EU SHOULD STOP GREEK CYPRIOT SUPPORT FOR TERRORISTS |
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Prof. Dr. Ata ATUN |
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Terrorism, whether carried out individually or collectively, poses one of the greatest threats to international peace and security. Terror-ism violates fundamental human rights, particularly the right to life, and can have no justification under any circumstances. It is an evil that strikes at the very core of democracy and civil society as well as economic and social development.
Turkey was among the very first to join the global coalition that has been mobilized. Turkey is of the opinion that terrorism cannot be associated with any religion, culture, geography or ethnic group. Ter-rorist organizations exist everywhere in the world; therefore, the fight against terrorism is the common fight of the civilized world.
The European Union has included the separatist terrorist organi-zation the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in its list of recognized ter-rorist organizations.
In the Official Journal of European Union, COUNCIL COMMON POSITION 2006/380/CFSP dated May 29, 2006, updating Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Common Position 2006/231/CFSP in second part of the annex, under the title “2. GROUPS AND ENTITIES” included the PKK as a terrorist organization, ranking 24th on the list as “24. Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), (a.k.a. KADEK; a.k.a. KONGRA-GEL)”
The EU member states proposed no support to individuals and organizations declared as terrorists and terrorist groups in this list.
The Greek Cypriot administration, contrary to this concept and list, have supported the PKK since 1976 and still stands behind them, giving all support possible in all aspects.
Recently, three protest meetings against Turkey took place in southern Greek Cyprus organized by the PKK office in Lefkosa (Nicosia).
One protest meeting was held in Lefkosa, another in Li-massol and the third in Paphos with the permission of the Greek Cypriot administration.
The Greek Cypriot-PKK connection was first established by Dr. Vassos Lyssarides, the honorary president of the socialist Greek Cypriot party the Movement of Social Democrats (EDEK) and the former speaker of the Greek Cypriot Parliament, right after the Turkish intervention of 1974, with the motto “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
In this context, the following actions realized by the Greek Cypriot administration demonstrate a firm support for the PKK:
• Two PKK Offices, Kurdistan National Liberation Front (ERNK), Kur-dish Democratic People’s Unions (YDK), Kurdistan Culture Associa-tion and terrorist camps were built in order to train PKK members.
• The Greek Orthodox Church invited the terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan and provided him with a significant amount of cash funding.
• The Greek Cypriot administration gave permission to gun smugglers to use the sea ports of south Cyprus as transit points for the guns destined for the PKK and the wounded PKK terrorists treated in Greek Cypriot hospitals.
• . There are allegations that the Greek Cypriot administration car-ried out those activities secretly after its accession to the EU, irres-pective of the above-mentioned terrorist group’s listing.
• Institutes and terrorists supporting the PKK received support from Greek Cypriot nongovernmental organizations and the Greek Cypriot administration in terms of material and political assistance.
• When the terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan was apprehended in Kenya he had a Greek Cypriot passport.
• Right after this incident, the House of Representatives of Greek Cy-prus made decisions that condemned the arrest of the head terrorist and declared the continuation for the support given to the PKK, which is still valid.
• The Greek Cypriot national policy is that “Turkey is the common enemy of the Kurds and Greeks” and therefore “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and the PKK should be supported in every way.
It is time for the EU to take the necessary legal steps against the Greek Cypriot administration for their support of an organization that sits on the official list of terrorist groups issued by the EU Council.
