DEC- . ••ffAL TURKISH REPUBLIC OF NORTHERN CYPRUS PRESIDENT'S OFFICE Lefkosa via Mersin 10 Turkey E. Mail: [email protected] - Web Page : www.trncpresidency.org 5 November 2004 Excellency, My term of office as President of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) is ending in April 2005 and I do not intend to run for another term. The Greek Cypriot leader Mr. Tassos Papadopoulos, elected solely by the Greek Cypriots of Cyprus, has once again been allowed to address the General Assembly of the United Nations in his false capacity as the President of the whole island, claiming that he is able and authorized to speak for and on behalf of the whole population of Cyprus. This may well be the last letter I will be writing to you as the President of the TRNC. I will therefore use this opportunity, as someone who has actively tried for the last fifty years to bring sustainable peace and stability to Cyprus through a political arrangement based on the political equality of the two co- owner peoples of the island, to share my thoughts with you again making specific reference to the statement of Mr. Papadopoulos at the General Debate of the 59th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations on 29 September 2004. I hope and expect that you will bear with me and with my comprehensive expose since I strongly believe that unless we correct the course now regarding the direction in which we are heading for a "so called settlement" in Cyprus we may in fact be preparing the ground for even more serious trouble and instability in the island and in the region in future. H.E. Mr. Kofi ANNAN e i i ^ Secretary-General of the United Nations DEC -2 New York. EOSG / CENTRAL To start with, let me point out once again that there is no legal foundation, no legitimacy in the Greek Cypriot claim that an administration composed of one hundred percent Greek Cypriots is the legitimate government of the Republic of Cyprus. This Republic was a bi-national partnership Republic established under the international Cyprus Treaties of 1959/60 on 16 August 1960, with equal political powers vested in both co-founder partners, who elected their representatives separately, one not having the right to speak for or represent the other. As is well-known there has been no such joint government in the island since 1963, as a result of the coup against the partnership state by Archbishop Makarios and his team of "leaders", in line with the notorious Akritas Plan which has been published as a UN document under Document No. A/33/115; S/12722 dated 30 May 1978. The treatment afforded to the Greek Cypriot side by the world at large as "the legitimate government of Cyprus" - in spite of its record of bloodshed, terrorism, defiance of the rule of law, the declaration that the Constitution is dead and buried, and the importation of Greek arms and troops to the tune of 20,000 in contravention of Security Council Resolutions - has been the main obstacle to a negotiated settlement. The Greek Cypriot leadership which had failed to achieve its aim of converting the island into a Greek Cypriot Republic (and Turkish Cypriots into a protected minority) prior to uniting the island with Greece, was deprived of any scintilla of motivation for a negotiated settlement when its unilateral application for EU membership was accepted by the EU as a proper application on behalf of the whole island. A partnership settlement would be contrary to the "national will and testament" of Archbishop Makarios to the effect that by what he had done (i.e. constituting a 100% Greek Cypriot administration as the government of the Republic of Cyprus) he had brought Cyprus to the nearest point to Enosis (union with Greece) and no one should make concessions on this, except for Enosis! This is the only main, incontrovertible reason for the non-settlement of the Cyprus problem over the years. The acceptance of this one-legged "partnership state" as a candidate and now a full member of the EU has finally blocked the way to any settlement short of the unconditional submission of the Turkish Cypriot side to the political will of the Greek Cypriot administration. With this short introduction I would like to further analyse the Statement of Mr. Tassos Papadopoulos at the General Assembly: It hurts the Turkish Cypriot people to listen to Mr. Papadopoulos talk about his "concerted efforts to eliminate terrorism and its underlying causes" when he has publicly lied to the Khaleej Times of 4 September 2004, by declaring that there was not one single Turkish Cypriot killed during the 1963- 2 1974 period. The era of terror and terrorism cannot be obliterated from the minds of Turkish Cypriots, especially when mass graves of civilians, including 16-day old babies, children from one year old to 14-15 years old, aged people of 70-90 years old have been massacred just because they were Turkish Cypriots, who opposed Enosis and