Cyprus-Forum.com

[Get Real!]

Why didn’t the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus work?

Let’s hear it from the United Nations…

21. Whilst establishing an independent and sovereign Republic, the Constitution of Cyprus, "unique in its tortuous complexity and in the multiplicity of the safeguards that it provides for the principal minority, ... stands alone among the constitutions of the world" (S.A de Smith, The New Commonwealth and its Constitutions, London, 1964, p. 296). Therefore, it was no surprise that, within less than three years, abuse of safeguards by the Turkish Cypriot leadership led to total unworkability of the Constitution which necessitated the proposals for constitutional amendments submitted by the President of the Republic and which were immediately rejected by the Turkish Government and subsequently by the Turkish Cypriot community.

22. Turkey, in furtherance of its designs based on territorial aggrandizement, instigated the Turkish Cypriot leadership's resort to insurrection against the State, forced the Turkish Cypriot members of the executive, legislature, judiciary and civil service to withdraw from their posts and created military enclaves in Nicosia and other parts of the island. As a result of the foregoing and the intercommunal violence that ensued the Security Council of the United Nations was seized with the situation and by resolution 186 (1964) of 4 March 1964 a peacekeeping force was sent to Cyprus and a mediator appointed. In his report (S/6253-A/6017) the Mediator, Dr. Galo Plaza, criticized the 1960 legal framework and proposed necessary amendments which were again immediately rejected by Turkey, a fact which resulted in serious deterioration of the situation with constant threats by Turkey against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cyprus which necessitated a series of United Nations resolutions calling, inter alia, for respect of the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Cyprus.

23. The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1965 described the policy of the Turkish Cypriot leaders in this way:
"The Turkish Cypriot leaders have adhered to a rigid stand against any measures which might involve having members of the two communities live and work together, or which might place Turkish Cypriots in situations where they would have to acknowledge the authority of Government agents. Indeed, since the Turkish Cypriot leadership is committed to physical and geographical separation of the communities as a political goal, it is not likely to encourage activities by Turkish Cypriots which may be interpreted as demonstrating the merits of an alternative policy. The result has been a seemingly deliberate policy of self-segregation by the Turkish Cypriots" (S/6426).
Despite this policy, a certain degree of normality gradually returned to Cyprus and by 1974, with the active encouragement of the Government, a large proportion of Turkish Cypriots were living and working alongside their Greek Cypriot fellow citizens.

Taken from:
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/a99f ... endocument

[Piratis]

Exactly Get Real.

There are many democratic multi-ethnic countries around the world. The recipe for a successful democratic state is not a secret.

Unfortunately some outsiders in 1960 cooked for us a constitution that didn't follow the well established principles of other successful democracies. It is not just "its tortuous complexity and in the multiplicity of the safeguards that it provides for the principal minority" that stands alone among the constitutions of the world, but also things like Guarantor powers, huge foreign bases etc.

And then they ask us why we rejected the Annan plan. As if we couldn't predict with 100% certainty that such kind of monstrosities can never survive.

[Pyrpolizer]

Why didn’t the 1960 Constitution of Cyprus work?

Let’s hear it from the United Nations…

21. Whilst establishing an independent and sovereign Republic, the Constitution of Cyprus, "unique in its tortuous complexity and in the multiplicity of the safeguards that it provides for the principal minority, ... stands alone among the constitutions of the world" (S.A de Smith, The New Commonwealth and its Constitutions, London, 1964, p. 296). Therefore, it was no surprise that, within less than three years, abuse of safeguards by the Turkish Cypriot leadership led to total unworkability of the Constitution which necessitated the proposals for constitutional amendments submitted by the President of the Republic and which were immediately rejected by the Turkish Government and subsequently by the Turkish Cypriot community.

22. Turkey, in furtherance of its designs based on territorial aggrandizement, instigated the Turkish Cypriot leadership's resort to insurrection against the State, forced the Turkish Cypriot members of the executive, legislature, judiciary and civil service to withdraw from their posts and created military enclaves in Nicosia and other parts of the island. As a result of the foregoing and the intercommunal violence that ensued the Security Council of the United Nations was seized with the situation and by resolution 186 (1964) of 4 March 1964 a peacekeeping force was sent to Cyprus and a mediator appointed. In his report (S/6253-A/6017) the Mediator, Dr. Galo Plaza, criticized the 1960 legal framework and proposed necessary amendments which were again immediately rejected by Turkey, a fact which resulted in serious deterioration of the situation with constant threats by Turkey against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cyprus which necessitated a series of United Nations resolutions calling, inter alia, for respect of the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Cyprus.

23. The Secretary-General of the United Nations in 1965 described the policy of the Turkish Cypriot leaders in this way:
"The Turkish Cypriot leaders have adhered to a rigid stand against any measures which might involve having members of the two communities live and work together, or which might place Turkish Cypriots in situations where they would have to acknowledge the authority of Government agents. Indeed, since the Turkish Cypriot leadership is committed to physical and geographical separation of the communities as a political goal, it is not likely to encourage activities by Turkish Cypriots which may be interpreted as demonstrating the merits of an alternative policy. The result has been a seemingly deliberate policy of self-segregation by the Turkish Cypriots" (S/6426).
Despite this policy, a certain degree of normality gradually returned to Cyprus and by 1974, with the active encouragement of the Government, a large proportion of Turkish Cypriots were living and working alongside their Greek Cypriot fellow citizens.

