Security C 0 U 'N C

UNITED NATIONS Distr. GENERAL SECURITY . s/630,7 C 0 U ‘N C I L 28 Ap:ril 1965 ORIGINAL: ENGLISH LETTERDATED 27 APRIL 1965 FROMTHF PERMANENTREPRESENTATIVE OF TURKEY ADDRESSEDTO THE SECRETARY-GENEFXL I have the honour to enclose herewith the text of a message, addressed to Your Excellency, by Dr. Fazil Kuchuk, Vice-President of Cyprus. I would be grateful if Your Excellency would have the text of this message circulated as a document of the Security Council. Please accept, etc. (Signed) Orhan EPALP Ambassa.dor Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations 65-og266 I . s/6307 English Page 2 Your Excellency is aware of the serious developments resulting from an attempt by the Greeks to infiltrate into the Turkish side of the green line along Paphos street in rJicosia, using as a pretext a minor incident in which two shots were fired on the spur of the moment by a Turkish Cypriot on observation duty, causing no harm to anyone. The Greeks, within about half an hour of the incident, imposed a strict blockade on the Turkish-ccntrolled area in the Nicosia zone, allowing no entry or exit to Turks or for supplies of any kind, including grain for bread, vegetables and milk. The blockade on essential foodstuffs alone was Fartly lifted after five days under strong pressure from UNFICYP and world public opinion. This serious development has led to the following consequences. A. People stranded as a result, of the blockade About 90 Turks, mainly women and children, on a day visit to Nicosia in connexion with the Bairam festival and holidays, were stranded in Nicosia and were thus prevented inhumanly from returning to their villages. Among these are women who left their children, including newly born infants, with their neighbours for the day, and men who left their livestock under lock and key, assuming that their visit to Nicosia would last only a few hours. Incidentally, it is now the harvest season in Cyprus and most of these Turkish villagers are prevented from reaping their crop and therefore are liable to sustain heavy losses. In addition to these, there are about two hundred Turks who had gone out of the Nicosia zone to other Turkish areas for the Bairam holidays, and have consequently been stranded away from their homes and been left in similar difficulties. I am sure Your Excellency is aware that efforts by the UNFICYP, the representative of the International Red Cross and heads of some diplomatic missions in Nicosia, to have the blockade lifted for at least these stranded persons, have made no impression on the Greeks who still continue to impose the collective punishment on the Turks. B. Effects of Kyrenia Road As:reement The Greeks applied this inhuman blockage so extensively that any movement of Turks at the Kyrenia end of the Nicosia-Kyrenia Road, which has been the subject of a special agreement with the UNFICYP, is also prevented. Despite our objections at s/6307 English PaiF 3 the time of the signing of the agreement calling for the Greek check-point at the Kyrenia end of the road to be removed, and our repeated representations thereafter, the Greeks maintained their check-point which is now used to prevent the Turks of Kyrenia and the near-by villages (like Temblos and Kazaphani) from entering and using the Kyrenia Road. Consequently, although this road is in a purely Turkish-populate& area, the Turks themselves are deprived of the use of it, even for most urgent cases of illness, while the Greeks continue to enjoy the road, mainly for purposes of pleasure, with the UNFICYP providing escort to them four times a day. For instance, two days ago (on 24 April), a child in the all Turkish Temblos village near Kyrenia was taken ill with food poisoning and owing to this ban on human movement, it was found impossible to rush the child to the Turkish General Hospital in Nicosia, and the UNFICYP was unable to help in the matter despite the fact that the agreement was not intended to confer privileges on any of the two communities. As things stand, the Greeks are able to use this road while the Turks at Kyrenia and of the near-by areas are not. Nor can any Turk from the Nicosia zone enter Kyrenia at the present time. This explains why a direct road link between the Turkish village of Temblos and Nicosia is found to be essential. C. Effects on the green line This above-mentioned incident (i.e. the firing of two shots) was used by the Greeks as a pretext to put forward demands, through the UNFICYP, for the withdrawal of the Turks from buildings on the Turkish side of the green line overlooking the Paphos and Hermes streets which are parts of the green line. Most of the occupants of these buildings had vacated them since the