Establish Formal Diplomatic Relations with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus

The Issue

With the help of international pressure chiefly from Turkey, the Turkish Cypriots were able to survive persecution from Greek Cypriots.

They're still pleading for the other guarantor power Britain, as well as the U.N., the E.U. the U.S. and all others who have promised to support them, to recognise their right to self determination, liberty, justice and freedom, and to start by establishing full and normal diplomatic relations with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and ignoring the unjust and illegal impositions of the Greek Cypriot regime since 1963-64.

This petition has been started to support their call, will you sign?

Why should the U.K. recognise the TRNC?

The U.K. has historically been a nation that supports the rule of law, fights against injustices, stands against tyranny, and defends the oppressed. It is a nation that justifies its existence by knowing that it has an ultimately moral end.

There’s is a grave humanitarian crisis on Cyprus that the U.K. has largely ignored for over 5 decades.

It has allowed one side to hijack the island and attempt the systematic genocide of an entire race of people, and rewarded it with recognition as the sole governing authority of Cyprus, while condemning the victims of that genocide to a life of perpetual isolation and struggle.

There is a basic injustice here, not only to those who have been affected, but also those who have been forgotten, those who have been wrongly condemned, and those who have been wrongly rewarded.

This is also dangerous to Britain’s own position as a responsible great power that should stand to benefit from prosperity in that region.

Background of the U.K.’s policy on Cyprus:

Both sides are accountable for different things on the island, but where we part ways with the U.K., Europe, the US, and other countries is in acquiescing to the demands of one side and taking the stance that both sides are equally to blame, when the overwhelming majority of victims have been Turkish Cypriots. See: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmfaff/113/113we01.htm

The Greek Cypriots have used denialism and historical negationism as tools to justify continued human rights violations against the Turkish Cypriots for more than 5 long decades and counting, and to condemn Turkey for standing up against their brutal ethnic cleansing campaign on Cyprus, and the rest of the world incl. Britain has simply stood by and acquiesced!

Since 1963-64 British policy on Cyprus has been to appease the Greek Cypriots and to pressurise the Turkish Cypriots into a settlement acceptable to the Greek Cypriots.

This is unacceptable, and it results in allowing the perpetrators, the Greeks and Greek Cypriots, to get away with disseminating their hatred, racism and lies towards Turks and Turkish Cypriots living in Cyprus and abroad, as well as Britons living in Northern Cyprus.

Beyond unexplicitly supporting continued human rights violations against Turkish Cypriots, this policy by Britain has also resulted in such blunders as the absence of British Ministers from the memorial ceremony in Girne on 8th November 2009 for the 371 troops who died between 1955 and 1959, and for the failure of the BBC to broadcast on radio or television any coverage of that historic event and then some. See: http://www.t-vine.com/britains-foreign-office-makes-you-ashamed-to-be-british/

The British government should also incidentally be aware that the servicemen who died were not only “soldiers”, but sailors, marines and airmen as well.

Not only they but their husbands, wives and children, were all targets of a relentless terrorist campaign designed to scare Britain into abandoning her administration on Cyprus.

In its most recent blunder, the British Government agreed to pay £1,000,000 to 33 of these terrorists as “torture victims from Cyprus”, while the families of the British dead are left to grieve, and those they grieve for are otherwise left to be forgotten, while the Greek & Turkish Cypriot policemen who gave their lives to defend Cyprus and the crown have been branded as “thugs”. See: https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/23/uk-government-agrees-to-pay-1000000-to-33-torture-victims-from-cyprus-8380351/?ito=social

This is appalling.

The status accorded by Britain & Co. to the Greek Cypriots as “the Government of Cyprus” has enabled them to exclude the Turkish Cypriots from all world institutions and to place these totally unjustified restrictions upon their cultural, economic and political inclusivity, and these restrictions have had obvious implications on Britain’s ability to exercise any moral ends on Cyprus too, as well as to defend it’s own sovereign and geopolitical rights and interests on the island, or to protect Britons living in Cyprus, and this is possible only because Britain and the international community are willing to give effect to them.

This acquiescence has also allowed the prudent, justified & ultimately necessary British response to the Cyprus Emergency to be degraded to the status of a “stain on British history”, not a “fight against armed separatist terrorism by EOKA thugs, terrorists and their supporters, in a flagrant attack against Britain by Greece”.

This demonstrates the highest lack of disrespect for the memory and sacrifice of the British and Cypriot service personnel and employees of the Crown who gave their lives for queen and country.

This also demonstrates the highest lack of disrespect for the memory of the Turkish troops who stepped in to defend the Turkish Cypriots from the ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign, while the rest of the world just stood by and watched, and who even Britain has now joined the Greek Cypriots in branding “illegal occupants”, and to a lesser effect, their racist euphemisms: “barbarians”, “gypsies”, “dogs”, “carrion”, “cockroaches”, “filth”, “pollutants” and “non-humans”.

