I was the T/C Coordinator of the Movement (Contact
Group) for Independent and Federal Cyprus. Our Movement was the first
bi-communal establishment of T/Cs and G/Cs since the first terror wave of the
TMT in 1958.
On 13-16 May 1989, about 20 Cypriots gathered in West
Berlin with the call of a German environmental group “Bildungswerk für
Demokratie und Umweltschutz” and we initiated our “Movement for Independent and
Federal Cyprus” with a mass participation in Nicosia in the garden of Lidra
Palace Hotel on 23-24 September 1989. A document entitled “Views and Basic
Principles”, which was adopted at the same place on 20-21 January 1990, was
presented to the public in Greek, Turkish and English. (See the English text here: http://myislandcyprus.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-first-bi-communal-movement-for.html )
We carried out various activities for the realization
of our basic principles. The most important of these were the conferences of
three T/C opposition party leaders on 14 December 1989 by Alpay Durduran (New Cyprus
Party), on 19 January 1990 by Mustafa Akıncı (Communal Liberation Party) and on
23 February 1990 by Özker Özgür (Republican Turkish Party). The conferences
took place in the G/C part of Nicosia, where opportunity was given to explain
the G/C community their views on various aspects of the Cyprus problem. This
was the first time in the near history of the two communities. The G/C wing of
the Movement informed us that these conferences were very useful and were
widely reflected in the G/C press.
In the third and last joint meeting that we held on
10-11 February 1990, five papers, written by the G/Cs and T/Cs, were discussed.
Unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to continue our discussions on
issues such as the views of the G/C side on the equality and guarantees, the
structure of the federal state, and how this will be reflected in everyday life
in a federal solution. The T/C leadership banned our intercommunal contacts by
citing the demonstrations of the nationalist G/C students that started in March
1990. After this incident, only 5 of the 44 applications we made were allowed.
The most important was the participation of Aziz Nesin, the famous Turkish
humourist writer, in the events organized between 17 and 19 December 1990, due
to his visit to the free part of our island. About 80 T/Cs attended cultural
meetings in the G/C part of Nicosia for three nights. Journalists, writers and
artists had the opportunity to meet their colleagues. Aziz Nesin held a press
conference in the occupied northern part of Nicosia and about 20 G/C artists
and writers were allowed to accompany him during his visit.
On 26 February 1991, our activity about the Federal
State in the US was held at the Ledra Palace Hotel in the buffer zone, but the
one about Yugoslavia on 22 March 1991 was not allowed.
In addition, we made various attempts to bring
together journalists, doctors, cartoonists and writers from both sides of the
divide. Some of these were allowed, but we could not get the permission for
most of them. (http://myislandcyprus.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-list-of-attempts-to-have.html )
On 6 May 1991, a three-man delegation of our Movement
visited Mr. Atakol, the Foreign Minister whose department was responsible for
giving the permissions. We were asked once again to make a statement that we
are not coming from the occupied area, when we meet with our compatriots. I, as
the T/C coordinator of the Movement, told Mr. Atakol that I accepted the
occupation as the reality. Later 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 me during that visit.
On 13 May 1991 the T/C Committee of the Movement for
an Independent and Federal Cyprus filed a complaint with the Council of Europe,
Commission on Human Rights in Strasbourg in order to protest the restrictions
imposed on our freedom of travel in our own country. This application
(No.18270/92, Ahmet Cavit An and others v. Cyprus) made the T/C leadership
furious, which reacted in the press against us. (Vatan newspaper, 25 May 1991)
Within the three years of our Movement (24 September
1989 – 8 September 1992) , I applied 87 times for myself or for the T/C members
of the Movement to get permission for contacts in political, cultural, medical
and social fields. Unfortunately, only 15 of these applications received a
positive response.
As my freedom of organization in my homeland was
restricted, I decided to lodge an application to the ECHR against Turkey on 8
September 1992 and it was declared admissible in 1998. (Case of Djavit An v.
Turkey, Application No.20652/92)
From 8 September 1992 until 14 April 1998, I filed 147
applications to the occupation authorities to allow me to visit the free area
(58 for political reasons, 47 for cultural reasons, 25 for medical reasons and
17 for social reasons.) From the 147 applications, 122 were rejected by the
Denktash regime and 22 were approved. It should be noted that most applications
were filed for participation at bi-communal meetings. (A detailed report can be
read here: http://myislandcyprus.blogspot.com/2014/01/affidavit-of-drahmet-djavit-an.html )
On 20 February 2003, a press release was published
about the judgement of the ECHR. "The Court considered that all the
meetings the applicant wished to attend were designed to promote dialogue and
an exchange of ideas and opinions between Turkish Cypriots living in the north
and Greek Cypriots living in the south, with the hope of securing peace on the
island," the release said. "The refusals to grant these permits to
the applicant in effect barred his participation in bi-communal meetings, preventing
him from peacefully assembling with people from both communities" it
added. Under Article 41 (just satisfaction) of the Convention, the Court
awarded the applicant 15,000 euros for non-pecuniary damage and 4,715 euros for
costs and expenses.” Two months later the check-point at Ledra Palace was
opened for crossings, which was the most important development since the
division of our island in 1974.
T/C State Attorney, Zaim Necatigil, who was defending
Turkey at the ECHR, wrote the following in Turkish in his book “The Cyprus
Conflict and Turkey in the grip of ECHR: Cases brought against Turkey by the
Greek Cypriot Administration and the Greek Cypriots before the European
Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human
Rights, Ankara 2005”:
"The TRNC Government took a very dramatic
decision on April 21, 2003 with the number E-762-203 number and lifted from 23
April 2003 onwards, except some formalities, all the restrictions in order to
facilitate the crossings, mutually from North to the South and from South to
the North." (p.189)
“There was a great impact of the Cavit An’s
application to the European Court of Human Rights, which announced its decision
on 20 February 2003, on the opening of the gates on the “Green Line”
on 23 April 2003. It is not possible to see the opening of the gates as a
coincidence that came after this provision." (p.189)
"A compensation should have been paid to Cavit
An. The Attorney-General of the TRNC contacted Cavit An, the Euro account was
opened in a bank in the TRNC and the compensation and the judicial expenses
were credited to that account. After the court's decision, the gates were
opened and the objectives of the decision were fulfilled."(p.190)
On 6 January 2019, the G/C newspaper Politis
reported that in 2018, the T/Cs made 1,000,076 crossings and the G/Cs made
1,000,014 crossings from the 9 check-points on the dividing line. But
unfortunately my wish of having a common political party has not yet been
established!
