At the General Meeting of Saturday 13th March 2010 the new Committee was elected and is as follows:
President - Neoklis Neokleous,
V. President - Tony Theodorou,
G. Secretary - Minas Mina,
Asst G. Secretary - Avraam Christou,
Treasurer - Kyriacos Paschalis,
Public Relations - Ioannis Kouvaros,
E. Secretary - Costas Paul.
Members: Xenia Chambou, Anastasia Chrysanthou, Maria Kashis, Niki Hadjoullis.
Campaign and Fund Raising Committee: Costas Antoniou, Lella Markou-Theodorou, Georgia Antoniou, Niki Ioakim, Niki Loizou and Gokay Ucar.
MEETING WITH
OFFICIALS OF THE FOREIGN & COMMONWEALTH
OFFICE:
On Tuesday
19th January 2010, a five-member delegation of ORMC
(UK) Committee met at the Foreign & Commonwealth
Office (FCO), with the leaders of the Cyprus-Greece and
Turkey desks.
At the meeting it was put, once again, the refusal of
Turkey to abide by the European Court of Human Rights
(ECHR) judgement in relation to Greek Cypriot Missing
and their Relatives, as well as the unwillingness and
inability of the international community to persuade or
force Turkey to abide.
Unfortunately, as in previous meetings the reply of the
FCO was the same. “We do all we can to persuade Turkey
to abide. We can do no more”. Our representatives
strongly expressed their disagreement to that
contention.
It was pointed out that the
Organisation is not at all happy with the stance taken
by the UK Government (UKG) and insisted that they can
do a lot more towards Turkey on this issue. The ORMC
(UK) members pointed out that the UKG not only has the
obligation but also is in a strong position to exert
pressure on Turkey. The F&CO officials responded by
suggesting that: since whenever they raise the Greek
Cypriot Missing issue, Turkish officials raise the
issue of Turkish Cypriot Missing and that restrict them
from putting additional pressure, as they do not want
to be accused of bias.
Our representatives demanded that the UK Government
stop the pretence of impartiality and “sitting on the
fence”, that greatly favours Turkey.
And, if it really
wants a solution to both issues of the Missing, it
would be better to study each case separately, identify
the barriers to the solution for each case and act
accordingly, for the restoration of human rights for
all the Missing and their Relatives. Sitting on the
fence only benefits the perpetrators of this hideous
crime.
CUTTING OF THE NEW
YEAR’S CAKE:
This took
place on Sunday 17th Jan 2010 at St Barnaba’s Church
Hall, after the service at St. Mary’s church. Bishop
Athanasios after prayers, cut and distributed the cake
to all present. Short speeches followed by ORMC (UK)
President N. Neokleous and the Consul General Mr E.
Savva. Support was also expressed by DY.SY (UK)
President Mr A. Papaevripides, Mrs L. Pattichi of the
Ladies Section of DY.SY (UK) who donated a cheque for
£500, on behalf of the Ladies Group and from Mr M.
Kashis of EDEK (UK) who also offered £500.
The ORMC President thanked them all and all those
present and promised that the donated money will be
used wisely and will help our
campaign.
ARGUMENT AGAINST PEACE OR OBLIGATION TO HUMAN RIGHTS?
For 34 years now we have been lobbying
Governments, Heads of States, democratically elected
public representatives and especially our Government
here in the UK to help locate and identify the fate of
all the missing Cypriots from 1974 but even earlier
from 1963.
Unfortunately not everyone out there seems to
understand this basic Human Rights obligation to those
that disappeared but also of their relatives who for so
many years are still living in the dark about the fate
of their loved ones.
Here (right)
is a copy of a letter recently received at our offices
from 'a Turkish Cypriot’ friend, who unfortunately
wishes to remain anonymous and who seems to be missing
this important point all together. As we are unable to
communicate directly with them, a reply on our home
site is our only hope that sooner or later it might
find its way to him/her.
Our friend has completely missed the whole point of our
letter to the MPs. We as the relatives of the Missing
Cypriots want to know the fate of our loved ones. This
is a basic human right and nobody should try and deny
us that right.
All we want to know is if our loved ones are dead,
where are they buried so that they can be exhumed and
be given a proper burial and if they are alive to be
returned. Is this too much to ask?
The UN sponsored CMP (Committee of Missing People) in
Cyprus is doing a grand job, but it will do a better
job if the Turkish army would give all the information
it has about the Missing. So far it has given
absolutely NOTHING!
This is why, as British citizens, we want the British
Government to apply pressure on Turkey to give all the
information it has about our Missing. After all the
European Court of Human Rights has already ruled, in
the case Varnava and others, that Turkey had violated
Article 2 (right to life) and Article 5 (right to
liberty and security) of the European Convention on
Human Rights by failing to conduct an effective
investigation into their whereabouts. It also ruled
that Turkey had breached the rights of the nine
relatives under Article 3 (proscribing inhuman or
degrading treatment).
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