Not responding to these concerns and not having a serious re-think of Britain’s policy on Cyprus is simply not good enough!

These should be a matter of priority for the British government!

What about people living on Cyprus today?

Britain’s policy of “appease the Greeks first” also translates as “appease the terrorists and racists, join them in oppressing their victims, ignore the Turks and Britons”.

It is not good enough to say that "the proportion of Britons living in the North makes them dis-countable...", or that “the UK remains committed to supporting the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community...”  but continuing to impose the will of the Greek Cypriots on these people, help them force the Turkish Cypriots to live as second-class citizens in their own native homeland, and extend this hatred and racism driven discrimination to our British citizens living in Northern Cyprus.

This is totally inadequate, and even challenging this has been blocked by the Greek Cypriots for god-knows-how-long!

Britain’s rhetoric of UN Security Resolutions on Cyprus:

Whenever Britain’s role in Cyprus is questioned, especially its acquiescence to continued human rights violations and unjustifiable restrictions against Turkish Cypriots on Cyprus, she repeatedly withdraws behind the veiled supine of quoting UN Security Council Resolutions.

This is also not good enough.

Quoting Resolution 550, which reaffirmed resolutions 365, 367, 541 and 544, and legitimised the Greek Cypriots as the sole heirs of the Republic of Cyprus while forgetting and condemning Turkish Cypriots to a life of unjustified isolation, and attacking Turkey for defending them, is also not good enough.

The first resolution, 365, was simply adopted "by consensus" without vote. The second resolution, 367, was simply "adopted" without vote. The latter resolution, 550, condemned Turkey for exercising its legal, moral and constitutionally bound right to intervene and stop the Greeks and Greek Cypriots from happily massacring Turks, again simply appeasing the Greek Cypriot's claims by allowing them to formalise their malign version of history in U.N. Resolution.

That just doesn't seem very right.

The UK's High Court ruled on 3rd February 2017 stated that "There was no duty in UK law upon the Government to refrain from recognising Northern Cyprus...” See: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/03/criminals-fleeing-british-justice-can-no-longer-use-cyprus-safe

And the U.N. International Court of Justice decided in 2010 that "International law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence" See: https://www.icj-cij.org/

There is no justifiable or moral reason for Britain to continue defaulting to this baseless excuse, when it has the effect of supporting Greek Cypriots in spreading their veiled hatred, racism, lies and anti-Turkism, which is designed to cast doubt on the facts and cause harm!

Britain’s role in facilitating continued injustices:

There is a basic injustice here to the people of Cyprus!

There is a basic injustice to the Turkish Cypriots, who have been largely ignored and forced to rely on authenticating their plight to the wider world, on deaf ears, while continuing to suffer and be condemned simply for resisting their displacement and extermination.

There is a basic injustice towards Turkey, a democratic and friendly NATO ally, which we all relied on during the Cold War and that we may very well need to rely on again, who has been blamed and condemned for exercising its legal and moral rights to defend the Turkish Cypriot community.

There is a basic injustice to the British servicemen and defenders of the Crown, who were victims of relentless Greek and Greek Cypriot terrorism, and who have been largely forgotten, ignored or rebranded as ‘thugs’ while their killers are rebranded as “victims” and rewarded.

There is a basic injustice to the Britons living on Cyprus today who are judged and discounted by their own government simply for living in the North, again all because Britain is still being fooled into appeasing the Greek Cypriots.

Final message to the British people:

It's time we stopped turning a blind eye to Britain’s role in Cyprus and forced our government to do something to stop the North’s suffering, accept there needs to be a more pragmatic approach, and start by realising that kowtowing to Greek and Greek Cypriot demands over fears of what will happen to Britain's sovereign bases or geopolitical interests in the region simply do not stand up, and they will not if Britain simply does things right.

It's time to submit a petition to force the British government to prioritise Cyprus. It's time to drop the embargo, and Britain with its strength and influence is well poised to lead this long-overdue change.

Please save Cyprus by signing this petition. Please free all Cypriots and let them choose their destiny. Please save the Turkish Cypriots from unjustified condemnation and oppression.

————————————————————

Since starting this petition, Cypriots on both sides have seen and retweeted this campaign. I initially posted this petition under a pseudonym - #SaveCyprus #FreeCyprus - to protect my identity 

avatar of the starter
Turkish CypriotPetition Starter#Cyprus #Turkish #TurkishCypriot #TurkishCypriotsExist #TurkishCypriotGenocide Change cannot be achieved by talks alone. We have to be methodical.

