APPENDIX 17
Memorandum from the Cypriot Forum for
Labour
With reference to the Committee's inquiry into
the United Kingdom's relations with Turkey with reference to Turkey's
role in European Defence structures and its prospects for accession
to the European Union, [5 February 2002], we should be pleased
if you would kindly note the following:
(a) Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus
in 1974, it ethnically cleansed the whole of the Greek-Cypriot
population from the areas it invaded and continues with the military
occupation of 37 per cent of the territory of the Republic of
Cyprus. More than 120 UN General Assembly and Security Council
Resolutions call for the withdrawal of the Turkish army and to
allow the return of the 200,000 refugees to their homes;
(b) Turkey continues to wage war against
its own citizens, the Kurds and refuses to recognise neither their
minority rights, nor their rights as a community to uphold their
own language and culture; and
(c) Turkey's record on human rights, which
includes the murder of journalists and isolation of political
dissidents, is a far cry from European norms and there is no tangible
evidence as yet of any specific intention of changing its current
policy and practices.
It therefore goes without saying that unless
Turkey takes meaningful steps to change its policy on the above,
HM Government should discourage any closer relations with that
country.
Cypriot Forum for Labour
February 2002
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