‘END THE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION’
THE UK government should help end the “racial discrimination of Turkish Cypriots”, a new lobbying campaign has urged.
The British Residents Society (BRS) has kicked off its campaign by creating letters that any UK passport holder – BRS member or not – can send to British MPs.
The letters are available to view at the address brstrnc.com?r=CT on the BRS website.
The BRS says that while one letter has a “more diplomatic tone” the other is “a bit more heartfelt”, but the “purpose of both is to show your feelings towards the discrimination against Turkish Cypriots”.
Both letters begin by bringing the recipient’s attention to the “need to end the overdue isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community and other residents of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, including approximately 15,000 British nationals”.
The “heartfelt” letter continues by saying: “Despite the UK being a ‘guarantor power’ of the island since 1960, successive British governments have systematically ignored the plight of Turkish Cypriots and have wholly discriminated against this community through its isolation and embargoed approach that in the 21st century of worldwide inclusion and recognition is beyond the comprehension of most.
“The only thing the UK has guaranteed since 1960 is to wholly support the Greek Cypriot Administration through their decades long incessant lobbying campaign.”
The letter states that “since the Greek invasion of Cyprus on 15 July 1974 and subsequent Turkish intervention on 20 July 1974 that helped avoid ethnic cleansing of the Turkish Cypriots, the UK has not treated the Turkish Cypriots equally nor fairly despite their justifiable inherent co-equal status”.
It notes that the “injustice was exacerbated when the Turkish Cypriots voted yes to the Annan Plan to reconcile the island, the Greek Cypriots voted no, and one week later the Greek Cypriot Administration became a member of the EU”.
The letter says that as a “guarantor power the UK should have used its veto rights to stop” what was effectively the death knell for any attempts to resolve the Cyprus dispute.
The letter continues: “Successive attempts at reconciliation have failed. And of course they would. The Greek Cypriots have the backing of the EU and the status-quo is exactly what they want as this suppresses Turkish Cypriots further whilst the Greek Cypriots enjoy the benefits of EU membership.
“There was hope that the postBrexit era may allow the UK to act independently and progressively but [talks in] Crans Montana (2017) and Geneva (2021) showed this not to be the case.
“Basic human rights are being denied (the West supposedly being the champion of human rights), people cannot fly directly to their homeland, ports cannot be used for international trade, participation in international arenas of sports, culture and politics are denied.
“All this is futile and petty as people will always find a way to circumvent obstacles.”
The BRS-drafted letter says that it hopes MPs will not respond with the “same, dated, standardised responses that include ‘international conventions’ and ‘we support the international community approach of recognising the Republic of Cyprus [as] the representative for the whole of the island’,” adding that “these tired responses do not reflect the real world and only support further suppression of Turkish Cypriots”.
The letter concludes by stating: “It has been nearly 50 years since the Greek invasion, surely this cannot go on for another 50 years.
“The UK government should lead the way on this issue and not act as a passive bystander. All we ask for is for the UK to act freely and fairly to end the international isolation and trade embargoes that
in turn will end the racial discrimination of Turkish Cypriots, and to the international residents of the TRNC.”
Meanwhile the “diplomatic” version of the letter asks “why does the Greek Cypriot Administration spend millions in lobbying the world to continue with futile trade embargoes and international isolation of Turkish Cypriots?” and that “even the sad passing of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II does not escape their discrimination based on the vitriol received when suggesting a book of condolence be shared between the British communities of the north and south of the island”.
To help facilitate the letter-writing campaign, the BRS has created an online system where people can input their personal information so that a “pre-populated letter can be automatically sent to your MP by email”.
Those who wish to send a hard copy by post can “simply print off your chosen letter, top and tail it as appropriate and hand it in to one of BRS clinics and the BRS in turn will collate these and send them” to the UK.
“You can also attend a BRS clinic from December 5 where you can sign your letters and we will post them for you,” the BRS added.
BRS members overwhelmingly voted in support of the lobbying campaign earlier this year, which was sparked by an article written by Cyprus Today columnist Stephen Day in July, in which he write that “it’s time to rock the Foreign Office boat”.
BRS president Peter Wilkins, who is in charge of the campaign, said this week “our primary goal is to make all UK citizens aware of what we are doing, not just our members”.
He was at pains to point out that “what we are trying to achieve is not in any way political” and that “this campaign is purely for humanitarian reasons, we are not aligned to any TRNC governmental ideology nor are we advocating any particular future resolution, but we are seeking to ‘End the Isolation’ of the TRNC by hoping to persuade the UK government to listen to reason and act fairly”.
Mr Wilkins stressed that “ultimately this will benefit ALL inhabitants of the TRNC, and hopefully improve living standards for all”.
He added that the costs of the campaign are being met by “private sponsors” and not by using BRS funds or money from the TRNC government.
Mr Wilkins also said the BRS have decided that plans to have a petition available to be signed at various locations will now take place at a later date “to ensure momentum of the campaign is preserved and keep the pressure on the UK government”.