observer wrote:It would be an interesting case, as the wording of the The Rome Statute (the transfer directly or indirectly by the Occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies) seems to imply direct action by the State as opposed to voluntary movement of people. As far as I am aware, no one was forced to come to Cyprus against their wishes.
The legislature makes no comment about forcing settlers to colonise. The occupying state (Turkey), needs only to transfer by direct or even indirect methods to have committed the crime of colonisation.
That this has happened in the case of Cyprus is now fact!
Parliamentary Assembly: Council of Europe (19th Sitting)
2. It is a well-established fact that the demographic structure of the island has been continuously modified since its de facto partition in 1974, as a result of the deliberate policies of the Turkish Cypriot administration and Turkey. Despite the lack of consensus on the exact figures, all parties concerned admit that Turkish nationals have since been systematically arriving in the northern part of the island. According to reliable estimates, their number currently totals 115 000.
3. The settlers come mainly from the region of Anatolia, one of the least developed regions of Turkey.
4. In particular, the Assembly expresses its concern at the continuous outflow of the indigenous Turkish Cypriot population from the northern part of the island. Their number decreased from 118 000 in 1974 to an estimated 87 600 in 2001. In consequence, the settlers outnumber the indigenous Turkish Cypriot population in the northern part.
5. In the light of the information available, the Assembly cannot accept the claims that the majority of arriving Turkish nationals are seasonal workers or former inhabitants who had left the island before 1974. Therefore it condemns the policy of “naturalisation” designed to encourage new arrivals which was introduced by the Turkish Cypriot administration with the full support of the Government of Turkey.
6. The Assembly is convinced that the presence of the settlers constitutes a process of hidden colonisation and an additional and important obstacle to a peaceful negotiated solution of the Cyprus problem.
7.iv. call on Turkey, as well as its Turkish Cypriot subordinate local administration in northern Cyprus, to stop the process of colonisation by Turkish settlers and, in particular, call on the Turkish Cypriot administration to review their migration legislation and policies, and especially the law on naturalisation, with a view to revising them and, in consequence, bringing them into line with international standards;
v. call on Turkey to comply with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights concerning refugees’ right to property in the occupied part of Cyprus;
Turkey has targeted the Settlers from particular regions for this colonisation process.
