This weblog entry updates the Turkish and Cypriot dimension of my article "Turkey in Cyprus vs. Israel in Gaza" of July 20, 2010:
Imagine Israeli forces stopping a mosque service on a major Islamic holiday. Well, that's what Turkish troops did yesterday, on Christmas, at a church in northern Cyprus:
For the first time in 36 years Christians trapped in the occupied area were forbidden from celebrating Christmas. On Christmas morning, Saturday 25 December 2010, Father Zacharias and a large number of people went to the Church of Saint Sinesios in Rizokarpaso (photo) to begin Matins for Christmas. Meanwhile men of the occupied forces rushed to the church, interrupted the service, urged the priest to remove his vestments, and ordered everyone leave the church. When everyone had left, the doors were sealed.
Church of Saint Sinesios in Rizokarpaso, northern Cyprus.
(December 26, 2010)
Nov. 27, 2011 update: It's not just Turkey in Cyprus; it's also Turkey in Kurdistan. For some strong views on that topic, see Chia Shojaei, "The Dirty War in Northern Kurdistan." Here's the first paragraph:
Imagine a great empire, the Kurdish Medes, has been a colony and everyday are killed reality owners of this land, Kurdistan, by the Turkish immigrants. Oppressed people are Kurds and cruel nation are the Turkish government. The Turks came and got Kurdistan under their power on 11th century. During the Othman power until recently, they killed more than two million Kurdish and Armenian people. Right now there is fighting between colonist, Turks, and colony, Kurds. For almost 30 years, Turkish government has directly started the war against Kurdistan. This war has many reasons but the primary roots of war between Kurdish nation and Turkish government are cultural, political, and economical issues.
Dec. 22, 2011 update: Speaking in Washington, the foreign minister of Cyprus, Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis, noted that "Mr. Erdoğan sees no contradiction in pontificating from the UN General Assembly podium on the failure of Israel to abide by UN resolutions, while Turkey is in violation of numerous mandatory UN Security Council resolutions in Cyprus."
Oct. 31, 2012 update: Arsen Ostrovsky, previously of Hudson Institute and EYEontheUN.org, notes in " Erdoğan, Sovereignty, and Israel" the contrast in Erdoğan's policies toward Syria and Gaza:
In the past week, the government of Turkey – understandably – launched military action against Syria in response to mortar fire by the Assad regime, which killed five Turkish civilians in the town of Akcakale. In retrospect, this represents an opportune time for Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan to consider apologizing to Israel for some of his vitriolic attacks against the Jewish state following their response against Hamas rocket fire from Gaza in late 2008.
Responding to Syria's unprovoked attack against Turkey, Erdoğan said "Turkey is a country which is capable of protecting its people and borders. No one should attempt to test our determination on the issue." Further, in tabling his motion in Parliament on October 4th, seeking approval for military action, Erdoğan added: "This situation has reached a stage that poses serious threats and risks to our national security. Therefore, the need has developed to act rapidly and to take the necessary precautions against additional risks and threats that may be directed against our country." …
Erdoğan's decision to send Turkish troops into Syria came after a single mortar attack, which the Syrian authorities claim was accidental, but nonetheless killed five Turkish citizens.
Yet, Israel endured something in the vicinity of 8,000-plus rockets, and many more causalities from Gaza, before retaliating against Hamas in Operation 'Cast Lead' in December 2008. Rocket and mortar fire still continues from the Gaza strip today.
At the time of Israel's response, Erdoğan unleashed a barrage of vitriol against Israel, the likes of which were unprecedented in the history of relations between the two states, calling Israel's actions against Hamas terrorists in Gaza a "crime against humanity" and saying that "Israel must pay a price for its aggression and crimes". He even went to so far as to call for Israel to be barred from the United Nations.
Jan. 4, 2013 update: Dore Gold of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs adds an important dimension in "European settlements and double standards" that I did not cover in my article: foreigners coming in and buying discounted vacation homes in Occupied Cyprus.
July 23, 2013 update: Douglas Murray excoriates the European Union for its recent decision to ban funding or cooperation with any Israeli institutions that operate in the West Bank and points out that Cyprus should be of much greater concern to it.
what makes the EU's latest double-standard even more delicious is that the occupied island of Cyprus is actually a member of the EU. As such, shouldn't it surely command the most detailed and persistent attention from the international body?
