I am writing to complain about an item on The Travel Show transmitted on 30/5/96 at 2100hrs on BBC2 that was promoting ILLEGAL TRAVEL TO TURKISH OCCUPIED NORTH CYPRUS.

How can the BBC justify broadcasting this programme and encouraging people to travel to north Cyprus when the north has been ethnically cleansed of Greek Cypriots by Turkey.

None of the 200,000 refugees are allowed to return to their ancestral homes and villages in the north and those Greek Cypriots that chose to remain in the peninsular are continually experiencing human rights violations and are not allowed to worship freely or move freely in the north. Turkey continues to illegally station an army of over 30,000 in the north making it the most heavily militarised region in the world.

I am a Greek Cypriot and I found the programme Offensive, Inaccurate, Biased against the Greek Community and cultural heritage of north Cyprus and Ignorant of the atrocities carried out by Turkey.

My argument is expressed bellow

I and my family as well as every other Greek Cypriot are unable to return to our homes in the north and I have never seen my parents homes and villages in the north as I was born in England and I am not permitted by Turkey to enter north Cyprus because I am Greek Cypriot in origin. If I attempted to do so I would be arrested by the Turkish forces and neither I nor the British ambassador could guarantee my safety.

How then can this programme purport to encourage tourism to occupied Cyprus when the legitimate residents of the north, the displaced Greek Cypriots and their descendants cannot go there.

The programme illegally attempted to give legitimacy to the Turkish Occupation which Has been condemned by the United Nations in over 100 resolutions of both the General Assembly and the Security Council.

UN Resolution 541 (1983)

• "Deplores the declaration of the Turkish Cypriot authorities of the purported secession of part of the Republic of Cyprus;"
• " Considers the declaration refereed to above as legally invalid and calls for its withdrawal;"
• " Calls upon all states to respect the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and non-alignment of the Republic of Cyprus;"
• " Calls upon all states not to recognise any Cypriot state other than the Republic of Cyprus;"
  

UN Resolution 550 (1984)

• " Reaffirms the call upon all States not to recognise the purported state of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" set up by secessionist acts and calls upon them not to facilitate or in any way assist this the aforesaid secessionist entity;"

Since these resolutions reaffirm all the resolutions that went before them, and all the resolutions passed after these resolutions reaffirm the above resolutions. Violating one resolution is a violation of every resolution. The resolutions include:

UN General Assembly Resolution 3212 (XXIX) (1974)

UN Security Council Resolution 365 (1974)

UN Security Council Resolution 367 (1975)

UN General Assembly Resolution 37/253 (1983)

UN Security Council Resolution 541 (1983)

UN Security Council Resolution 550 (1984)

UN Security Council Resolution 649 (1990)

• Since the BBC is a state run organisation paid for by state taxation (the licence fee) the BBC has violated the above resolutions as well as every other UN resolution on Cyprus by supporting tourism of the illegal "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" and by referring to north Cyprus by the Turkish name thus assisting the entity, which is not recognised (neither the name or the entity) by the UN nor Great Britain.
• By showing illegally occupied Greek villages, buildings, homes, hotels and farm land in the north the BBC and the Programme again violated every relevant UN resolution and caused me and other Greek Cypriots great offence.

After the illegal invasion of 1974 the UN imposed a ban on all direct flights to or from occupied Cyprus and the advertisement of such flights. All countries including Turkey have to abide by this ban. The authorities in north Cyprus are not allowed to issue visas and any illegally issued visas are not recognised by any other country except Turkey.

• The programme encouraged travellers to stop off in Turkey after visiting occupied Cyprus and thus the BBC violated the spirit of the ban on flights, (the ban was actually violated by the Turkish aircraft that was used in the process of entering and leaving Cyprus).
• All relevant UN resolutions were again violated by the BBC because the BBC by showing scenes of tourism inferred legitimacy on Turkeys illegal claim on the north.
• The ban on advertising was violated because the programme showed the Names and Addresses of travel operators that sold these illegal flights.
• No mention was made that Turkey was violating the ban by allowing the flights to takeoff and land on its territory.

