THE SUPREME Court has rejected an appeal from 78 Turkish Cypriots demanding their right to vote for their own Turkish Cypriot deputies in parliament.
The appeal, which was launched last July by lawyers Ali Erel and Mustafa Damdelen, called for activation of a separate electoral roll for Turkish Cypriots to vote for Turkish representatives at the House of Representatives.
But yesterday, the Supreme Court rejected the appeal, stating that the appellants were living in the occupied north under the wing of Turkish occupying forces and therefore did not have the right to vote in matters concerning the Cyprus Republic.
According to the appeal, the state had refused to allow Turkish Cypriots currently residing in the north to take part in elections in the government-controlled areas.
Under the 1960 Constitution, there are separate electoral rolls for members of the Greek and Turkish communities of the island. Turkish Cypriots living in the south can vote and are included on the same electoral roll as Greek Cypriots.
The court proceedings had initially hit dead ends, with its session postponed several times because the state had failed to hand documentation to the defence translated into Turkish.
During the proceedings, the court had also heard a recent case at the European Court of Human Rights (Aziz v Cyprus) in which a Turkish Cypriot man living in the south had asked to be allowed to vote on the Greek Cypriot register.
When his request was turned down, he took his case to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in his favour, noting that “as a member of the Turkish Cypriot community living in the government-controlled area of Cyprus, [he] was completely deprived of any opportunity to express his opinion in the choice of the members of the house of representatives of the country of which he was a national and where he had always lived”.
But the Supreme Court yesterday stated that it failed to establish a valid comparison between the Aziz cas and the appeal at hand.
”Concluding, the court has come to the decision and has rejected the appeal because the appellants had and continue to have permanent residence in the north sector of Cyprus, which is occupied by Turkish forces,” the Supreme Court decision read.
“Under those conditions, they have not shown to have the rights that were noted in the initial decision of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Aziz.”
Under the 1960 Constitution, the Greek Chamber of the House of Representatives has 59 members elected for a five-year term, 56 Greek Cypriot members by proportional representation and three observer members representing the Maronite, Latin and Armenian minorities.
The Turkish Chamber has 24 seats, but has been vacant since inter-communal clashes in 1964.
The Republic had until January 26, 2006 continued to function with participation only from Greek Cypriots, until a new law was passed following the Aziz ruling allowing Turkish Cypriots living in the south to vote on the Greek Cypriot electoral roll.
What do you think? You think it is OK for TCs to have both "TRNC" and RoC at the same time? If TCs want RoC shouldn't they stop supporting the "TRNC"?
