Not only has Turkey flouted international law as codified in the Genocide
Convention, but she has also disregarded the UN Charter, UN resolutions,
the UN International Covenants on Human Rights, the Hague Regulations,
the 1949 Geneva Conventions (setting minimum standards of treatment of
soldiers and civilians in time of armed conflict and during occupation
thereafter) and the European Convention on Human Rights and its Protocols.
In these circumstances it is proper to add that States which provided Turkey
with arms used in the 1974 invasions, or aid her by still supplying arms,
tanks and aircraft used to this day by the Turkish Army in its continuing
occupation of Cyprus to keep 200,000 refugees away from their homes, or
which permit their corporations to loot or assist in disposing of looted
property of Greek Cypriot refugees, are not merely condoning such actions
but are giving comfort and assistance to Turkey in her breaches of international
human rights law. Such States have responsibility under municipal law (e.g.
the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act and the U.K. Companies Act) and under international
law to ensure that so far as is within their power such illegalities are
stopped. The only accessible and effective machinery for establishing Turkey's
multiple violations of international human rights law has been that of
the European Convention on Human Rights. Cyprus therefore invoked the jurisdiction
of the European Commission of Human Rights in September 1974, in July 1975
and September 1977. In consequence the Commission, an impartial international
judicial tribunal, having carefully evaluated evidence, has found Turkey
guilty of grave violations of human rights in Cyprus from 1974 onwards.
Accordingly, rather than categorising Turkey's many breaches of international
human rights law under the numerous applicable Conventions, detailed analysis
will concentrate on Turkey's breaches of the European Convention on Human
Rights
