In furtherance of its plans of partition, and in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions
and its international obligations regarding respect for human rights and all relevant
resolutions of the United Nations, which it has itself endorsed or voted for, Turkey
organized on 8 June 1975, in collaboration with the Turkish Cypriot leadership, a
"referendum" in the occupied part of the Republic. This so-called referendum is of course
null and void. A referendum in an area where 80% of the population has been forcibly
expelled by a foreign occupying country is inconceivable. According to basic theory and
logic a referendum is a democratic process and not a tool for racial discrimination against
the overwhelming majority of the population. This action is not only against the Greek
Cypriots, who have been living in this island for thousands of years, but also against the
real interests of the Turkish Cypriot community, which has been used by Turkey in the last
decade or so as its tool against the independence of Cyprus.
The provisions of the "constitution" of the so-called Turkish Federated State of Cyprus are
eloquent. In its preamble it claims that the "Turkish Cypriot community constitutes the
inseparable part of the Great Turkish Nation". That the "constitution" aims at linking the
occupied part with Turkey also becomes clear from the affirmation of the "members of the
Assembly" to respect the "principles of Ataturk" and not the principles of the Constitution
of Cyprus. It should be noted that the "constitution", in all relevant provisions, refers to
the members of the Turkish Cypriot community as "Turkish citizens" so as to enable Turks
from Turkey to colonize Cyprus without being distinguished from the indigenous Turkish
population.
Another feature of the above "constitution" is the fact that all the enclaved Greek Cypriots
as well as the non-Turkish communities in the territory under occupation by Turkey are
defined as "aliens". They are deprived of their fundamental human and political rights, and
their rights are determined by a "special law" for "aliens". Moreover, the Greek Cypriots'
right to ownership is not respected. On the contrary, the "constitution" contains provisions
whose application presupposes the expropriation of property belonging to Greek Cypriot
displaced persons, such as houses, fields, factories, hotels etc., and their allocation to
Turkish Cypriots and Turks from Turkey. An outrageous act of the Turkish Cypriot
leadership was also the enactment of a "law" for the distribution of Greek Cypriot property
to the Turks.
