OCCUPATION, COLONIZATION

This opportunity came on July 20, 1974, with the then mainland Greek military junta's failed coup against Cyprus President Archbishop Makarios. Turkey invaded Cyprus with 40.000 troops and U.S.-supplied arms and equipment, and by mid-August had essentially partitioned the island, having captured 35% of the land in the north. This resulted in 200.000 Greek Cypriots becoming refugees in their own country, leaving their homes and belongings, and never again being allowed to return. After the executions and the rapes came the looting and the ravaging of the land, of houses, shops, factories, hotels, and public buildings. The churches and monasteries were looted and then turned to stables, or converted to mosques, or burned. Soon after, Turkey proceeded to colonize the occupied areas by bringing 120.000 settlers from the depths of mainland Turkey, giving them the homes and property of Greek Cypriot refugees, and altering the demographic characteristics of the country by claiming the settlers to be Turkish Cypriots. However, this had an undesirable effect on all of us, because real Turkish Cypriots, being more Cypriots than they are Turks, having a radically different culture than the settlers, were unable to live together with them and were driven to emigrate from Cyprus by the thousands. In 1974 there were 118.000 Turkish Cypriots living in the occupied area of Cyprus ... now they are a minority of 88.000! Turkey is grossly guilty of colonization. Colonization is a war crime.

The problem that my country is facing is one of invasion, occupation, and colonization by Turkey. This is a fact well recognized by the entire international community, as attested to by the long series of United Nations Security Council resolutions issued since 1974, as well as by the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights which has ruled that Turkey is continuously breaching human rights by occupying the northern part of Cyprus.

Nevertheless, Turkey respects no one, least of all the resolutions of the United Nations and the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights! Turkey is the bully of the region, the rogue that mistreats its neighbours and its own people, the animal that should be caged, hauled to The Hague, and tried before the International Court of War Crimes. But this will never happen! With Britain and the U.S.A. as it's greatest friends and allies, there is yet another unholy alliance in history, one that is out to safeguard the interests of its members against the values of mankind and at all costs, especially if the costs are borne by small countries like my own, tiny countries that are strategically positioned near the volcano called Israel and with no natural resources to speak of. To see my point, consider to what lengths Britain and the U.S.A. have gone in the case of Kuwait, how swiftly they acted against the Iraqi aggression. Then compare with their gross inaction in the case of Cyprus and how they have been pampering Turkey, the agressor, since then! No oil, no justice!

THE ANNAN PLAN : CLOSING vs SOLVING

On 24 April 2004, the Cypriots voted in a referendum whether to accept a settlement plan engineered by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan under the guidance of Britain and the USA.  The plan provided for the foundation of a loose federation between the legitimate Republic of Cyprus and the illegal puppet "state" formed by Turkey in the occupied areas of the island.  The Annan Plan provides for the return of about 9% territory to the Republic of Cyprus over a 3-year period, in exchange for a 50-50 "federation" with the settlers from Turkey and the outnumbered turkish cypriots.  The Annan Plan also provides for some territory currently held by the British to be returned to both ethnic "states" in exchange for British rights to the Cyprus continental shelf.  However, most key issues of the Annan Plan were never resolved or even negotiated, and Annan, as an "arbitrator", wrote in what the powers that be dictated to him.  This resulted in a plan that, contrary to UN resolutions of the past 30 years, legitimizes the Turkish invasion of 1974, the occupation, the colonization and all repercussions over the years.  The plan reads as a shocking list of the shameful provisions that ....

• free Turkey of all liability in actions brought against it by Cypriots at the European Court of Human Rights, and transfer this liability to the Cypriots themselves,

• expand Turkey's right to intervene militarily on the island,

• allow Turkey to maintain troops on the island forever,

• allow all settlers to remain on the island,

• provide no means whatsoever of ensuring Turkey will honour its undertakings other than its non-existent good will,

• grossly deny Cypriots their human and civil rights,

• provide, with severe restrictions, the return of not more than 1/3 of a refugee's property in conjunction with a highly dubious long-term bond scheme to cover the remainder. 

The plan pretends to be "re-uniting" the island but in truth it provides for the deepening of the division of the people of Cyprus by ...

• creating two ethnic states, a "turkish" state and a "greek" state, that are largely independent of each other,

• divided airspace and coastline,  

• separate economies,

• a very weak federal government,

• severe limitations on the right of greeks to live in the "turkish" state,

• denying the right of greeks living in the "turkish" state to vote,

• a senate that provides for 24 turkish senators, 21 greek senators, and 3 senators of other minorities,

• and much more.

The Annan Plan was designed to be implemented before Cyprus joined the EU on 1/5/2004.  This is largely because a huge number of provisions which contravened human rights and the European aquis communitaire could not possibly be accepted by a member state of the EU such as Cyprus is today.  Turkey is now occupying European Union territory, and it must soon answer for it. 

Unfortunately for all Cypriots, the Annan Plan was designed to close the Cyprus problem rather than solve it.  And it did so by giving Turkey what it has always been asking for : another step towards partitioning of the island, via a "new" country that appears "united" to outsiders but is sharply ethnically divided internally.  For the Cypriots living on their island, Annan has envisaged a future of division and total control by Turkey.  The bottom line is that the plan does not allow the Cypriots to build their future as single country but only as Turkey, Britain and the USA want. 

The Annan plan was overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek Cypriots (76%) as one that is dangerous, divisive, non viable, disgraceful, and utterly unjust. 

THE FUTURE OF CYPRUS

Efforts to reach a settlement will continue, and it will now be more difficult, to say the least, for a plan as disgraceful as Annan's to be tabled mainly due to Cyprus being a member of the EU.  Nevertheless, the way remains clear for Turkey, when the next opportunity crops up, to cause more bloodshed and greater injustice. Meanwhile, my country remains divided, occupied, and at grave risk of being totally overrun by Turkey's 40.000 occupation army. Even if a settlement is ever reached, I am certain that it will be imposed on the Cypriots (referendums don't produce desired results when injustice is the objective), it will violate the International Human Rights, and it will not be viable or sensible. It will, however, clearly, fully, and unalterably serve the purposes of the British, the U.S.A. and Turkey!