Canadian Justice for Cyprus Committee

Members of the European Parliament expressed their support to the lawful inhabitants of the Turkish occupied town of Famagusta to return to their hometown.  The European Parliament Committee of Petitions adopted on Wednesday (16 July 2008), with an overwhelming majority, the report of Polish MEP Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg on the visit of the Committee to Famagusta last year, and rejected the report of Polish Chairman of the Committee Marcin Libicki.

The report of de Oedenberg received 22 votes, while that of Libicki only two votes. Both other members of the delegation that visited Famagusta, Carlos Josee Iturgaiz Angulo and Willy Meyer Pleite, agreed with the content of de Oedenberg`s report. The fourth member of the delegation was Libicki.

According to the recommendations of the report: 

 

• UNSC Resolution 550(1984) must be respected, and implemented without further delay by all parties and, with regard to the petitioners` concerns, the institutions of the European Union must actively support and promote a solution which leads to the full restoration of property to its legitimate owners in Varosha. 
• Turkey must withdraw its occupation military forces from the Republic of Cyprus, an EU territory, starting with the return of the Famagusta sealed-off section to its lawful inhabitants in compliance with the above resolution.  
• The Slovenian and the French Presidencies of the EU must give their support so that this issue is resolved by the end of 2008, and the European Parliament is urged in this context to give full backing to this objective,
• If there are no visible results by the end of the year, the PETI Committee could re-examine the current state of play and reflect on further actions I.E. possibility of bringing the issue of the Famagusta petitioners to plenary.

The European Court of Human Rights has found Turkey guilty of human rights violations in two cases Greek Cypriots had brought before the Court.

The Court unanimously ruled that Ankara is guilty of violating Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights in respect of the killing of Anastasios Isaak and Solomos Solomou.

The Court also ruled that Turkey is guilty of violating Article 2 in respect of the failure to conduct an effective investigation into the circumstances in which Anastasios Isaak and Solomos Solomou were killed.

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WASHINGTON, D.C., May 23, 2008 -- Commitments for Cyprus, the Macedonian issue and the Ecumenical Patriarchate were secured from Washington, D.C.’s top policy-makers by the participants in the 24th Annual Cyprus, Hellenic and Orthodox Issues Conference, hosted by PSEKA and CEH.

Some of these commitments included: (More)

By Jacqueline Theodoulou
 
FRENCH Prime Minister Francois Fillon yesterday said his country could not accept into the EU a country that has occupying forces in another European state.
 
"We are observing with great care the completion of the commitments Turkey has taken on, but I would like to say that we simply cannot accept into the EU a country, which has occupying troops in another European country," stated the French Prime Minister, who visited Cyprus ahead of France taking over the EU presidency for the second half of 2008. (More)