THE MOVEMENT THAT PAVED THE WAY TO THE OPENING OF THE CHECK-POINTS

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!