Refugees' right to return must be basis for Cyprus solution
Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2006 12:23 am
Refugees' right to return must
be basis for Cyprus solution
says CoE's new Russian president
Angelos Marcopoulos reports from Strasbourg
THE right of refugees to return must form the basis of a solution of the Cyprus problem, the new Russian president-in office of the Council of Europe said here yesterday.
"The refugees' right to return is a fundamental human right and an inextricable part of the solution to many international problems, including that of Cyprus,'' Ambassador Alexander Orlof said.
He was replying to my question about Turkey's refusal to allow Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their homes in the Turkish-occupied north of the island.
"The refugees right to return is one of the most important questions, and that is why we are going to pay great attention to it. Our stand is that the right of refugees to return is a fundamental human right and we (as the current CoE presidency) are going to base solutions on that fundamental principle," in connection with conflicts in Europe like the one in Cyprus, he said.
The refugees' right to return has been repeatedly reaffirmed by UN Security Council resolutions, as well as by several separate judgements of the European Court of Human Rights that are completely ignored however by Turkey.
In this respect, the local government elections due to be staged in the occupied north are both illegal and undemocratic because the Greek Cypriot refugees are not allowed to participate.
This was stressed by Svetlana Orlova, the head of the Russian delegation to the current Congress of Local and Regional Authorities in Europe (CLRAE) being staged here.
"Violations of human rights are incompatible with the staging of democratic elections and this is why the CLRAE must take that into account everywhere, without double standards,'' she said.
The continuing division of Cyprus was raised repeatedly during the CLRAE Congress with delegates and senior officials stressing the need to end the violation of the human rights of the refugees that has been allowed to continue for so long.
This criticism was stressed in a summing up by the Mayor of Strasbourg, Senator Fabienne Keller, in an address to the CLRAE delegates on Wednesday night.
She said that last week's denunciation of the continuing divisions in Cyprus by the outgoing CLRAE president, Giovanni di Stasi, during his visit to the island, "perfectly embodies our wish to build together a Europe of stable, sustainable peace."
Stasi had said: "We can no longer accept situations in Europe where divided towns or ghost towns exist." (See page
Halvard Skard, of Norway, who has taken over from Stasi as the new CLRAE President, followed up on his predecessor's words by telling The Cyprus Weekly, in an exclusive interview, of his determination to work for the reunification of the island.
"We will have to think hard about constructive proposals for the reunification of the island, in consultation with local representatives,'' he said.