Turkish Cypriot Lives Matter in Cyprus

By Chris Elliott….

We have been helping to promote and publish news of the progress of a petition to the UK Government requesting Direct Flights from the UK to Northern Cyprus and why you may say?. Before we look at the facts behind that we should point out south Cyprus also have a successful international airport in Larnaca, built mostly on pre-1974 Turkish Cypriot land, and all claims for a property settlement have been ignored,

On 16 August 1960, Cyprus attained independence after the Zürich and London Agreement between the United Kingdom, Greece, and Turkey and with the growing Greek Cypriot demands for Enosis with Greece and their resultant acts of violence and killings of Turkish Cypriots.  on 20th July 1974 Turkey, as one of 3 guarantors of the Zürich and London Agreement,  after failure to garner support from the UK, proceeded to mount an intervention mission to Cyprus on 20th July to stop the killing and bloodshed by EOKA militia and Greek mainland troops,

On 19th July 1974  President Makarios stood before the UN Security Council and said;

“It may be said that it was the Cyprus Government which invited the Greek officers to staff the National Guard. I regret to say that it was a mistake on my part to bestow upon them so much trust and confidence. They abused that trust and confidence and, instead of helping in the defense of the Island’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, they themselves became the aggressors… the events in Cyprus do not constitute an internal matter of the Greeks of Cyprus. The Turks of Cyprus are also affected…The Security Council should call upon the military regime of Greece to withdraw from Cyprus the Greek officers serving in the National Guard, and to put an end to its invasion of Cyprus…” To read the full statement click here

The United Nations has committed to the reunification of the island under the Cyprus Republic administration but we can see the Greek Cypriots have rejected 15 peace plans proposed between 1948 and 2012 when the UN Annan Reunification Plan was rejected by the Greek Cypriots by 75% votes against to the 64.91% Turkish Cypriots vote in favour of the peace plan.

We then see a bizarre and dangerous decision by the European Union in granting EU membership to The Republic of Cyprus without the Turkish Cypriots.

Following this, we had another failed attempt to achieve a peace agreement at Crans Montana in 2017, and the UN sticks to its guns that one day it will get both sides to live together again.

Now the world politics in the Eastern Mediterranean has become very dangerous with the possibility of a war breaking out due to the unspoken desire of enosis between Greece and the Republic of Cyprus added by expansionist France wanting to have its way against Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Worst still are reports coming through that France is cynically looking to sell military equipment to Greece and the Republic of Cyprus when neither country can afford it without perhaps more loans from the EU.

So who is going to challenge this dangerous game of brinkmanship? No one except the British citizen to sign in their thousands the UK Government petition requesting Direct Flights to Northern Cyprus which, if the UK government responds to their citizens’ request,  will start to break up the Cyprob issue leading to the recognition of the TRNC and continued peace in the region.

So here is the challenge to all citizens of the UK to request your government to deal fairly with this problem through making your request for Direct Flights to the TRNC, If you sign. please get 20 other people to sign as well and the numbers will swell dramatically.

On the map click here the current total signatures are shown by individual UK constituencies and progress is such that by 21st January 2021 the UK Government should have acknowledged receiving over 10,000 signatures but the aim is to secure 100,000 plus signatures which requires the UK Government to consider the petition for discussion in Parliament.