Original English Text of an interview with the Greek Cypriot Periodiko magazine (14.3.2003) with Dr.Ahmet Djavit An

Original English Text of an interview with the Greek Cypriot Periodiko magazine (14.3.2003) with Dr.Ahmet Djavit An:

1. What is the motive that pushed you to go to the European Court?

The motive was the arbitrary limitation of my freedom of assembly and travel in my home country. As you know, we, as progressive Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots formed the Movement for an Independent and Federal Cyprus on 24 September 1989 in Nicosia. It was the first time since the terror wave of the T/C underground organization TMT in 1958 that T/Cs and the G/Cs came together in an organization. We declared our basic principles and views and later met to discuss the written contributions from both sides on the subject of “Federalism in Cyprus”. We could not have the time to deal with the “Independence of Cyprus” and we had only three plenary meetings at the Ledra Palace. We organized many political, cultural, medical and social meetings. For example the T/C oppositional political leaders were invited to talk in front of the G/C audience at the Famagusta Gate Cultural Centre for the first time since 1974. 

The T/C leadership was against our activities of enlightening the public opinion about the principles of a real federal system. As you know the T/C leadership has been all the way long, since 1958, when the idea of partition was innoculated into the T/C community, against the idea of friendship between the two main communities in Cyprus, i.e. T/Cs and G/Cs.

On 6 May 1991, a four-man T/C delegation of our Movement visited Mr.Atakol, the Foreign Minister whose department was responsible officially for giving the permissions. The Minister told us that everytime we met with our G/C compatriots, the G/C press wrote that we came “from the occupied areas” and we did not say anything that we were not under “occupation.” I, as the T/C coordinator of the Movement told Mr.Atakol that I accept the evaluation “occupation” as a de facto reality in Cyprus. After we left the Ministry, Mr.Atakol reported this incident to Mr. Denktash, who wrote a letter to the Commander of the “Turkish Peace Forces”, telling him not to give ever any permission to the T/C coordinator and to the other three persons accompanying him during that visit.

In the middle of the same month May 1991, the T/C Committee of the Movement for an Independent and Federal Cyprus decided to put a complaint against the “T/C authorities” of the Republic of Cyprus by the Human Rights Commission of the European Council in Strasbourg. This applicaton made the T/C leadership furious which reacted in the press against us. The Commission found that the Government of Cyprus “could not be held responsible under Article 1 of the Convention for the acts of Turkish Cypriot authorities in the north of Cyprus” and declared our application inadmissible (No.18270/92, Ahmet Cavit AN and others v. Cyprus, Dec. 8.10.91)

I received a letter dated 3 February 1992 from the “Health Minister of the TRNC” which informed me that a decision existed by the cabinet of the “TRNC” prohibiting my contacts with the G/C. On 7 May 1992 I wrote to the Prime Minister of the "TRNC" requesting to be informed of the content of the cabinet decision referred to in the above-mentioned letter, but I received no reply. On 29 May 1992 I sent a letter of protest to the Foreign Minister of Turkey, which also remained unanswered. On 18 May 1994 the "Directorate of Consular and Minority Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Defence of the TRNC" informed me that the permission requested by my letter of 19 April 1994 was refused for “security reasons, in the public interest” and because I made “propaganda against the state” when I was in the South.
From 24 September 1989 to 8 September 1992, I as a person or as a group of T/C members of the Movement applied to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 87 times to get the permission to go to the Ledra Palace or to cross over the “Green Line” to the G/C sector of Nicosia. I could get only in 15 cases a positive answer. Among the requests that were turned down were one concerned the UNFICYP (United Nations Forces in Cyprus) Spring Fair at the Nicosia International Airport in May 1992 and another a bi-communal medical seminar organised by UNHCR in June 1992. Moreover, in May 1992 the above-mentioned authorities refused to allow Greek Cypriots to attend a meeting organised by our Movement in the northern 
part of Nicosia. I had no other chance than finding a way to put a complaint at the European Commission for Human Human Rights.  

2. Why did you decide to go with a Greek Cypriot lawyer?

As I was following day-to-day developments in the G/C community through the mass media, I decided to write a letter to the International Association for the Restoration of Human Rights in Cyprus and ask for help. They help me to put my complaint in Strassbourg and they found my lawyer in the second case, Prof. Malcolm Shaw from England. I could not find a T/C lawyer who had interest in such matters and who could dare to open a case against Turkey. Our T/C lawyer in the first case had told me that he was under professional and psychological pressure from the Nicosia T/C Bar Association where he was a member. He was lucky enough by one vote (4 to 3) that he was not punished by the Disciplinary Council of  the Lawyers.       

3. How was your life before the courts decision and how was it after?

There is no difference. I shall test the T/C authorities soon by asking for a permission to go to the G/C side of Nicosia and try to meet my compatriots over there.

During the years that I waited for the decision of the Court, I continued my research about the history of Cyprus and published nine books on the political history of  Cyprus and the T/Cs. One of my books was approved for publication by the Cultural Department of the   Ministry of Education of the “TRNC”. It was a compilation of the biographies over 160 T/C personalities born before 1900 and about the daily life of T/Cs. It was delayed for two years without any reason. At the end of a long waiting, I myself hastened the process and secured the necessary amount of money for the print of the book from the Budget Department, but I could not get the papers signed by the Ministry of Education. I learned that it was Turkey who gave the money and the permission to publish books of the TRNC. I was told that indirectly that if I withdrew my complaint against Turkey in Strassbourg, the TRNC authorities could print my book and give me permission whenever I wanted to cross over the Green Line. Of course, I rejected this indecent offer. I could finally publish my book of 500 pages in July 2002 with the help of a private sponsor.

