UN Secretary-General’s statement on Cyprus: a betrayal of the UN’s own values

Dear Fanoulla

“Lobby for Cyprus is profoundly dissatisfied with the statement issued on 25 November 2019 by António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, following his ‘informal’ meeting in Berlin with Nicos Anastasiades, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, and Mustafa Akinci, the purported representative of the illegal subordinate regime of Turkey in the occupied north of the Republic,” said Lobby for Cyprus spokesperson Vangelis Christou.
Christou explained: “In his statement, the UN Secretary-General failed to condemn or even mention Turkey’s ethnic cleansing, occupation and colonisation of 36 per cent of the territory and 57 per cent of the coastline of the Republic of Cyprus. The Secretary-General likewise failed to refer to the undoubted responsibility of Turkey for mass violations of human rights and its ongoing failure to launch effective investigations into the disappearance of people, as confirmed by the European Court of Human Rights in a series of judgments. The Secretary-General showed no sympathy for the ongoing plight of the forcibly displaced persons who have been arbitrarily prevented from returning to their homes and properties. He even failed to mention the Republic of Cyprus, which, we fear, may be dissolved in the event of any settlement designed to legalise the illegalities created by Turkey.”

Christou added: “The Secretary-General issued his statement on the UN-sponsored International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. Even so, the Secretary-General not only avoided mentioning the Day. He also failed to condemn the rape of women by the armed forces of Turkey, as established by the European Commission of Human Rights in Volume 1 of its Report adopted on 10 July 1976. Nor did the Secretary-General denounce the human trafficking, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of women in the Turkish-occupied north of the Republic of Cyprus, which the US State Department has repeatedly described as ‘a zone of impunity for human trafficking’. His silence on these matters is inexplicable.”

Christou concluded: “By opting to appease Turkey and overlook its many victims, including those who have been raped, the Secretary-General has betrayed the rule of law, human dignity, justice and so many of the other values which the United Nations is supposed to uphold.”
Notes
The UN Secretary-General’s Statement on Cyprus, dated 25 November 2019

The US State Department’s Human Trafficking in Persons Report June 2019, which refers to human trafficking in the Turkish-occupied north of the Republic of Cyprus on pages 168-169 Πρωτοσελιδα – Ειδήσεις