establishment of the green line. But the Greeks persistently violated the provisicns of the green line agreement or failed to carry them out, and actually established fortified positions, not only in the buildings right on the Greek side of the green line, but also on the Turkish side of it. At several places in the vicinity of the above-mentioned two streets alone, they continue to maintain two such aggressive posts on the Turkish side of the line. It was only as a counter measure for purposes of security and self-defence that the Turks had to establish some observation posts in these vacated buildings on the Turkish side of the line. In the course of ensuing negotiations, the UNFICYP asked for facilities to inspect these buildings and, in particular, the shop where the mw English Page 4 incident had taken place, as well as a few adjacent shops. The Turkish side agreed ( to provide such facilities but suggested that, for reasons of secrecy and security, the inspection should take place from the rear side of the shops in question. The UNFICYP insisted that the inspection should be through the normal entrances and that the doors of the shops in question should be left open permanently, or that the Greek occupants should be allowed to re-occupy the shops for legitimate business. The Turkish side explained. their grave concern that these could be abused by the Greeks for infiltration further into the Turkish sector of Nicosia but proposed in return that the UNFICYP should inspect all the shops in question, including a house over these shops, through their normal entrances, that the doors of these shops should be left open if so desired, that any rear access channels should be blocked, that walls could be constructed across side streets and a blind alley between which these shops are situated for the protection of members of both communities, that the two Greek posts on the Turkish side of the line should be removed, that the IJNFICYP should provide guarantees against the possibility of armed Greek infiltration and that similar inspection should be carried out on the Greek side of the line opposite these shops. Soon after these proposals were conveyed to the Greeks by the UNFICYP, the Greeks rejected them outright as being not worth considering. In the course of discussions with the UNFICYP, the Turkish side pointed out that the Greeks had failed to comply with the green line agreement or had later violated it in many respects (as they had violated practically all other agreements reached through the good offices of the UNFICYP), that the UNFICYP, through no fault of theirs, had been unable to ensure Greek adherence to agreements, that it would be unfair to deal with the green line problem piecemeal in such a way as to be detrimental to the Turkish Community at a time when, because of Greek insistence on continuing to violate the green,line agreement and refusing to remove their armed posts in Turkish houses on the Turkish side at other sections of the line (e.g. Omorphita area and opposite Ledra Palace Hotel), thousands of Turks are living as refugees in tents under unhygienic conditions. The Turkish side reiterated their readiness to discuss the whole green line agreement with a view to ensuring its implementation in full and not just sections of it whereas the Greeks aim at placing themselves at an advantageous position at the expense of the security of the Turkish Community. S/6% English Page 5 Meanwhile, as Your Excellency is no doubt aware, the Greeks continue to ti@ten their stranglehold on certain small Turkish communities such as Famagusta, Ambelikou, Peristeronari and Lefka and keep them under constant intimidation by firing at them occasionally, while the UNFICYP is rendered unable by the 5reeks to do anything about it. It is also highly significant that, with the pjeteti Of celebrating the Easter holidays, the Greeks on the night of 2bZ5 April, despite the existence of an atmosphere of tension, engaged in a spree of provocative firing of guns and exploding of bombs almost incessantly throughout the night witi occasional firing towards the Turkish sector, The above Is, I believe, an objective exposition of the true situation now prevailing in Cyprus and I would like to appeal to Your Excellency to use your g6Od offices with a view to ensuring the predominance of a sense of proportion .snd fairness in tackling daily problems so that the Turks are enabled to live as decently as possible, without fear and intimidation, pendin& & fin@ political settlement end without any side being allowed to employ devious methods an8 thus use the interim period to impose a final settlement on the other side through a process and tactics of erosion.

Load more