[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 25, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1331]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      38TH YEAR COMMEMORATION OF INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF CYPRUS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN P. SARBANES

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 25, 2012

  Mr. SARBANES. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to mark the 38th year of 
Turkey's invasion, occupation and colonization of the Republic of 
Cyprus.
  On July 1, Cyprus assumed the six-month presidency of the European 
Union. Turkey, an EU candidate country, refuses to recognize the 
Cypriot presidency and has acted to ``freeze'' its communications with 
the EU. While Turkey refuses to recognize Cyprus, the international 
community has repeatedly called upon Turkey to withdraw from its 
occupation of the island republic.
  In 1974, Turkey invaded the island citing its purported authority to 
intervene under the Treaty of Guarantee, a treaty meant to guarantee 
the independence, sovereignty, constitution and territorial integrity 
of Cyprus. Turkey asserts that the Constitution of Cyprus is ``null and 
void,'' yet it justifies its invasion and decades' long occupation of 
Cyprus upon the Treaty of Guarantee, a treaty which obligates Turkey as 
a guarantor power to uphold the Cypriot Constitution and preserve the 
country's independence and territorial integrity.
  During Turkey's 38 year occupation of the northern third of Cyprus, 
it has engaged in the systematic destruction of the island's Hellenic, 
Christian and Turkish Cypriot heritage. Turkey is extinguishing the 
voice of the Turkish Cypriots, the community that co-existed with 
Greek-Cypriots for nearly 500 years until Turkey invaded and forcibly 
divided the two communities. Turkey's treatment of the indigenous 
peoples of Cyprus betrays a broader impulse which is manifest in 
discrimination against Christian and other minorities in territories 
under its control. Turkey's conduct is so egregious that this year the 
U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom designated it as ``a 
country of particular concern.''
  Turkey, a nation of nearly 80 million people, has with each passing 
day altered the cultural heritage and demographics of Cyprus, a country 
of 1 million people. In 1974, Greek Cypriots numbered 506,000 and 
Turkish Cypriots numbered 118,000. Since then, Turkey has engaged in a 
radical alteration of the island's demographics. Turkey has resettled 
nearly 200,000 mainland Turks and garrisoned 45,000 Turkish soldiers in 
the occupied areas. Turkey's forced colonization of the occupied areas 
is eradicating the native Turkish Cypriot community and supplanting it 
with a Turkish community whose culture and national consciousness is 
foreign to the indigenous and unique Greco-Turkish culture of Cyprus.
  The presence of Turkish troops is justified by the pretext that 
Turkey is protecting Turkish Cypriots. Yet 58,000 Turkish Cypriots 
voluntarily carry Republic of Cyprus passports, Turkish Cypriots 
utilize health care facilities and other services in the Republic of 
Cyprus, and more than 18 million crossings over the green line have 
occurred without incident. The reality is that each Jay Turkish 
Cypriots are forced by the presence of 45,000 Turkish troops to idly 
watch as their culture and identity is overtaken by mainland Turkish 
colonialists.
  Recent discoveries of natural gas off the coasts of Cyprus and Israel 
have seen these two democracies engage in a cooperative and productive 
manner for the development of the only Western, democratically 
controlled energy source in the region. Where Israel and Cyprus have 
conducted themselves as peaceful democracies, Turkey is using its 
presence in occupied Cyprus to challenge Israeli interests in the 
region. It was not so long ago that Turkey held itself out as an ally 
of Israel.
  Cyprus is the canvas that reveals the true face of Turkey--occupier, 
colonizer and foe of Western democratic values. It is time for this 
Chamber and the United States to stand with the people of Cyprus and 
demand that Turkey withdraw its troops and ``cease and desist'' from 
its unlawful colonization of this small and peaceful country.

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