In 1994 the European Court of Justice passed a judgement that banned all trade with occupied north Cyprus unless permission was given by the legal government of the Republic of Cyprus and the trade entered or left Cyprus by

official ports and airports. The only official ports as stated by the government of Cyprus are Larnaka, Larnaka Airport, Limasol, Paphos and Paphos Airport. All others including Kyrinia and the Turkish airfield near Nicosia are illegal. The only legal way for people, trade and humanitarian aid to enter north Cyprus is via the UN controlled demarcation line border crossing.

Since Turkey has now obtained Customs Union with the EU it has to abide by all European Union Laws regarding Trade.

• By supporting tourism to occupied Cyprus, entering by unauthorised routs and without the permission of the Cyprus Government the programme and the BBC thus violated European Union Law.
• By mentioning the names of Travel Agents the BBC was an accomplice to the breaking of the law by those Travel Agents.
• The Reporter Was breaking international Law by entering Northern Cyprus by an unproved route and without a Cypriot Government Visa. He broke the EU approved trade ban by paying for the holiday, by paying for a room in an illegal hotel, by purchasing food that was grown on illegally occupied land, and by driving a vehicle that was not officially licensed by the Cyprus Government.
  

• The programme did not say that the Turkish Authorities in North Cyprus do not have any Legal Validity, and the "Government" of the so called "Turkish republic of northern Cyprus" has no international validity and neither does the name of the occupied region nor do any of the Turkified names of Greek Cypriot villages in North Cyprus.
• The programme did not mention the 30,000 Turkish troops still stationed illegally in north Cyprus in violation of UN resolutions.
  
  

The European Commission of Human Rights, Report II states:

• "Having found violations of a number of Articles of the Convention, the Commission notes that the acts violating the Convention were exclusively directed against members of one of two communities in Cyprus, namely the Greek Cypriot community. It concludes by eleven votes to three that Turkey has thus failed to secure the rights and freedoms set forth in these Articles without discrimination on the grounds of ethnic origin, race, religion as required by Article 14 of the Convention."

• The BBC did not mention the human rights violations of the Greek Community that were adjudged to have taken place by The European Commission of Human Rights, Report I (20 July 1974 - 18 May 1976), The European Commission of Human Rights, Report II (19 May 1976 - 10 Feb 1983), and The European Commission of Human Rights, Report III (11 Feb 1983 to date)
  

The programme was unfairly biased and ignored the true history of Cyprus.

• The programme did not give the point of view of the Republic of Cyprus and of the Greek Cypriots who have been illegally displaced.
• The programme purported to support the illegal occupation, by the host and the reporter both implying that because of the invasion the north had not been detrimentally affected by westernised development or tourism. The programme did not mention that such was illegal.
• The Proven Detrimental affects of the Turkish Sacrilege of Churches and Religious sites was not shown or mentioned. The proven theft and destruction of Byzantine Mosaics was not shown or mentioned. The Proven removal of crosses from churches interiors and roofs was neither shown or mentioned. The Proven sacrileges use of Churches as Stables, Brothels and Latrines was neither shown nor mentioned.
• Proven Destruction and theft of Greek Cultural Heritage was neither condemned or mentioned. In fact the programme purported to imply that north Cyprus had always been Turkish and never had any Greek occupants.
• Before the invasion there were more Greek Villages in the north than in the south and less Turkish villages in the north than in the south. This fact was not mentioned.

• Nothing was mentioned of the fact that the Turkish authorities imposed restrictions on the filming of the item in north Cyprus.
• No mention was given of the Turkish authorities editorial control over the item.

• No mention of the over 1,600 Greek Cypriots that went missing during the invasion was given.
• No mention was given of the recent statement by the Turkish Cypriot Leader Rauf Denktash that the 1,600 missing people were handed over to Turkish militia by the Turkish authorities, who then murdered them. This makes Rauf Denktash a self confessed war criminal.

All of the counts that the Programme and BBC stand accused of are an insult to the memory of all the People that died or were murdered because of the Turkish invasion.

When there was a ban on tourism and trade with South Africa the BBC respected that ban. So why has the BBC No Respect for the similar ban on travel and tourism in north Cyprus.

• I demand that the BBC make and apology to all the Greek People for the broadcasting of this programme and for them to make an other programme expressing the Greek Cypriot point of view in order to redress the balance.
• I also demand that the BBC never make or broadcast a similar programme or repeat the aforementioned programme or any similar programmes ever again.

Please reply as soon as possible.

Áñãõñïò Ãåùñãüò Áñãõñïý

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