New Cyprus Party[i]’s (YKP) evaluation and demandsregarding the population situation in northern Cyprus (2009)
Introduction
- The distribution of citizenships to people brought from Turkey for years has been an important factor in the violation of Cypriots’ rights to elect and be elected, and the shattering of their will. The political parties – for the benefit of prolonging their presence as administrators-, and Turkey to reinforce its control over the North of the island – ensured (initially with control and later without any control) that people from Turkey have been granted citizenships and the rights to elect and be elected, The present situation has not been the result of a usual immigration activity from one country to another but rather a result of a population transfer from Turkey following Turkish Republic’s occupation of the northern part of the island after 1974. This contradicts 1949 Geneva Conventions & Additional Protocols as well as destroys the most basic democratic right for fair election conditions.
The issue of citizenship created for people brought/transported from Turkey should be tackled within this framework.
Those who will adopt the citizenship of the new Cyprus Republic after an agreement will be determined again through agreement, and by all the Cypriots. Hence, we should refrain from practices that will demolish or challenge agreement conditions. In addition, altering the demographic structure of Cyprus is one of the most important factors threatening the future of Cyprus, because those will be the ones to approve an agreement. Policies should be developed taking this into consideration as well. Furthermore, it has been proven over and over again that the right to elect and be elected is used to limit the will of Turkish Cypriots. It must be the Cypriots who determine the future of Cyprus. For all these reasons, all practices that contradict Geneva Conventions ought to be avoided.
International law, documents, Annan Plan
2. According to the Geneva Convention that came into effect on 12 August 1949: “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive. (…) The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” (Article 49, Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949)
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/380?OpenDocument
3. “United Cyprus Republic (UCR) has only a single citizenship. (…) Once the Treaty[ii] comes into effect individuals entitled to UCR citizenship will be:
1 – Those who were Cyprus citizens before 1963, their descendants and their spouses,
2 – 45 thousand people from each side.
Individuals in the second category will be determined according to the following criteria:
a) those over the age of 18 who resided in Cyprus for a minimum of seven years before the age of 18 and a minimum of one year for the last five years, and their children of age below 18.
b) those who resided in Cyprus continuously for more than seven years (the order of priority will be according to the length of residence in Cyprus).
This regulation is of special concern to those residents from Turkey who settled in Cyprus after 1974. (The Greek side has not accepted a considerable number of immigrants after 1974.). In this case, the priority for UCR citizenship will be given to those immigrants from Turkey who married Cypriots, and their children. Secondly, priority will be given to those who conform to the criteria above, i.e. 45 thousand Turkish people, including those who were born in Cyprus, will be entitled to UCR citizenship.” (Erdal Guven, Radikal Newspaper, 9 February 2004)
http://www.radikal.com.tr/haber.php?haberno=105555
Situation in the North of Cyprus
4. (Mehmet Ali) “Talat, has stated that the population might go up to 500 thousand if the workers and families registered here and are permit holders become citizens.” (30 October 2007)
http://www.kibrisligazetesi.net/kibrisli/site/tr/main.php?action=article_details&article_id=2586
5. “Whenever Mehmet Ali Talat attends the AKIS programme aired by BRT[iii] and prepared and presented by the Star newspaper journalist Mete Tumerkan, he makes very interesting declarations.
(…) Mr. Talat stated that the demographic structure has not been impaired. When checked against the official records, Mr. President[iv] was right; however subsequently the following words came out of his mouth:
“The population might go up to 500 thousand if the workers and families registered here and are permit holders become nationals.”
Mr. Talat is a leader who chooses words carefully while speaking. He says: “Registered and holding permits”. So what kind of a picture do we get if we add to this number those who are unregistered and without permits – whose numbers everyone dreads to guess?
Estimates for issues such as education and health are made according to the number of citizens in the country. As we see the real number is 500 thousand. And it is our President who confirms this.” (Aytug Turkkan, starKIBRIS Newspaper, 9 November 2007)
http://www.starkibris.net/index.asp?haberID=6383
6. (Canan) “Oztoprak[v], reminded that last year an increase in population came about as a result of registering the work power; and the need for more teachers was revealed.” (21 August 2007)
http://www.kibrisgazetesi.com/index.php/cat/2/news/45260/PageName/Ic_Haberler
7. (General Secretary of KTOS (Cyprus Turkish Teachers Union)) Sener Elcil, claimed that 47% of students attending school are the children of registered or unregistered workers in the country.
