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Turkey's Violations of Human Rights in Cyprus

The international community's highest achievement since 1945 has been its establishment of universal standards for individual human rights and the rule that international disputes must be peacefully settled. Yet, for the small Republic of Cyprus, these standards remain vain aspirations so long as much of her territory is under occupation by the Armed Forces of the Republic of Turkey. Ever sinceTurkey's mid-1974 invasions of Cyprus hundreds of thousands of individuals, Greek and Turkish Cypriot alike, have suffered deprivation of their fundamental rights, and their unremedied injuries fester away, risking not only hostilities between neighbouring States, but disruption of international order in one of the world's most sensitive locations.
Familiarity over the last 30 years with the recurring political problems of Cyprus, combined with cynicism as to the possibility of achieving a satisfactory outcome, has led the major powers and their allies into characterising the question as basically a problem of two intransigent communities who should be left aside endlessly to negotiate their differences. This attitude enables governments throughout the world to justify passing by their moral and legal responsibilities to take active measures to restore human rights in Cyprus. The argument that negotiations are continuing between the Cypriot communities had the added advantage of avoiding any necessity of examining the Republic of Turkey, for the continuing catastrophe afflicting the people of Cyprus.

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