Turkey's invasion in
Cyprus and aftermath
(20 JULY 1974 - 18 MAY
1976)
Part of the
Introduction
After overruling
Turkey's objection the Commission of Human Rights considered: "the evidence
before the Commission and the facts established on the basis of this
evidence cannot be seen as presenting a view of the events and incidents
complained of mainly from the Greek Cypriot side. The Commission observes
in this connection that: - certain events and incidents referred to in the
applications are in great part a matter of public knowledge. In particular,
the massive movement of population from the northern to the southern part
of Cyprus after 20 July, 1974 is an indisputable fact which, as such, calls
for no particular investigation; the Commission has based its findings in
part on reports of other international organizations, in particular the
United Nations; - the witnesses heard by the Commission's Delegation in
Cyprus testified, with little exception, with a restraint and objectivity
that gave credibility to their testimony; some of them confirmed a number
of statements in the Particulars of the Applications about which they could
not have had any direct knowledge; - in the evaluation of the evidence
before it, the Commission has refrained from drawing any conclusions from
the fact that the respondent Government, despite every opportunity being
offered to them, failed to make any statements, or to proposed
counterevidence on the applicant Government's allegations". (Report,
p.31)
Here
are the Contents:
Killings
Relevant Article of the
European Convention on Human Rights:
" Everyone's right to life shall be protected by
law. No one shall be deprived of his life intentionally." (Article 2)
Charge laid against
Turkey:
The Turkish Army
embarked upon a systematic course of mass murders of civilians unconnected
with any war activity, including women and babies in arms, and soldiers who
had surrendered.
Turkish defense:
No answer was given to
these charges. Turkey boycotted the Commission's proceedings once her
jurisdictional objection was rejected.
Commission's verdict:
By 14 votes to 1 the Commission, after examining a
number of killings at specific places, held that the evidence before it
constituted "strong indications of killings committed on a substantial
scale" (para.346). The Commission concluded: " In view of the
very detailed material before it on other killings alleged by the applicant
Government, the Commission, by fourteen votes against one, concludes from
the whole evidence that killings happened on a larger scale than in Elia.
There is nothing to show that any of these deprivations of life were
justified... " (Report, p.165)
Further relevant facts:
Greek National
Guardsmen and civilians were killed in the field and in bombing raids on
civilian targets, including hospitals. In these raids the Turkish Air Force
used napalm. These killings were not the subject of the application to the
European Commission on Human Rights, being rather breaches of the Geneva
Conventions.
[Go
back to Contents]
Displacement of
persons (Creating refugees)
Relevant Article of the
European Convention on Human Rights:
" Everyone has the right to respect for his private
and family life and his home..." (Article 8)
Charge laid against
Turkey:
The Turkish Army displaced
200,000 Greek Cypriots (more than one third of the population) from their
homes. This was effected partly by physical expulsion and partly by a
systematic campaign of terror, causing Greek Cypriots to flee in the face
of Turkey's advancing armed forces. Refugees and expellees were not
permitted by the Turkish Army to return to their homes in the Turkish
occupied area.
Turkish defense:
No answer was given to
these charges. Turkey boycotted the Commission's proceedings once her
jurisdictional objection was rejected.
Commission's Verdict:
" Displacement of
persons:
1. The Commission concludes by thirteen votes against
one that, by the refusal to allow the return of more than 170,000 Greek Cypriot
refugees to their homes in the north of Cyprus, Turkey violated, and was
continuing to violate Art. 8 of the Convention in all these cases. When
hostilities ended some Greek Cypriots were able to return to their homes
near the cease-fire lines in areas under UN or Government control thus
reducing the number of refugees to 170,000.
2. The Commission concludes by twelve votes against one
that, by the eviction of Greek Cypriots from houses, including their homes,
by their transportation to other places within the north of Cyprus, or by
their deportation across the demarcation line, Turkey has equally violated
Art. 8 of the Convention.