defended their vested rights as co-founder partners of the defunct Republic of 1960. The unforgivable sin of Turkish Cypriots was not accepting the Greek Cypriot administration as "the legitimate government of Cyprus" and not bowing to the offer to become a minority in a Greek Cyprus as recorded by Mr. Glafcos Clerides in his memoirs MY DEPOSITION Vol. 3, page 237. Greek Cypriot Aim "The aim of the Greek Cypriot Constitutional policy in the talks was a moderate modification of the Plaza plan, which provided limited participation of the Turks in the organs of the independent state of Cyprus, always on a minority basis. This policy also did not succeed, because the Turkish side, though more flexible, remained unretreating on the issue of accepting a minority status for the Turkish Cypriots." (From the memoirs of Mr. Glafcos Clerides, former Greek Cypriot Leader, MY DEPOSITION, Vol. 3 ,p. 23 7) For this sin, 30,000 Turkish Cypriots had to vacate 103 villages and take refuge in safer areas. Moving from one area to another carried the risk of abduction by Greek Cypriot police and the gunmen attached to them. The then Secretary-General reported in his Report of 12 December 1964 to the Security Council that 209 Turkish Cypriots were still missing for the period 1 September 1964 to 12 December 1964 and that there seemed to be little prospect of finding them alive! The dead and wounded from 1963 - 1974 run to more than one thousand. And Mr. Papadopoulos, like his predecessors, has the cheek to claim that not a single Turkish Cypriot was killed during this period, that the Cyprus problem began with the arrival of Turkish troops in 1974 and that the problem was one of occupation and the resultant movement of people who should be entitled to go back to their homes, while claiming that property ownership is a human right which has to be honoured at all costs. The property rights of Turkish Cypriots who were driven away from 103 villages from 1963 to 1974; and the rights of all of the Turkish Cypriot population who left everything in the South after the 1975 Population Exchange Agreement mean nothing to the Greek Cypriot leadership. Mr. Papadopoulos is on record as saying that Turkish Cypriot claims will be taken up after the settlement of the Cyprus problem, which as I indicated above, will have to wait until eternity, i.e. the time Turkish Cypriots will bow to Greek Cypriot domination and accept to be a minority in a Greek Cyprus! Mr. Papadopoulos alleges that the Republic of Cyprus (meaning the one they hijacked in name, and destroyed in fact) "supports the strengthening of the UN system". If so, he should stop exploiting the UN system by falsely alleging at UN platforms that he represents Cyprus and that "the problem" started in 1974 with the arrival of Turkey. At least the UN knows that the problem arose eleven years earlier in 1963, because UNFICYP has been stationed in Cyprus since March 1964 in order to prevent the utter destruction of the Turkish Cypriot people. If Mr. Papadopoulos is sincere on his views about the Israeli-Palestinian question, then it is high time he had a second look at Cyprus, where violence ended only with the arrival of Turkey in 1974, saving not only Turkish Cypriot lives but also tens of thousands of Greek Cypriot lives. The then Secretary- General of AKEL, the Greek Cypriot communist party, is on record saying that ten thousand AKEL members were on the "execution list of the Junta"! So, what Mr. Papadopoulos wants for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, namely "the arrest of violence", has already happened in Cyprus, thanks to the sacrifices of Turkey, who lost nearly one thousand lives in her attempt to bring peace and stability to the island. Mr. Papadopoulos wants more emphasis to be given to improving living conditions in order to normalize people's lives to the greatest possible extent. How decent of him to say so, but in Cyprus he has followed exactly the contrary policy for forty years in order to bring Turkish Cypriots to heel, and even now, in EU circles, he is doing his utmost in order to prevent the EU honouring its promises to the Turkish Cypriot side that it would lift embargoes if they voted "yes" in the referendum! Such a hypocritical approach should not be "let past" by the United Nations. Again Mr. Papadopoulos says, and I quote, "Our support remains focused on the end of the occupation and on a just and viable settlement, based on UN resolutions and for the realization of the aspirations of the Palestinian people for the establishment of an independent state, living side by side with Israel, in conditions of sustainable peace and security." Applying the same phraseology and logic, Turkish Cypriots have been seeking a viable, sustainable peace and security for the last forty years and have been waiting for the end of the occupation of the seat of the partnership government by the Greek Cypriot side.