When I asked for legal aid from the Court in 1999 since I could not earn my life as a private paediatrician, the Tax Department of the “TRNC” forced me to pay last year taxes for the year 1999 although I did not earn more than the minimum wage.       

4. What did you feel when you received the decision of the European Court?

I was very happy that finally an international court decided that I was discriminated and my freedom of assembly and my right to an effective remedy were violated. 

5. How do you evaluate this decision?

It is of great importance like Mrs.Loizidou’s case. The ECHR “recalled that States which had ratified the European Convention on Human Rights could be held responsible for acts and omissions of their authorities which produced effects outside their own territory. Such responsibility could also arise when, as a consequence of military action, the State concerned exercised effective control of an area outside its national territory. The obligation to secure, in such an area, the rights and freedoms set out in the Convention, derived from the fact of such control, whether it be exercised directly, through its armed forces, or through a subordinate local administration.”

The international body dismissed the Turkish claims that Ankara could not be held responsible for events in the areas of Cyprus it occupied and it declared once again that the so-called “TRNC” is “a subordinate local administration” of Turkey. 

6. What was the reaction of your community after this success?

For those who are fighting for a reunified Republic of Cyprus, it gave a lot of hope and encouragement. But for those who are obstructing the way to justice and lasting peace and are doing whatever they can for the continuation of the ethnic division,  it was a slap in the face.

7. How did the ordinary people react and how did the politicians react to the decision and to you as well?

Ordinary people and my close friends appreciated my civil courage and congratulated me personally. I received no reaction or telephone call from the so-called progressive T/C politicians! Only the columnists of the Afrika newspaper wrote about the subject right after the decision of the Court. Some other T/C newspapers gave only the news.  

8. Have you ever met Mr. Denktas and discussed with him your own views and beliefs?

I did not have any political discussion with him. It is useless to try and convince him that his policy for the partition of Cyprus brought only disaster and bitterness for the Cypriots. I asked him only once in a public conference if he ever had any mistake in politics. He answered that it was a mistake not to declare a separate state right after the events in December 1963!

9. How is today the situation in the Turkish Cypriot community?

It is a whole mess, I should say. Any solution other than the status quo will be accepted by the majority of T/C people. That is why they come in thousands to demonstrate for a speedy solution, EU membership and peace.

10. What is, according to you, the biggest problem of the Turkish Cypriot people today?

The diminishing population of the T/Cs is the biggest problem of the T/Cs today. We have become a mere minority in the occupied areas as the number of the mainland Turkish settlers are getting more and more every year. Since they are given the right to vote in the elections, the results are not reflecting anymore the will of the indigenious T/Cs. There has to be a reliable census, as soon as possible, under the control of an international body, like the European Council’s Committee for Population, Immigration and Refugees.  

11. Whom do you consider the number one enemy of the unification of Cyprus?

Maybe you want me to give the answer as “Mr.Denktash”, but I have to look into the problem from a wider perspective. The USA and its secret services-the Super NATO- have been the planner and the instigater of the partition of our island since 1956. Their instruments have been active both in Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, both within the G/C and T/C communities.  

12. After the European Court’s decision would you consider of crossing the line to the “South” again?

As soon as possible and maybe without giving two days beforehand any application letter with an invitation from a G/C organization. Mr.Chris Clerides, the President of the International Association for the Protection of Human Rights in Cyprus, plans to invite me for a meeting in the near future. Also the other Cypriot organizations that I am a member of, the New Cyprus Association and the Cyprus Writers’ Union will invite me for meetings.    

13. Do you have any indication on how the Denktas regime would react on such occasion?

We shall wait and see. For example, I could not get a permission for the annual meeting of the New Cyprus Association that I am a member of, but I got a permission through the help of the UNFICYP at the end of October 2002 for the participation at an international conference at the Intercollege. 

14. Do you believe that Greek and Turkish Cypriots can do more for Cyprus on a personal basis?

Of course. The open house meetings at the Ledra Palace and those at Pyla have contributed a lot and there are very good results. Since the T/Cs and G/Cs can make good frienships abroad and in Cyprus despite the walls of shame -the demarkation line-, why are they not allowed to meet freely by removing all the barriers and restrictions. The UNFICYP can undertake some responsibility in this respect for an interim period.    

15. Are you optimistic for the future of Cyprus? What do you foresee for the future of Cyprus?

I want to be optimistic, but we have a long  struggle to wage. First we have to be free from foreign interventions. We have to build up altogether a democratic, federal Cypriot state and a multi-cultural society which will foster friendship and cooperation between the Cypriots of all ethnic origins without any discrimination. Without multi-ethnic political parties, we shall not be able to overcome nationalism in Cyprus and  there will be no lasting peace. The problem will be which class forces will be in power in the future.

Look at the following evaluation (of the CIA), made in the “1990-Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, Hoover Institute Press”: “Although the AKEL is not banned in the T/C community, the party has chosen not to be active because of the criticism it would engender among the G/Cs... If the north and south of Cyprus were one day reunited in a “federal republic”, it is conceivable that the combined electoral strength of the left-wing parties of the two communities could produce a majority of votes in a presential election.. (Section on Cyprus, written by T.W.Adams, p.608) Hence the necessity of separation and partition policies among the Cypriots. Gadalaves?