20 JULY: A DAY SYNONYMOUS WITH PEACE, FREEDOM AND SOVEREIGNTY
20 July 1974 is not merely the date of a military operation; it is the day that marks the Turkish Cypriot people’s struggle for survival, their journey towards freedom, and the return of peace to the island.
The Cyprus Peace Operation, through the exercise of legitimate guarantor rights arising from international treaties, saved the Turkish Cypriot people from the threat of annihilation and ensured the establishment of peace and security on the island.
Today, despite the passing of the years, the Turkish Cypriot people are still subjected to unjust isolation on the international stage, which wounds the conscience of humanity.
Demands for sovereign equality and equal international status are being ignored, whilst the models imposed in the name of a solution are incompatible with the political realities of Cyprus.
It is clear that the federation-based search for a solution, which has been attempted for over half a century without yielding results, is no longer sustainable.
The only path to lasting peace and stability in Cyprus is the recognition of the sovereign equality of the two peoples and two states on the island, and the ‘immediate’ recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus by the international community. A two-state solution is not an expression of division, but of a new consensus based on mutual respect, equality and lasting peace.
The European Union’s decision, in 2004, to punish the Turkish Cypriot people—who had voted ‘Yes’ to the Annan Plan—whilst admitting the Greek Cypriot Administration, which had voted ‘No’, to membership as the representative of the whole island, has cast a shadow over its impartiality regarding the Cyprus issue and has disrupted the balance in the peace process. This approach serves not a solution, but the absence of one.
It must be emphasised that it is a historic responsibility for the European Union to reassess its policies regarding the Cyprus issue within the framework of the fundamental principles of justice, equality and international law.
“The Guarantee of Peace in Cyprus: Sovereign Equality, Two States and a Shared Future.”