3. The Commission concludes by thirteen votes against
one that by the refusal to allow the return to their homes in the north of
Cyprus of several thousand Greek Cypriots who had been transferred to the
south under inter-communal agreements, Turkey violated, and was continuing
to violate Art. 8 of the Convention in all these cases.
4. The Commission concludes by fourteen votes against
one with one abstention that, by the separation of Greek Cypriot families
brought about by measures of displacement in a substantial number of cases,
Turkey has again violated Art.8 of the Convention." (Report, p.163).
[Go
back to Contents]
Deprivation of liberty
Relevant Article of the
European Convention on Human Rights:
" No one shall be deprived of his liberty.."
(Article 5)
Charge laid against
Turkey:
The Turkish armed
forces detained thousands of persons arbitrarily and without lawful
authority. On entering any inhabited area they immediately rounded up all
Greek Cypriot inhabitants (many women & children were hiding in their
homes). On capture men were separated and detained apart from old people,
women and children, who were either put in "concentration camps"
or expelled. On the hundreds kept in such camps small babies to old people
of 90 were crowded together under atrocious conditions without sanitary
facilities at the height of summertime, when temperatures reach over 40 o
C. The worst such "concentration camps" were Voni, Marathovouno,
Vitsada and Gypsou. In addition, Turkish authorities held some 3,000
inhabitants of the Kyrenia district in the Kyrenia Dome Hotel & in
Bellapais village. Many male Greek Cypriots were temporarily sent as
"prisoners of war" to places like Saray Prison & Pavlides
Garage in the Turkish part of Nicosia, later being transported to Turkey
and detained in prisons in Adana, Amasia and Atiama. It is notable that the
great majority of those shipped to Turkey were civilians of all ages
between 17 and 70. Article 49.1 of the Geneva Convention, 1949, Fourth
Schedule, provides that: "individual or mass forcible transfers,as
well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory of the
Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not are
prohibited, regardless of their motive." The transfer of civilians to
Turkey show the contempt exhibited by the Turkish Army for the principles
of international law. Turkey has never provided complete lists of detainees
and the fate of about 3,000 Greek Cypriots was unknown at the time of the
first applications to the Commission. Because evidence showed numbers of
these missing persons had been in custody in Turkey the Commission was
asked to investigate whether they were still imprisoned there.
Turkish defense:
No answer was given to
these charges. Turkey boycotted the Commission's proceedings once her
jurisdictional objection was rejected.
Commission's Verdict:
" Detention
centers:
1. The Commission,by thirteen votes against one,
concludes that, by the confinement of more than two thousand Greek Cypriots
to detention centres established in schools and churches at Voni, Gypsou
and Morphou, Turkey has violated Art.5(1) of the Convention.
2. The Commission by thirteen votes against one, further
concludes that, by the confinement of Greek Cypriots to private houses in
Gypsou and Morphou, where they kept under similar circumstances as in the
detention centres, Turkey has equally violated Art.5(1).
3. The Commission, by ten votes against two with two
abstentions, finally concludes that, by the CONFINEMENT of Greek Cypriots
to the Kyrenia Dome Hotel after 14 August 1974, Turkey has again violated
Art.5(1).
Prisoners and
detainees:
1. The Commission, by thirteen votes against one,
concludes that the detention of Greek Cypriot military personnel in Turkey
was not in conformity with Art.5(1) of the Convention.
