Four decades and still Turkish Cypriots wait to be recognised

On Sunday thousands of people marked the 40th anniversary of Turkish intervention in Cyprus to stop the genocide of the Turkish Cypriots.

Since then North Cyprus has been held in a state if limbo, recognised by Turkey, dismissed by the rest of the world.

With the debate on Scottish Independence moving into the last days in the United Kingdom, tensions running high between separatist and government forces in Ukraine and the Israeli Gaza conflict creating more widows and orphans everyday the issue of self determination has never been so high. Long gone are the days of empires, now is the time for those who need it to have the right to self determination, if they so wish.

As the anniversary approached peers in the British House of Lords debated the ongoing split within the country. Ostensibly as a guarantor power the lords may have felt that their deliberations would have some impact on the situation. Britain's failure to intervene effectively 40 years ago, or since, to protect to freedoms of all Cypriots has diminished its responsibility. The discussion between members of the House Lords bore more in common with a patronising display regarding a disagreeable prodigal child than a serious attempt to aid Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders to find an agreeable solution.

A voice of reason and honesty Lord Maginnis of Drumglass was one of the few to make a stand for the Turkish Cypriots and criticised Britain's role in the situation thus far.

"I will be critical of the role that for more than 50 years the United Kingdom has played in terms of assisting in a solution," he said.

"It is important to know what really happened in Cyprus. It is time to stop rewriting history...How many know that EOKA-B sought to expunge every Turkish Cypriot from the island between Christmas 1963 and 1974? I hope that the Minister will be able to tell us explicitly the significance of the Akritas and Ifestos plans—the blueprint for ethnic cleansing even before we used that term."

Neither side in the conflict could be described as pure, however a fight for survival is unlikely to reveal the softer side of any nation.

"We hear about all the people who were killed when Turkey, as a guarantor power did what we, as a guarantor power, should have done—intervened to try to stop wholesale slaughter," continued Lord Maginnis. 

The 40th anniversary is sadly not the marking of four decades of freedom for the Turkish Cypriots. It is the commemoration of four decades of fighting to be recognised. Whether Cyprus is unified once again, or is officially recognised as two separate states has long since been down to the Cypriots. If Britain and the rest of the world were to try and provide genuine assistance is would be to do their duty and recognise the equal rights of the Turkish Cypriots as opposed to condemning them to an unending future as an embargoed, unrecognised nation.