Civilian persons in areas of armed conflict and
occupied territories are protected by Article 159 of the 4th Geneva Convention
of 12 August 1949, concerning the protection of civilians during war.
Occupations are temporary and the occupying forces are responsible for
securing the interests of those protected under their rule.
Article 4 of the Convention defines the protected person. Part 3 of the
same convention laid down the rules determining the status of “protected
persons” in the occupied zone and how they should be treated (Articles 27-141).
Thus, civilian persons are protected from murder, torture or brutality and are protected
from discrimination on the basis of race, nationality, religion or political
opinion.
According to the article 49(6) of the Convention, the occupying power shall
not forcibly send or transfer a portion of its own population to the occupied
territory.
In various resolutions and statements taken by the United Nations
organization regarding the Cyprus problem, the regret for the change in the
demographic structure in Cyprus has been expressed. For example, in the UN
General Assembly resolution 3395 dated 20 November 1975 says, “all parties are
called to avoid unilateral actions that would contradict resolution 3212,
including making changes in the demographic structure of Cyprus”. In the UN
General Assembly resolution 33/15 dated 9 November 1978, it is expressed that
it regrets "all the unilateral actions that have changed the demographic
structure of Cyprus". The UN General Assembly reaffirmed this in its
resolutions of 20 November 1979 (No. 34/30) and 13 May 1983 (No. 37/253).
As it will be remembered, with the resolution of the UN Security Council
dated 18 November 1983 and numbered 541, all countries were asked not to
recognize any other Cypriot state other than the Republic of Cyprus.
In the resolution of the UN “Sub-Commission on the Elimination of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities” dated 2 September 1987, it is stated: “There is
also concern about the policy and practice of bringing settlers into the
occupied areas of Cyprus, which constitutes a form of colonialism and is an
attempt to illegally change the demographic structure of Cyprus.”
This population, which is also spoken at the negotiating table from time to
time and transferred from Turkey to the occupied parts of Cyprus, is always
indirectly mentioned in all UN documents. However, it constitutes one of the
main issues that must be resolved during the resolution of the Cyprus problem.
I mentioned this situation in an article I wrote in 2003 titled "The
situation of the Turkish population transferred to Cyprus" and I made the
following determination at the beginning of the article:
“The Turkish population, who moved to the island under the name of
“seasonal workers” after Turkey occupied 37% of the northern part of the
territory of the Republic of Cyprus in the summer of 1974, has recently started
to be a topic of discussion in the Turkish Cypriot public opinion. The place of
the Turkish population in international law, who has disclosed that they have
been used as a vote depot to give political support to the occupation regime,
by being given TRNC citizenship, is now rightly questioned." (Afrika
newspaper, 3-4-5 September 2003)
With the "Agreement on Economic and Financial Cooperation between the
Government of the Republic of Turkey for the Year 2022 and the Government of
the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" signed in Ankara on April 14,
2022 and published in the Official Gazette on May 20, 2022. Further changes,
which are intended to be made in the region of the Republic of Cyprus Turkey,
occupied by the Turkish Armed Forces since the summer of 1974, exceed the
purpose stated in the protocol and make it necessary to re-evaluate the issue
in the context of the 4th Geneva Convention of 1949.
(23 May 2022, Nicosia)