2. The Commission, by thirteen votes against one,
concluded that the DETENTION of Greek Cypriot civilians IN Turkey was
equally not in conformity with Art.5.(1)" (Report, p.164). Evidence on
missing persons: The evidence before the Commission does not allow a
definite finding with regard to the fate of Greek Cypriots declared to be
missing. This is partly due to the fact that the Commission's Delegation
was refused access to the northern/occupied/part of Cyprus and to places in
Turkey where Greek Cypriot prisoners were or had been detained. In the
present Report the Commission is only concerned with the fate of persons
declared to be missing as from the beginning of the military action of
Turkey on 20 July 1974. It is not concerned with any person missing due to
the coup d'etat which on 15 July 1974 preceded the above action... It
appears, however, from the evidence that: it is widely accepted that
"a considerable number of Cypriots" are still " missing as a
result of armed conflict in Cyprus" i.e. between Turkey and Cyprus; a
number of persons declared to be missing have been identified as Greek
Cypriots taken prisoner by the Turkish army. The Commission considers that
there is a presumption of Turkish responsibility for the fate of persons
shown to have been in Turkish custody. However,on the basis of the material
before it, the Commission has been unable to ascertain whether, and under
what circumstances, Greek Cypriot prisoners declared to be missing have
been deprived of their life" (Report, paras. 347-349, and 351)
[Go
back to Contents]
Mass
rapes
Relevant Article of the
European Convention an Human Rights:
" No one shall be subjected to torture or to
inhuman or degrading treatment..." (Article 3)
Charge laid against
Turkey:
Turkish troops were
responsible for wholesale and repeated rapes of women of ALL AGES from 12
to 71, sometimes to such an extent that the victims suffered haemorrages or
became mental wrecks. In some areas, enforced prostitution was practiced,
all women and girls of a village been collected and put into separate rooms
in empty houses where they were raped repeatedly. In certain cases members
of the same family were repeatedly raped, some of them in front of their
own children. In other cases women were brutally raped in public. Rapes
were on many occasions accompanied by brutalities such as violent biting of
the victims causing severe wounding, banging their heads on the floor and
wringing their throats almost to the point OF suffocation. In some cases
attempts at rape were followed by the stabbing or killing of the victims.
Victims included pregnant and mentally retarted women.
Turkey's defense:
No answer was given to
these charges and Turkey boycotted the Commission's proceedings once her
jurisdictional objection was rejected.
Commission's verdict:
" The evidence shows that rapes were committed by
Turkish soldiers and at least in two cases even by Turkish officers, and
this NOT ONLY in some isolated cases of indiscipline. It has not been shown
that the Turkish authorities took adequate measures to prevent this
happening or that they generally took any disciplinary measures following
such incidents. The Commission therefore considers that the non-prevention
of the said acts is imputable to Turkey under the Convention.
The Commission, by 12 Votes against one, finds that the
incidents of rape described in the above cases and regarded as established
constitute "inhuman treatment" in the sense of Art.3 of the
Convention, which is imputable to Turkey" (Report, paras. 373-4)
[Go
back to Contents]
Torture and inhuman treatment
Relevant Article of the
European Convention on Human Rights:
" No one shall be subjected to torture or to
inhuman or degrading treatment..." (Article 3)
Charges laid against
Turkey:
Hundreds of persons, including
children, women and elderly people, were the victims of systematic torture
and SAVAGE and humiliating treatment during their detention by the Turkish
army. They were beaten; sometimes to the extent of being incapacitated.
Many were subjected to tortures such as whipping, breaking of the teeth,
knocking their heads on the wall, beating with electrified clubs,
extinction of cigarettes on their skin, jumping and stepping on their chest
and hands, pouring dirty liquids on them, piercing them with bayonets etc.
Many of these detainees were ill-treated to such an extent that they became
mental and physical wrecks. Among the persons so treated were those
deported to and imprisoned in Turkey (of whom most were civilians). During
their transportation and detention they were savagely ill-treated, being
wounded, beaten, kicked, whipped, blindfolded, handfettered punched to the
extent of bleeding, etc. These brutalities reached their climax after the
cease fire agreements and resolutions of the U. N. Security Council calling
for an end to hostilities. In fact most of these acts were committed when
Turkish armed forces were not engaged in any war activities. More than
1,000 statements obtained from witnesses described their ill-treatment.
