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10.9 am
Mrs. Barbara Roche (Hornsey and Wood Green): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Mr. Cox) on his success in obtaining today's debate. He is well known among hon. Members for his commitment to Cyprus and for having brought the situation there to the attention of the House over many years.
I had the great honour and privilege--I declare an interest--to be a weekend guest at the Morphou municipality's rally in October. The municipality is operating in exile because Morphou, like Famagusta, cannot be visited by Greek Cypriots. People whose roots were there for generation after generation cannot visit their homes. They are prohibited from visiting the graves of their fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, and they cannot tend the orange groves that have been in their families for generations.
It is appropriate that today--21 years after that terrible invasion and occupation of 1974--we are debating the reality of life in Famagusta. What was once a prosperous and thriving place with an extremely successful tourist industry is now a ghost town. For the many tourists who visit Cyprus each year, it must be absolutely inconceivable that there is a part of this beautiful and successful island where nothing moves and where people have given way to rats.
We must examine the overall situation in Cyprus. Twenty-one years after the invasion, many people are still refugees in their own country. There are, of course, no refugee camps in Cyprus because the Republic of Cyprus has absorbed its refugees. They are very successful members of society who play their full part in the political, economic and social fabric of their country. As far as the international community is concerned, that has almost played down the urgency of finding a solution for the problem.
Cyprus is a small country--a small island. It is a member of the United Nations, a member of the Commonwealth and an independent country occupied by a foreign power. At the last count, there were about 400 tanks on that small island, which is an obscenity. That is not right, and it cannot be tolerated.
In the illegally occupied far north of the island there is the scandal of the enclaved people, whose human rights are violated daily. That has been catalogued by the United Nations. There is also the scandal of the missing people. Many families in my constituency--I know that I always say this, but it bears repeating--do not know what has happened to their missing relatives. The time for this debate is short, and I do not want to take up the time of
other hon. Members who wish to speak, but in his reply on the future of Famagusta I should like the Minister to concentrate on those missing people.
What will be Britain's role in finding a solution?
Britain is a guarantor power and has a very special relationship with Cyprus. In the past 10 years, however, Ministers have paid very few, if any, visits to examine the situation in Cyprus rather than consider the Government's defence role. Will that record change? It is important that Turkey and the illegal regime of Mr. Denktash do not have any veto on Cyprus's application to join the European Union. Some of the Prime Minister's remarks do not fit well with that aim. I should like to hear the Minister give a clear assurance that there will be no veto, nor a de facto veto.
It is important when we debate the situation in Cyprus that we do not merely say that we will support the best endeavours of the United Nations, although those are vital. Britain's importance in the region calls for something more, and we can play a unique role in negotiations with our American partners. In our language, we must not fall into the trap of talking about the situation in Cyprus as if it is some sort of intercommunal dispute between two parties, because it is not. It is a dispute between the sovereign, independent Republic of Cyprus and an illegal regime backed by a foreign occupying power. Our language must be correct.
Mr. Edward O'Hara (Knowsley, South):
I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Mr. Cox) on securing this important debate. It is a well-timed debate because tomorrow is St. Andrew's day. St. Andrew is closely associated with the town of Famagusta, and there is great affection among the people of Famagusta for the monastery of Apostolos Andreas, far up in the north-east of the enclaved Karpa peninsula. It may behove the House today to remember the plight of the people who are trapped in that enclave.
Andrew is also the name of Mr. Pouyouros, the mayor of Famagusta, whom we welcome to London today and whose name day is tomorrow. It is therefore particularly appropriate that we have this debate today. I declare an interest. I was briefly the guest of the municipality of Famagusta and that of Morphou at the demonstrations earlier this summer, and I was proud to be able to support the demonstrations against the injustice of the present occupation of northern Cyprus.
I should like to explain the terms Famagusta and Varosha, because there is some confusion about them. Early-day motion 110 deliberately refers to Famagusta-
Varosha. Famagusta in Greek is Ammochostos, which means "town covered with sand". That shows the long history of occupation of this site, which goes back more than 30 centuries to the iron-age settlement of Enkomi, through the classical settlement of Salamis--associated with Homeric heroes in ancient history--to the Byzantine era, when the name Ammochostos first appeared.
Famagusta was the name bestowed on the town during the Venetian occupation. It was then one of the biggest harbours and trade centres in the eastern Mediterranean
and Othello's tower, which was built into the massive walls of old Famagusta, was the inspiration for Shakespeare's play. When the town was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1571, the Greek inhabitants were ejected from the walled city of Famagusta, but they did not leave the area and settled in the suburbs. "Varosh" is the Turkish word for suburb, so Varosha refers to the suburbs of Famagusta.
In modern times, Famagusta has two meanings. The name refers to the old walled town of Famagusta, which dates back to medieval times, and to the walled town and suburbs of Varosha. Famagusta can mean both, and it is important to have that clarified on the record. The British occupied the town in 1878, and I shall mention that again in my concluding remarks.