Yet this is not so. The northern part of Cyprus has been illegally annexed for the last four decades by Turkey. It is not as though Turkey shares a border with the island. Nor does it have—as Israel has with the West Bank—any legitimate historical, political or other territorial claims on the northern part of the island. There is no security reason for Turkey to sustain its occupation, as there is an obvious need for Israel to have defensible borders that do not permit terrorists from the West Bank to fire rockets into Israel, as do its friends in post-disengagement Gaza or southern Lebanon. …
Into the fifth decade of Turkish occupation of Cyprus, there is still no serious dictating by the EU to Turkey over what it must do about northern Cyprus. Turkey does not find itself under even the most remote international pressure finally to disengage from its illegal occupation of the northern part of Cyprus.
Sep. 28, 2013 update: Eugene Kontorovich, professor at Northwestern University School of Law, warms to this same them today in "How the EU directly funds settlements in occupied territory." After noting the new EU guidelines prohibiting funds going to Israeli organizations located or even operating in the West Bank, he notes that
despite the guidelines, the EU still knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is. So the EU funds the occupation of an EU member state. Turkey's invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 was condemned the UN Security Council, and the EU's official policy is that the Turkish occupation is illegitimate, and Turkey must completely withdraw. The EU does not recognize the Turkish government in Northern Cyprus. Nonetheless, the EU maintains an entire separate program to direct funds to Northern Cyprus. They even put out a nice, colorful brochure last year.
The grants are pursuant to a 2006 regulation adopted by the EU to "end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot community," and allocated 259 million euros over five years, and now operates on an annual 28 million euro allocation (a sum that amounts to roughly 0.8 percent of Northern Cyprus['s GDP).
Projects include study abroad scholarships for students at the numerous Northern Cyprus universities (imagine such funding for students at Ariel University!); developing and diversifying the private sector through grants to small and medium- sized businesses; various kinds of infrastructure improvements (telecom upgrades, traffic safety, waste disposal); community development grants, funding to upgrade "cultural heritage" sites, and so forth. They even put on a concert. The program basically gives grants to the Turkish business and private entities, and builds the infrastructure of the occupying government. The EU is doing exactly what its claims, in the settlement guidelines, international law prohibits.
The relevant EU resolutions and reports make no mention of any international legal question about such funding.
Burak Bekdil.
May 23, 2014 update: The remarkable Turkish journalist Burak Bekdil compares North Cyprus with Jerusalem today in his Hürriyet column, "The 'conquest-over-occupation' season opens'." He notes that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu last week, stated that "under the term[s] of international law, Jerusalem is under [Israeli] occupation." Then he asked: "If U.N. decisions are not being implemented then why are they taken in the first place?" To which Bekdil replies:
How can a foreign minister cite U.N. resolutions about "Jerusalem's occupation" when several other U.N. resolutions have described his own country as the occupier of Cyprus over the last four decades?
Aug. 13, 2014 update: Victor Davis Hanson covers this topic today in "Occupation hypocrisy: Gaza vs. Cyprus." After quickly surveying the facts, he asks, "Why, then, is the world not outraged at an occupied Cyprus the way it is at, say, Israel?" Some of his replies:
- No European journalist fears that Greek terrorists will track him down should he write something critical of the Greek Cypriot cause. Greek Cypriots would not bully a journalist in their midst for broadcasting a critical report the way Hamas surely would to any candid reporter in Gaza. In other words, there is not much practical advantage or interest in promoting the Greek Cypriot cause.
- If it is easy for the United States to jawbone tiny Israel, it is geostrategically unwise to do so to Turkey over the island of Cyprus.
- Turkey is also less emblematic of the West than is Israel. In the racist habit of assuming low expectations for non-Westerners, European elites do not hold Turkey to the same standards that they do Israel.
- In the 40 years since they lost their land, Greek Cypriots have turned the once impoverished south into a far more prosperous land than the once-affluent but now stagnant Turkish-occupied north — unlike the Palestinians, who have not used their know-how to turn Gaza or Ramallah into a city like Limassol.
- Resurgent anti-Semitism both in the Middle East and in Europe translates into inordinate criticism of Israel. Few connect Turkey's occupation of Cyprus with some larger racist commentary about the supposed brutal past of the Turks.
- Israel is inordinately condemned for what it supposedly does because its friends are few, its population is tiny, and its adversaries beyond Gaza numerous, dangerous and often powerful. And, of course, because it is Jewish.