973

The Issue

With the help of international pressure chiefly from Turkey, the Turkish Cypriots were able to survive persecution from Greek Cypriots.

They're still pleading for the other guarantor power Britain, as well as the U.N., the E.U. the U.S. and all others who have promised to support them, to recognise their right to self determination, liberty, justice and freedom, and to start by establishing full and normal diplomatic relations with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), and ignoring the unjust and illegal impositions of the Greek Cypriot regime since 1963-64.

This petition has been started to support their call, will you sign?

Why should the U.K. recognise the TRNC?

The U.K. has historically been a nation that supports the rule of law, fights against injustices, stands against tyranny, and defends the oppressed. It is a nation that justifies its existence by knowing that it has an ultimately moral end.

There’s is a grave humanitarian crisis on Cyprus that the U.K. has largely ignored for over 5 decades.

It has allowed one side to hijack the island and attempt the systematic genocide of an entire race of people, and rewarded it with recognition as the sole governing authority of Cyprus, while condemning the victims of that genocide to a life of perpetual isolation and struggle.

There is a basic injustice here, not only to those who have been affected, but also those who have been forgotten, those who have been wrongly condemned, and those who have been wrongly rewarded.

This is also dangerous to Britain’s own position as a responsible great power that should stand to benefit from prosperity in that region.

Background of the U.K.’s policy on Cyprus:

Both sides are accountable for different things on the island, but where we part ways with the U.K., Europe, the US, and other countries is in acquiescing to the demands of one side and taking the stance that both sides are equally to blame, when the overwhelming majority of victims have been Turkish Cypriots. See: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmfaff/113/113we01.htm

The Greek Cypriots have used denialism and historical negationism as tools to justify continued human rights violations against the Turkish Cypriots for more than 5 long decades and counting, and to condemn Turkey for standing up against their brutal ethnic cleansing campaign on Cyprus, and the rest of the world incl. Britain has simply stood by and acquiesced!

Since 1963-64 British policy on Cyprus has been to appease the Greek Cypriots and to pressurise the Turkish Cypriots into a settlement acceptable to the Greek Cypriots.

This is unacceptable, and it results in allowing the perpetrators, the Greeks and Greek Cypriots, to get away with disseminating their hatred, racism and lies towards Turks and Turkish Cypriots living in Cyprus and abroad, as well as Britons living in Northern Cyprus.

Beyond unexplicitly supporting continued human rights violations against Turkish Cypriots, this policy by Britain has also resulted in such blunders as the absence of British Ministers from the memorial ceremony in Girne on 8th November 2009 for the 371 troops who died between 1955 and 1959, and for the failure of the BBC to broadcast on radio or television any coverage of that historic event and then some. See: http://www.t-vine.com/britains-foreign-office-makes-you-ashamed-to-be-british/

The British government should also incidentally be aware that the servicemen who died were not only “soldiers”, but sailors, marines and airmen as well.

Not only they but their husbands, wives and children, were all targets of a relentless terrorist campaign designed to scare Britain into abandoning her administration on Cyprus.

In its most recent blunder, the British Government agreed to pay £1,000,000 to 33 of these terrorists as “torture victims from Cyprus”, while the families of the British dead are left to grieve, and those they grieve for are otherwise left to be forgotten, while the Greek & Turkish Cypriot policemen who gave their lives to defend Cyprus and the crown have been branded as “thugs”. See: https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/23/uk-government-agrees-to-pay-1000000-to-33-torture-victims-from-cyprus-8380351/?ito=social

This is appalling.

The status accorded by Britain & Co. to the Greek Cypriots as “the Government of Cyprus” has enabled them to exclude the Turkish Cypriots from all world institutions and to place these totally unjustified restrictions upon their cultural, economic and political inclusivity, and these restrictions have had obvious implications on Britain’s ability to exercise any moral ends on Cyprus too, as well as to defend it’s own sovereign and geopolitical rights and interests on the island, or to protect Britons living in Cyprus, and this is possible only because Britain and the international community are willing to give effect to them.

This acquiescence has also allowed the prudent, justified & ultimately necessary British response to the Cyprus Emergency to be degraded to the status of a “stain on British history”, not a “fight against armed separatist terrorism by EOKA thugs, terrorists and their supporters, in a flagrant attack against Britain by Greece”.

This demonstrates the highest lack of disrespect for the memory and sacrifice of the British and Cypriot service personnel and employees of the Crown who gave their lives for queen and country.

This also demonstrates the highest lack of disrespect for the memory of the Turkish troops who stepped in to defend the Turkish Cypriots from the ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign, while the rest of the world just stood by and watched, and who even Britain has now joined the Greek Cypriots in branding “illegal occupants”, and to a lesser effect, their racist euphemisms: “barbarians”, “gypsies”, “dogs”, “carrion”, “cockroaches”, “filth”, “pollutants” and “non-humans”.

