This year, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is celebrating the 30^th anniversary of Turkish Peace Operation in Cyprus, which took place on July 20, 1974.

There are two distinct sovereign national peoples in Cyprus. The Turkish Cypriot people and the Greek Cypriot people negotiated and signed the international Cyprus Treaties of 1960 governing Cyprus, as two of the five contracting parties (the other three being Turkey, the United Kingdom and Greece), agreeing to share power on the basis of equality and in exercise of their separate rights of self-determination. Under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom became Guarantors of the 1960 “state of affairs” in Cyprus. In 1963, however, Archbishop Makarios and his aides planned to destroy this partnership State and convert it into a “Greek Cypriot Republic”. For this, the notorious “Akritas Plan” devised in order to destroy the partnership State along with the Turkish Cypriot partner and to annex the island to Greece (ENOSIS), had been put into effect.

During the period 1963-1974, thousands of innocent Turkish Cypriots were killed, maimed or wounded by Greek Cypriot militia and some 30,000 of them were rendered refugees. The Turkish Cypriot people were relieved from this agony and saved from total extermination only by the timely intervention of Turkey on July 20, 1974, undertaken in accordance with her 1960 Treaty rights and obligations. The intervention took place following the attempt by Greece at the final takeover of Cyprus through a coup d'etat organized by the military junta in Athens and its collaborators in Cyprus. Turkey, enforced to intervene as a result of the onslaught carried out against the Turkish Cypriots according to the Treaty of Guarantee, which gave the three guarantor powers, Great Britain, Greece and Turkey, the right to take steps, including the right of intervention, for the restoration of the status of Cyprus in case of any change in, or disturbance of, such status.

The Greek-Greek Cypriot propaganda machine has been based on making the international public to believe that the problem started in 1974. They prefer to ignore the realities. It was clearly Greece that had invaded and occupied Cyprus in 1963 and finally with a coup d'etat in 1974. Thus, with its intervention in Cyprus on July 20, 1974, Turkey prevented the final extermination of the Turkish Cypriots and the island’s annexation to Greece.

With the hope of finding a settlement in Cyprus, the sides have been negotiating under the auspices of the United Nations since 1968. The latest negotiation process between the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots in Cyprus which started at the beginning of 2001 with the initiative of the Turkish Cypriot side, has been finalized on March 31, 2004 in Burgenstock, Switzerland with the presentation by the UN Secretary-General of the final version of the comprehensive settlement plan, also known as the Annan Plan, to the two sides. The final round of talks that began on February 19, 2004 has been finalized once again in failure because of the Greek Cypriot rejection of almost everything proposed by the Turkish Cypriot side. The Greek Cypriot negative attitude also continued during the separate referenda held on April 24, 2004 on both sides of the island, during which Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot people voted on a new partnership settlement based on the comprehensive settlement plan prepared under the auspices of the UN Secretary-General.

As a result of the referenda, the plan was rejected by 76% of the Greek Cypriot people, whereas it was approved by 65% of the Turkish Cypriot people. Consequently, years long efforts ended with frustration and anger when the Greek Cypriot people overwhelmingly rejected the plan thus rejecting the establishment of a new partnership republic with the Turkish Cypriot people. Such a strong ‘no’ from the Greek Cypriot side has demonstrated that the Greek Cypriots by and large prefer to unilaterally continue to enjoy the benefits of EU membership and the title of the ‘Republic of Cyprus’ which they had usurped through force of arms, in December 1963.

For the past forty years, Turkish Cypriots have been subjected to physical and economic deprivation and debilitating uncertainty, and it’s the right time to put an end to this injustice. The Turkish Cypriot people have been contributing positively to the negotiations and have done what was expected from her during the referenda. Therefore, the Turkish Cypriot people call upon the international community, to help ending the inhuman and illegal embargoes imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people and to enable them to trade and communicate as free people and to extend assistance to help repair the damages done to the Turkish Cypriot economy as a result of forty years of senseless restrictions. The Turkish Cypriot people are expecting the abolition of this injustice that has been imposed on them by the whole world and the EU member states which claim to have gathered on the basis of human rights, democracy and equality.