Elcil stated that even though the teaching positions have been increased over the last 3 years there is still lack of teachers in the system, and this is an indication of the population flow to TRNC[vi]. Elcil said “uncontrolled, illegitimate population increase has led to the fact that population related planning cannot be made.” (15 October 2007)
http://www.kibrisligazetesi.net/kibrisli/site/tr/main.php?action=article_details&article_id=2073
8. (KTOS) “The population mobility, within the framework of politics around populating the country, has rendered planning in areas such as education, health and employment impossible. He stated that problems arising from unplanned structuring in the cities have brought the physical insufficiency of our schools to the agenda; he drew attention to the fact that there is need for more classes, more teachers and infrastructure in Sehit Dogan Ahmet İlkokulu (most desperate), Gonyeli, Catalkoy, Karaoglanoglu, Sehit Hasan Cafer, Lapta, Akova, Alanici, Mormenekse, BUyUkkonuk ve Dipkarpaz Primary Schools (2 November 2007)
http://rotagazetesi.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=466&Itemid=1
9. If we apply the 1.5% death percentage to those who immigrated to the country in the other five year periods and those who were alive during the census, we estimate that the actual number of people who immigrated to Cyprus as 265 615. If so many people immigrated to Cyprus and lived until 2006, we should be able to guess the expansion with birth rate. We accept this rate as the average of that of Cyprus and Turkey, and take it as 2.9%. Therefore, we should believe that number of the 265 615 people who immigrated to Cyprus at different times has gone up to 321 368 in the year 2006. (taken from BİLBAN[vii] research published in Yenicag newspaper on 10 October 2007)
10. “The population was 264,172 in April 2006 compared with 200,587 in 1996, the last time a census was carried out. This is a huge increase of nearly 32 per cent that can only be explained by a birth-rate related to an immigrant population, with fewer older people and more in the child rearing age range, and additional immigrants since 1996. The normal increase for Turkish Cypriots could not account for this, and many of them live abroad. It is likely that Turks with their recent origin in Turkey but with citizenship in northern Cyprus outnumber the born Turkish Cypriots by at least four to three.” (Friends of Cyprus Report, 49, Autumn “Census 2006: It’s the counting that counts” Alpay Durduran)
http://www.friendsofcyprus.org.uk/PDF%20Reports/REPORT_NO49.pdf
11. The number of vehicles that have been registered since 1974 has reached 215,987. Even though not all of these are still active in traffic, it can be seen that the number of vehicles in a country with a population of 256 thousand is quite high. (22 January 2007)
http://www.kibrisgazetesi.com/index.php/cat/2/news/48883/PageName/Ic_Haberler
12. (from UBP (National Unity Party)) “Huseyin Ozgurgun stated that he believes the current population of Nicosia exceeds 100 thousand.” (16 December 2007)
http://www.kibrisligazetesi.net/kibrisli/site/tr/main.php?action=article_details&article_id=4361
13. “And today our population has reached 300 thousand…. However, for economic cycles to spin and for TRNC to stand up strong against the Greek government with a population of 1 million, our population must reach 500 thousand.” (Sabahattin Ismail, Volkan)
http://www.volkangazetesi.net/index.asp?sayfa=yazidetay&yaziid=371
14. “By the end of October 2007, 2,101 Turkish Cypriot babies and 1,268 foreign nationality babies were born in TRNC.” (22 January 2007)
http://www.yeniduzengazetesi.com/index.php/cat/1/news/12270/PageName/Haberler
15. “According to the Dr. Burhan Nalbantoglu State Hospital 2006 Activity Report, a total of 1, 011 births took place in the Maternity Ward in the year 2006.”
“In the year 2005, a total of 1451 births took place with the breakdown of 672 in Dr. Burhan Nalbantoglu State Hospital, 288 in Famagusta State Hospital, 321 in Kyrenia State Hospital, 158 in Cengiz Topel State Hospital. In 2002, 630 births took place in Dr. Burhan Nalbantoglu State Hospital, and 1451 births in general.”
http://www.saglikbakanligi.com/html_files/istatistikler/istatistik_genel.htm
Evaluation
16. It is a crime to transfer population to an occupied area. In this context, Turkey committed a war crime according Geneva Conventions.
