Supporting Dissidents in Turkish occupied Cyprus

Please see the announcement from the Turkish Cypriot New Cyprus Party (YKP), one of the few branches of the community in 'northern' Cyprus which openly acknowledge the facts of the illegal military Occupation of the island, and openly oppose the occupation regime - to be seen at the Cyprus IndyMedia site.

"Murat Kanatli, General Secretary of the Executive Board of the New Cyprus Party (YKP), plus 2 other YKP members and 16 trade unionists received a call on Friday 30th October from the Nicosia District Police Station Headquarters to be informed that they were being sued with the accusation that they beat up the police and they did not allow the police to do their duty.

He was participating at the demonstration of Wednesday 28th October 2009 in the northern part of Nicosia, not only as General Secretary of YKP but also as a journalist for the weekly newspaper Yenicag. "

This item above can be supplemented by the text of an 'Open Letter' to the United Nations which has appeared on Facebook and which, despite being poorly expressed in the English language, is quoted here in its entirety:

"Open mail that was sent to UN Commisionary by the unions
[in Turkish occupied Cyprus]

"Sunday, 01 November 2009 at 01:23

"According to London and Zurich aggreements; In order to maintain territorial integrity and constitutional law of the Republic of Cyprus, Turkey which was commissioned as guarantor, made a military intervention and Turkey’s political and economic strategies in the north of the island has become a threat against Turkish Cypriots.

"Systematically and against the Geneva agreements, there has been population transfer to the north of the island. This transferred population is given citizenship and thus, the situation causes exploitation of the political will of the Turkish Cypriot citizens. This makes the elections become non-sense. Economic and political structure is under command of Turkey. The elected governments function has become a chain of command in order to remain as the governing power. So, the governments which are elected in terms of these factors represent an organ of government which obeys the orders of Turkish Republic; rather than representing the Turkish Cypriot political will. The advisors and permanent secretaries in the frame of the Turkish Embassy on our island have the same authority as the ministers in the government; the north of the island is governed by their decisions. In these terms, European Court of Human Rights’ ascertainment after Loizidou Case is absolutely true; which is: The structure in the north of the island is determined as a subordinate local administration.

"Recent years, with the excuse of registering the cheap labor and developing great investments, Turkey has given a priviledge to make investments with the support of the government; there has been great amounts of population transfer from Turkey. The economic situation is already seriously difficult and moreover, this uncontrolable transfer flow and increasing in population caused many problems in terms of economic, social and educational budget. Even electricity and water privation needs can not be provided properly. There has been an increase in crimes. There are no enough places in the prisons and %95 of the prisoners are Turkish Citizens.

"There is a pressure upon the secular Turkish Cypriots in order to ruin the social and cultural structure; this perssure is mostly because of the emposition of religious sanctions and Sunni Islam. The rights of the workers are tried to be changed; their rights in terms of salary and work is pushed to be similar with Turkey. In order to accelerate immigration of the Turkish Cypriots from the island and assimilation policy, these attacks of the collaborator governments are being organized sistematically and being hidden from the Europan Union as well as community. In accordance with these facts, we call out for international solidarity in order not to witness the abolishion of the Turkish Cypriots as European Union citizens.

"Cyprus Turkish Teachers’ Trade Union (KTÖS), Cyprus Turkish Secondary School Teachers’ Trade Union (KTOEÖS), Cyprus Turkish Public Servants’ Trade Union (KTAMS), Customs Workers Trade Union (GÜÇ-SEN), Cooperative Workers’ Trade Union (KOOP-SEN), Municipality Workers’ Trade Union (BES), Telecommunication Workers Trade Union (TEL-SEN), Cyprus Turkish Physicians Trade Union (TIP-İŞ), Eastern Mediterranean University Unity and Solidarity Union (DAÜ-Bir-Sen)"

(end quote)

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The items below were recently broadcast by the bilingual (Greek and Turkish)
BIZ EMEIS programme of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation
(during September and October)

Adnan Eraslan 1of3 - Turkish Cypriot Teachers Union KTOEO

05 October 2009

Introduction - Turkish Cypriot Unions have entered a new phase of activism currently, prompted on the one hand by economic problems and on the other by a reduction in their effectiveness as a result of the importation of settlers from Turkey and recent efforts to turn Turkish Cypriot society from a cosmopolitan one to an islamic one. This has led to the creation of an alliance of 29 unions which are protesting these developments. We have with us today Mr Adnan Eraslan, President of KTOEOS (Union of Teachers in Middle Education), one of the most active among these unions.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNnNJDn_8NM
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHu_SAe_syY
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgtVf0pfB48

Zeki Βeşiktepeli interviewed - BΙΖ / EΜΕΙΣ - 22.09.2009 (Multilingual with subs)
Be sure to watch all 3 parts.
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwXGaA_V13w
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxRAHPCSqYE
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niu_s0AaKGc

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Please add your name to support the petition on the web, placed online by Turkish Cypriots, and already signed by many of the leaders of the Turkish Cypriot dissident movement:

http://www.turkishinvasioncyprus.com