In the course of its history, Famagusta became one of the jewels in the economy--if not the greatest jewel--of Cyprus. It was not only an important trading centre, but-- in more modern times--an important tourist and holiday centre. Golden Sands beach in Famagusta bay is one of the finest beaches in the Mediterranean. The tourist industry was inhibited by the EOKA troubles in the 1950s, but after the independence of Cyprus in 1960 the tourist industry of Famagusta really took off.
In 1974, on the eve of the Turkish invasion, Famagusta was a flourishing economic and cultural centre, and we should remember that a high level of culture had developed there. It is important to note that Famagusta was not overrun in the first invasion of northern Cyprus in July 1974, after which the Turkish army should have withdrawn under the treaty of guarantee. Under that treaty, the Turkish army had the right to intervene to facilitate the restoration of the status quo. When the coup d'etat was overthrown in 1974 and the legitimate Government reinstalled, the writ of the Turkish invading forces expired and they should have withdrawn. But they did not, and on 14 August 1974 they launched a second invasion and Famagusta was overrun on 16 August.
It was obvious that the Turkish tanks were overrunning the fertile Mesaoria agricultural plain, and they also took the high and low roads between Famagusta and Nicosia-- two of the most important roads on the island. When the Turkish army occupied Famagusta, it expelled the Greek inhabitants. There was a tragic exodus of refugees, and the town was fenced off. The town was not resettled, and Famagusta is almost unique in this sense. It became a ghost town--a term that has been used today and which was coined by a Swedish journalist in 1977 who recorded his visit to the town thus:
As my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting said, if one goes to an elevated position at Dherenia--the closest village to Famagusta beyond the barbed wire--and looks through binoculars at the skyscraper hotels of the ghost town of Famagusta, one sees the tragic waste of an economic jewel. Adjacent to the barbed wire at Dherenia, there is a house that belongs to the family of a friend of mine, Mikis Xenophontos Ioannou. He would have been here today if business had not otherwise detained him in Cyprus. Xenophontos means the son of Xenophon, and old Xenophon--Mikis's father--rebuilt his house hard up
against the barbed wire. That house is still there on the free side of the barbed wire, and that is one of the strongest indications one could have of the attachment that people have to the land that they rightly regard as their own.
I shall read a short excerpt from a poem which gives expression to that feeling. The poem, by Clairi Aggelidou, is called "The Day of Return":
That is a tragic expression of the feelings of the people of Famagusta for the town which they look upon but to which they cannot return. Mikis Ioannou himself has written much moving poetry about his home town of Famagusta.
I have strong feelings about the town, because I spent some of my formative years in the area. I was a young soldier between the ages of 19 and 21 in the Famagusta area, and Famagusta was, in a sense, my home town. I walked the streets of Famagusta and Varosha, and I recognise the hotels that I can see through binoculars. Mr. Pouyouros was, in a sense, my mayor when I lived in Famagusta, and he has been the mayor of Famagusta from 1953 to the present day. I hope to see the day--I vow to see the day--when Mr. Pouyouros walks freely and with full dignity through the streets of Famagusta once again as its mayor.
The situation in Cyprus is tragic, and the situation of Famagusta within Cyprus is tragic, too--it is a tragedy within a tragedy.
The second invasion was not an afterthought but a land grab, by which those occupying 37 per cent. of the territory secured two thirds or more of the productive capacity of Cyprus, which is contained within their territorial mass.
As the seizure of Famagusta in 1974 was the keystone of the invasion, so Famagusta could be the key to a solution. One might suppose that it has been kept as a bargaining point.
My hon. Friend the Member for Tooting listed the various high-level statements and resolutions between 1978 and 1994, so I will not burden the House by repeating them. In conclusion, I suggest that, after all the years of prevarication, it is time that progress was made on the solution to the Cyprus problem and that a commencement of that solution should be the occupation
and resettlement of Famagusta by its legitimate inhabitants--not as a fenced-in enclave, as Mr. Denktash insists, but in the form suggested by the hon. Member for Edmonton (Dr. Twinn). Again, I will save time by not alluding further to that suggestion.
"The asphalt on the roads has cracked in the warm sun and along the sidewalks bushes are growing.
Today, September 1977, the breakfast tables are still set, the laundry still hanging and the lamps still burning.
Famagusta is a ghost-town".
"Save the key. It unlocks the house When you go, you can open it up. Keep it in a place that's safe and do clean it up now and again. So it will be ready when they say
'you can return . . . ', I won't return, like I thought, you will, once more you will see the orchard and the walnut tree I planted . . . Guard the key. Our yard will smell of jasmin flowers the Vine will be in fruit though untrimmed for years."
Two more lines of the poem read:
"Do not cry. Just guard the key well."
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