Such statements showed a pattern of behaviour by the Turkish forces,
proving that the atrocities were deliberate tactics which the invading
forces were to follow. The aim was to terrorise, destroy and eradicate the
Greek population of the Turkish occupied area so that it would be vacant to
move in Turks, thus creating an area populated virtually only by Turks.
Turkey's defense:
No answer was given to
these charges and Turkey boycotted the Commission's proceedings once her
jurisdictional objection was rejected.
Commission's verdict:
" The Commission by twelve votes against
one,concludes that prisoners were in a number of cases physically
ill-treated by injuries and at least in one case the death of the victim.
By their severity they constitute "inhuman treatment" and thus
violations of Art.3, for which Turkey is responsible under the Convention.
The Commission by twelve votes against one, concluded
that the withholding of an adequate supply of food and drinking water and
of adequate medical treatment from Greek Cypriot prisoners held at Adana
and detainees in the northern area of Cyprus, with the exception of
Pavlides Garage & Saray prison, again constitutes, in the cases
considered as established and in the conditions described, "inhuman
treatment" and thus a violation of Art.3, for which Turkey is
responsible under the Convention" (Report, pp.165-166) The Commission
did not find sufficient evidence that prisoners held in these two locations
in the Turkish sector of Nicosia were guarded by Turkish soldiers - as
opposed to Turkish-officered Turkish Cypriot "forces" (para. 308)
"The evidence obtained established that, in a
considerable number of cases prisoners were severely beaten or otherwise
physically ill-treated by Turkish soldiers" (Report, para.393) The
Commission, by twelve votes against one,concludes that the written
statements submitted by the applicant Government constitute indications of
ill-treatment by Turkish soldiers of persons not in detention"
(Report, p.166)
[Go
back to Contents]
Deprivation of
possessions, looting and wanton destruction
Relevant Article of the
European Convention on Human Rights:
"Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful
enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his
possessions..." (Article 1 of Protocol No.1)
Charge laid against
Turkey:
Greek Cypriots were
deprived of their possessions either by eviction or by seizure of movable
property and its subsequent removal by Turkish soldiers, or by conditions
making abandonment of home and property the only wise course as life and
limb were at risk from the Turkish army. When privately owned land &
houses belonging to Greek Cypriots in the Turkish occupied areas came under
Turkey's control,most of this was distributed to Turkish Cypriots and to
Turks brought from Turkey to settle in those areas. To preclude any Greek
Cypriots from reclaiming their possessions,Turkish authorities forcibly
prevented their return and continued to expel most remaining Greek
Cypriots. In various official statements the Turkish Government made it
clear that Turkey was organizing marketing of all agricultural production
in the occupied area. The same applied to tourism and Turkey took over all
Greek Cypriot manufacturing industry. Goods already manufactured &
agricultural produce ready for marketing were shipped abroad in Turkish
vessels. In addition, the Turkish Army systematically looted houses and
business premises belonging to Greek Cypriots. Even properties of those
Greek Cypriots who had remained in the Turkish occupied army part not
escape this fate. Most loot was loaded into Turkish army vehicles &
buses seized from Greek Cypriots, and a substantial part, including vehicles,
animals, household goods,and building equipment, was transported by Turkish
naval vessels to the mainland. The Turkish Army also engaged in wanton
destruction. Turkish soldiers attempted to burn down all buildings along
"the green line" in Nicosia, and orchards and crops belonging to
Greek Cypriots were set on fire after cessation of hostilities. Witnesses
also described breaking of doors and windows of houses, the smashing of
furniture icons, candles and other church property and killing of animals.
The destruction of Christian & Hellenic monuments was a significant
feature of Turkey's occupation. Religious property was a particular target
in an attempt to destroy the cultural identity of the occupied area. Not
only were religious items & church equipment smashed, set on fire or
looted, but most Greek Orthodox churches not converted into mosques were
vandalized. Mosaics and even frescos were either defaced or removed. This
occurred in military zones under control of the Turkish Army and from which
Turkish Cypriots were excluded. Even archaeological museums and sites did
not escape vandalisation and initial looting.