Not responding to these concerns and not having a serious re-think of Britain’s policy on Cyprus is simply not good enough!

These should be a matter of priority for the British government!

What about people living on Cyprus today?

Britain’s policy of “appease the Greeks first” also translates as “appease the terrorists and racists, join them in oppressing their victims, ignore the Turks and Britons”.

It is not good enough to say that "the proportion of Britons living in the North makes them dis-countable...", or that “the UK remains committed to supporting the economic development of the Turkish Cypriot community...”  but continuing to impose the will of the Greek Cypriots on these people, help them force the Turkish Cypriots to live as second-class citizens in their own native homeland, and extend this hatred and racism driven discrimination to our British citizens living in Northern Cyprus.

This is totally inadequate, and even challenging this has been blocked by the Greek Cypriots for god-knows-how-long!

Britain’s rhetoric of UN Security Resolutions on Cyprus:

Whenever Britain’s role in Cyprus is questioned, especially its acquiescence to continued human rights violations and unjustifiable restrictions against Turkish Cypriots on Cyprus, she repeatedly withdraws behind the veiled supine of quoting UN Security Council Resolutions.

This is also not good enough.

Quoting Resolution 550, which reaffirmed resolutions 365, 367, 541 and 544, and legitimised the Greek Cypriots as the sole heirs of the Republic of Cyprus while forgetting and condemning Turkish Cypriots to a life of unjustified isolation, and attacking Turkey for defending them, is also not good enough.

The first resolution, 365, was simply adopted "by consensus" without vote. The second resolution, 367, was simply "adopted" without vote. The latter resolution, 550, condemned Turkey for exercising its legal, moral and constitutionally bound right to intervene and stop the Greeks and Greek Cypriots from happily massacring Turks, again simply appeasing the Greek Cypriot's claims by allowing them to formalise their malign version of history in U.N. Resolution.

That just doesn't seem very right.

The UK's High Court ruled on 3rd February 2017 stated that "There was no duty in UK law upon the Government to refrain from recognising Northern Cyprus...” See: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/03/criminals-fleeing-british-justice-can-no-longer-use-cyprus-safe

And the U.N. International Court of Justice decided in 2010 that "International law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence" See: https://www.icj-cij.org/

There is no justifiable or moral reason for Britain to continue defaulting to this baseless excuse, when it has the effect of supporting Greek Cypriots in spreading their veiled hatred, racism, lies and anti-Turkism, which is designed to cast doubt on the facts and cause harm!

Britain’s role in facilitating continued injustices:

There is a basic injustice here to the people of Cyprus!

There is a basic injustice to the Turkish Cypriots, who have been largely ignored and forced to rely on authenticating their plight to the wider world, on deaf ears, while continuing to suffer and be condemned simply for resisting their displacement and extermination.

There is a basic injustice towards Turkey, a democratic and friendly NATO ally, which we all relied on during the Cold War and that we may very well need to rely on again, who has been blamed and condemned for exercising its legal and moral rights to defend the Turkish Cypriot community.

There is a basic injustice to the British servicemen and defenders of the Crown, who were victims of relentless Greek and Greek Cypriot terrorism, and who have been largely forgotten, ignored or rebranded as ‘thugs’ while their killers are rebranded as “victims” and rewarded.

There is a basic injustice to the Britons living on Cyprus today who are judged and discounted by their own government simply for living in the North, again all because Britain is still being fooled into appeasing the Greek Cypriots.

Final message to the British people:

It's time we stopped turning a blind eye to Britain’s role in Cyprus and forced our government to do something to stop the North’s suffering, accept there needs to be a more pragmatic approach, and start by realising that kowtowing to Greek and Greek Cypriot demands over fears of what will happen to Britain's sovereign bases or geopolitical interests in the region simply do not stand up, and they will not if Britain simply does things right.

It's time to submit a petition to force the British government to prioritise Cyprus. It's time to drop the embargo, and Britain with its strength and influence is well poised to lead this long-overdue change.

Please save Cyprus by signing this petition. Please free all Cypriots and let them choose their destiny. Please save the Turkish Cypriots from unjustified condemnation and oppression.

————————————————————

Since starting this petition, Cypriots on both sides have seen and retweeted this campaign. I initially posted this petition under a pseudonym - #SaveCyprus #FreeCyprus - to protect my identity 

avatar of the starter
Turkish CypriotPetition Starter#Cyprus #Turkish #TurkishCypriot #TurkishCypriotsExist #TurkishCypriotGenocide Change cannot be achieved by talks alone. We have to be methodical.

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