Letter to Jack Straw by the Movement for Freedom & Justice in Cyprus

Nicosia, 11^th November 2010 

Mr Jack Straw, MP

House of Commons

London SW1A 00A

Dear Mr. Straw, 

We refer to your article in “The Times”, 8 November 2010, to mention the following:

1.  Your principal statement “No ifs or buts, Turkey must be part of the EU”

We express sympathy to your pro-Turkish persistence.  After all, Turkey is paying a lot of money in promoting such statements.

• However, your arguments in support are unfounded, wrong, unjust and politically senseless.

2.  Your argument “Turkey (population 74 million) is now hostage to negotiations over Cyprus. (Greek Cypriot population 0.75 million, Turkish Cypriot 0.25 million)”

This is, indeed, the main argument of the Turkish Government itself, reconfirming that Turkey’s arguments and actions on Cyprus continue to be of British origin.

• No surprise, Mr. Straw! As a matter of fact, if you visit www.freedomjustice.com.cy and download the fully documented, bilingual book «Αιματηρή Αλήθεια – Bloody Truth”, you will be fully educated on the British/Turkish conspiracy against Cyprus since the 50’s.

• May we remind you, Mr. Straw, that against Turkey’s population of 74 million stands the EU population of 500 million, part of which is the Greek Cypriot population (820 thousand), as well as the LEGITIMATE Turkish Cypriot population, whereupon the conclusion of the Cyprus Issue according to the EU Principles (please refer to the Accession Agreement of the sovereign Republic of Cyprus in the EU, Athens 16 April 2003).

• Your invented figure of “250 thousand Turkish Cypriots” IS FRAUDULENT.  In 1974 Turkish Cypriot population was 120 thousand, TODAY is 80 thousand (the rest could not stand the illegal presence of Turkish soldiers and settlers and left their Country).  The vast majority of what you call “250 thousand Turkish Cypriots” is ILLEGAL SETTLERS, exported from Turkey to the illegally occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus, for the purpose of occupying the stolen Greek owned properties and change the demographic picture of the occupied area TO START WITH and, eventually, the entire demographic chart of the Island.

As you may be are aware of, this consists an internationally declared Crime of War.

3.  Your lengthy argument “the writ of the Government of Cyprus extends only to the south of the island, ever since the Turkish Army’s occupation of the predominantly Turkish Cypriot north in 1974. A UN “Green Line” runs through the middle of the capital, Nicosia, with the government of the not-so-far recognised “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” (TRNC) in control in the north […] There are two stories: one of the “unjustifiable” Turkish invasion; the other of such “violent oppression” by the Greek majority of the minority that Turkish protection was (and is) vital. Both sets of stories have truths, but because Greek Cyprus was admitted to the EU before any settlement of the island’s future it is their truths which dominate EU decisions on Turkey”

• This argument violates all political, legal and ethical principles, is cynical and degrades your status as former Foreign Secretary and MP of your Country. 
• May we remind you, Mr. Straw, that the Republic of Cyprus is the State evolved in 1963/64 due to the British/Turkish UNSUCCESSFUL conspiracy to abolish the existing State, the secession/self-isolation of the Turks of Cyprus and the self-abolition of the Treaty of Guarantee, that this sovereign State is democratically governed by the natural majority of its legitimate Citizens, that this very State is internationally recognized for the past 47 years and that this is the State, which on the 1^st of May 2004 joined the EU, as an equal member-State, sovereign over the whole of the island of Cyprus.
• May we further remind you, Mr. Straw, that the “Green Line” running through the middle of our Country was NOT originated by the UN, but by a group of British soldiers led by British Major Taggart, who on 30 May 1956 divided Nicosia into two with iron bars and barbed wire, calling at the time this dividing line “Mason-Dixon Line”. This was the initial “partition line” imposed in Cyprus by the British colonial power, which was completed (and drawn In green) by British General Peter Young in December 1963, and so called “Green Line” since then (see "Bloody Truth" Ch. B19 and B31).
• Last but not least, we also wish to tell you, Mr. Straw, that violent oppression indeed exists, imposed however by the illegal Turkish invaders, who violate collectively and day after day for 37 years the Human Rights on all the legitimate Citizens of the Republic of Cyprus (Greek Cypriots, Turkish Cypriots, Latin Cypriots, Maronite Cypriots and Armenian Cypriots).

Here is our own statement:

• Your overall approach is made purely for the sake of applying moral and psychological pressure on Greek Cypriots, in view of an anticipated repetition of the David Hannay’s “Anan Plan 2002-2004”.
• Forget it, Mr. Straw. Any such “arrangement” will be just another FIASCO.
• The attempt to abolish the European Republic of Cyprus and convert it into a Turkish protectorate under British Guardianship is, simply, out of the question.

So, please, do not be furious upon the -even stronger compared to that of 2004- rejection of the “Bizonal, Bicommunal Federation” conspiracy. Just blame yourselves for being arrogant and extraneous.  

Sincerely,

Movement for FREEDOM & JUSTICE IN CYPRUS

Panos Ioannides

President