17. According to Annan Plan, all the citizenships granted by subordinate local administration of Turkey are invalid; following an agreement, citizenships of a newly established state will be granted in compliance with rules determined by the relevant authorized bodies; therefore granting people citizenships today is the same as granting false hope. The Turkish Cypriot leadership claims that it still accepts the Annan Plan as a base, and also states that all citizenships granted by subordinate local administration will be cancelled. Hence, cancelling these citizenships today will be an important factor that will provide constructive contribution to resolving the Cyprus issue and to elevating trust between the two sides.
18. The total population in the north of Cyprus is 500 thousand. There is adequate evidence to prove this accurate. Also various declarations validate this. This population distorts the demographic structure of northern Cyprus, and accelerates the demolition of the Cypriot identity. Initially it is not important whether this population is composed of citizens or not. The impact is already felt. The activities of political parties that are close to Turkey and the Turkish (ORP[viii] whose leader is Avci, DP whose leader is Serdar Denktas) create an image of a superficial political activity through the participation of non-citizens. Considering that the non-citizens are intensely involved with paramilitary groups (Ulku Ocaklari[ix], Nizami Alem Ocaklari[x], UHH[xi] etc.) it is a fact that they have started to become a real threat factor. (The demonstration that took place outside Afrika newspaper on 24 October 2007 is an example for this)
19. A population of 500 thousand cannot be supported by the existing infrastructure, and this has brought the failing and destruction of health, education, roads, water, electricity services and the nature. No political party can come into leadership in this existing environment and deliver work. The population in question is structuring itself into political action if necessary (Hataylilar[xii] Association, Karadenizliler[xiii] Cultural Association etc), and they have openly proved this during the elections for Mayor of Nicosia (Turkish side)…
20. Through the mobilisation activities that it undertakes at various periods, the Turkish Embassy prevents the integration of this population with Cypriots. The Embassy acts like the administration of a province of Turkey, and continuously calls this population to its premises for procedures to register births, deaths, marriages, etc. The last mobilisation they achieved was when hundreds of thousands of Turkish citizens (some of these are citizens of the subordinate local administration) were called to the premises to renew their ‘registration’ with the excuse of determining residence.
21. The Turkish Republic Aid Committee establishes direct contact with this population from time to time and gives them the message that their “real” country does not forget about them. In fact, nobody is granted citizenship without permission from the Turkish Embassy, and every new citizen remains also a Turkish citizen.
22. The Turkish army authorities are in contact with this population and providing aid for various reasons.
23. The close liaisons of a mass population expressed in hundreds of thousands with the Turkish army and the civil bureaucracy definitely inhibits the will of Cypriots.
Demand
24. Until an agreement is made under these conditions, only those who are entitled to 1960 Cyprus Republic citizenship must have the right to elect and be elected at the northern part of island.
25. The solution to the Cyprus problem will be possible only through a federation agreement between the Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriots. For this reason, the Greek Cypriots must be convinced to agree with the distorted population structure with more citizenships granted to Turkish people than the number of Turkish Cypriots. This is not possible.
26. The Turkish army and Turkish settlers are part of the problem that is most difficult to solve, and the new nationalities granted jeopardize an agreement.
27. All nationalities, granted illegally according to international law, to the Turkish immigrants after 1974 must be revoked. This excludes those who are entitled to 1960 Cyprus Republic citizenship through marriage to Cypriots or birth from such marriages.
28. Population transfer activities must be stopped, and the progressive reduction of the population carried to the north of Cyprus must commence in compliance with human rights.
January 2008
[i] http://www.ykp.org.cy/index_eng.php
[ii] Refers to Annan Plan
[iii] “State” broadcasting channel
[iv] President of TRNC which is only recognize by Turkey; the international community define him as a Turkish Cypriot Community leader
[v] Minister of Education of the administration in the northern part
[vi] TRNC is the so called independent state ‘Turkish Republic of northern Cyprus’ or the subordinate local administration of Turkey as is defined by several ECHR decisions.
[vii] BILBAN is a socio-political research institute www.bilban.org
[viii] ORP is the Freedom and Reform Party, a conservative party, established in 2007, other political organizations accuse them to be satellites of AKP
[ix] Ulku Ocaklari is the youth branch of MHP (political party in Turkey), an ultra nationalist party
[x] Nizami Alem Ocaklari is the youth branch of BBP (political party in Turkey), an ultra nationalist party
[xi] UHH is the National People Movement, a paramilitary organization.
[xii] Hataylilar means from Hatay (City in Turkey)
[xiii] Karadenizliler means from the Black Sea area (Turkey)