Taken from:
http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/0/a99f ... endocument

Thanks GR. On the other hand all we hear from TCs in here is that the GCs kicked them out of the Government

[free_cyprus]

Get Real!
the 1960 agreement did not work because it was drawn up by turkey greece and britain for their own gains....................cyprus people gained nothing at all from that agreement apart from grief, devision, and and the ultimate sacrifice for our island to be devided.................... the island of cyprus is to brained washed to thinking they are turkish and greeks thats why not only 1960 agreement wont work nothing alse will work either as long as they are tied to their soo called motherlands

[askimwos]

Thanks GR. On the other hand all we hear from TCs in here is that the GCs kicked them out of the Government

I don't believe that there is anybody who can claim the oposite in terms of whether the TC leadership decided or was forced to abandon their positions in the RoC government. This was even admitted by Denktash himself.

The end result is the one that counts though, and the end result was teh suffering of the TC population who found themselves in the middle of two guns pointing at them, the TMT and the EOKA b. I am not surprised about the TCs feelings for those events, if one suffers he tends to blame the ones that his leaders point the finger at. The TMT fascists at the time presented themselves as the protectors of the TC population and controlled every source of information that could reach the TC population. Anyone that dared to say the oposite or cooperate with GCs was labelled a traitor and shot on the spot.

Having said the above, this was not disimilar to the practices applied by the EOKA b thugs, only for they had an elected government to topple at the same time. The tragedy is that both these fascists and their foreign masters succeeded in their objectives and very few paid for their crimes.

[cypezokyli]

you have received an answer elsewhere GR... who wrote this document ? is it really the official position of the UN ?

[Murataga]

This unfortunate document is a perfect evidence of how partial and politically motivated some institutions of the U.N. can behave. The document is unconditionally one-dimensional, politicized, abhorrent and discriminatory. Such notes are a severe blow to the credibility and the neutrality of the institution.

If the document is scanned carefully, the readers will observe that there exists not a single, and I can’t emphasize this any stronger: not one, note, comment, observation or conclusion that criticizes anything about the GCs in a 44 year long conflict. Even the most passionate GCs of their cause have admitted wrongdoings yet this ludicrous report mentions none. This alone gives away the true intensions of what is being attempted here. If the preparers of this inadmissible report had a bit of sense they would have known that the report would be more damaging to the TCs if it had described just a tiny bit of the wrongdoings of the GCs since it would strike to be a more realistic one.

The report wrongfully attempts to rewrite history from a clearly one-sided perspective although this is hardly the task of this particular organ of the U.N. As an unfortunate consequence of this futile attempt, this history is written from carefully chosen one-sided notes and scraps of a 44 year long conflict to disgrace and punish the TCs and Turkey. Additionally, numerous extremely strong statements are not even backed up by any reference, source or quotation and written informally as the words of a schoolboy in a fight. Some of the data presented is even nullified by the GC administration`s “official” website. For example, the report claims that the TC population is 12% in cyprus whereas the interested reader can find that this percentage is given as 18% even according to the "official" website of the GC administration (http://www.cyprus.gov.cy/). The general idea of the report is in contravention to the U.N. Secretary-General's report (S/23780) and U.N. Resolution 750 of 1992 (http://www.un.int/cyprus/scr750.htm) that explicitly recognizes that there are two distinct communities in Cyprus and that the solution of the Cyprus conflict lies within a bicommunal bizonal federation with the two communities having equal political statuses.

This is not justice, this is not humanity, this is not neutrality. This is hypocrisy and ill-will at its worst, and it is unacceptable to say the least. I would very much like to know who was involved in the preparation of this document, how they were motivated and who provided their resources, or where it stands in proximity to the official policy of the U.N. Unfortunately, I have neither the time or the adequate resources to carry out such research on my own hence I have nothing further to say.

[Piratis]

Since when you have problems with one sided reports Murataga? Isn't one sided arguments the only thing you ever post?

I agree with you that the report emphasizes one side of the story, but everything that is said there is the truth.
Regarding the 18% VS 12% of TCs, the 18% is the number of TCs in Cyprus until 1974. 12% is the number of TCs by 1996, as many of them immigraded abroad and were replaced by settlers.

This is not justice, this is not humanity, this is not neutrality.

... says the Turk who supports the illegal occupation, the illegal pseudo state, refuses to obey UN resolutions, doesn't give a shit about ECHR rulings, and supports the human rights violations of 100s of thousands of people. YOU are talking about justice and humanity?? oh PLEEEEESEEEEE!!!!

[Pyrpolizer]

The document S/6424 was written by the UN though

[free_cyprus]

Piratis
what fucking human rights has cypriots got you brainless twat............... either turkish speaking or greek speaking................. my fecking isssland is covered in greek and turkish flags they sing turkish and greek anthems. they do everything in their power to keep cyprus people fromsaying they are cypriots.............. they have to say they are greeks and turks they come from ankara or athens whata load of bollox what a load of shit and you talk about fecking human rights.....................