Turkey's defense:
No answer was given to
these charges and Turkey boycotted the Commission's proceedings once her
jurisdictional objection was rejected.
Commission's verdict:
"The Commission accepted that the 170,000 Greek
Cypriots displaced from the occupied area had left behind their movable
& immovable possessions and referred to "the established fact that
these displaced persons are not allowed to return to their homes in the
north, and thus to property left there" (Report para.471)
The Commission went on to find "proof of taking and
occupation of houses and land by Turkish Cypriots and Turks from the
mainland, both military personnel and civilians" (Report para. 472)
Moreover the Commission accepted " testimony as proving beyond
reasonable doubt that looting and robbery on an extensive scale by Turkish
troops and Turkish Cypriots have taken place... As regards such
deprivations of possessions by Turkish Cypriots, the Commission considers
that, insofar as the persons committing them were acting under the direct
order or authority of the Turkish forces of which there is evidence, the
deprivation must equally be imputed to Turkey under the Convention..."
The Commission, by 12 votes against one, finds it
established that there has been deprivation of possesions of Greek Cypriots
on a large scale, the exact extent of which could not be determined. This
deprivation must be imputed to Turkey under the Convention and it has not
been shown that any of these interferences were necessary for any of the
purposes mentioned in Article 1 of Protocol No.1" (Report, paras
472-486)
[Go
back to Contents]
Discrimination
Relevant Article of the
European Convention on Human Rights:
"The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth
in this Convention shall be secured without discrimination on any ground
such... as race, ... language, religion, political or other opinion,
national or social origin, association with a national minority... or other
status" (Article 14)
Charge laid against
Turkey:
The acts of the Turkish
Army were exclusively directed against the Greek Cypriot community with the
object of destroying and, eradicating the Greek population of the Turkish
occupied area so as to move therein Turks, thereby artificially creating a
Turkish populated area. All Turkey's atrocities were directed against Greek
Cypriots (though some foreign subjects who happened to be or have property
in the Turkish occupied area were also affected by some such acts e.g.
looting and wanton destruction of property).
Turkish defense:
No answer was given to
these charges and Turkey boycotted the Commissions proceedings once her
jurisdictional objection had been rejected.
Commission's Verdict:
" The Commission has found violations of a number
of Articles of the Convention. It notes that the acts violating the
Convention were exclusively directed against members of one of the two
communities in Cyprus, namely the Greek Cypriot community. The Commission
concludes by eleven votes to three that Turkey has thus failed to secure
the rights and freedoms set forth in these Articles without discrimination
on the grounds of ethnic origin, race and religion as required by Art.14 of
the Convention (Report, para. 503)
[Go
back to Contents]
No remedy
Relevant Article of the
European Convention on Human Rights:
" Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth
in this Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy..."
(Article 13)
Charge laid against
Turkey:
None of the victims of
the ruthless and evil deeds by Turkish State organs and her Armed Forces
was ever given any opportunity to vindicate his rights before an authority
or tribunal as provided by Articles 6 and 13 of the Convention. Persons
under Turkish control were not even permitted to talk without Turkish
supervision to the International Red Cross. In short, no effective remedy
of any kind was afforded either in the Turkish occupied area or in Turkey
itself in respect of Turkish atrocities.
Turkish defense:
In its jurisdictional
objection, Turkey argued that remedies were availale before the competent
judicial authorities in Turkey or before the military courts of the Turkish
forces in Cyprus.
Commission's findings:
The Commission held that such remedies had not been
shown to be "practicable and normally functioning". Nor had it
been established that such complaints could be effectively handled.
(Admissibility Report, at p. 22 of the Report). The Commission at the
hearing on the merits reiterated that it had found no evidence that
effective and suficient remedies were available. (Report, paras. 499-501)
[Go
back to Contents]
|
