Sir, – Some correspondents have responded to Kathy Sheridan’s article “Annexations are not confined to Ukraine” (Opinion & Analysis, September 14th) by citing ongoing conflicts in Israel’s Palestinian territories and in Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.
Strangely, nobody has seen fit to mention an unresolved annexation within the borders of the European Union that continues to disrupt the territorial integrity of a sovereign member state. The Turkish occupation of northeastern Cyprus results from the two Turkish invasions of July-August 1974. The Turkish-declared “Republic of Northern Cyprus” occupies 36.2 per cent of the island’s area. Declared to be legally invalid by the UN Security Council, it enjoys no international recognition except by Turkey.
The invasions drove at least 160,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes; they have not been allowed to return. The fates and whereabouts of most of the 2,000 persons, both Greek and Turkish Cypriot, missing since the invasion remain to be discovered.
The Turkish government has settled large numbers of mainland Turks from Anatolia in the homes of the expelled Greek Cypriots. Settlers outnumber native Turkish Cypriots by two to one.
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Despite this clear violation of the Geneva Convention prohibition on transfer of a civilian population into an occupied territory, the Geneva Convention, so freely cited in the case of Israel-Palestine, almost never features in the minuscule media coverage of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT MELEADY,
Dublin 3.