| British Parliament on Greek affairs |
10.37 am
Mr. Tom Cox (Tooting): I declare an interest in the issue that I shall bring to the attention of the House.I chair the Cyprus Commonwealth parliamentary group in the House, and I want to raise the case of Loizidou v. Turkey. Mrs. Loizidou is a Greek Cypriot, and her home was in Kyrenia, which is now in the occupied area of northern Cyprus. As a result of the Turkish military invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Mrs. Loizidou was forced to leave her home and possessions.
The case involves two members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe: Cyprus and Turkey. As hon. Members will know, the United Kingdom is also a member of that Parliamentary Assembly. I raise the issue this morning because Cyprus is a Commonwealth country, and the United Kingdom is one of the guarantor powers for the Republic of Cyprus. The case goes back some years, and while preliminary discussions about it were taking place, there was hope that the case would be resolved. It went before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in July 1998. Turkey and Cyprus had every opportunity to present their views on the case to the court, and they did so. The court found by 15 votes to two in favour of Mrs. Loizidou.
The case came before the court under article 50 of the European convention
on human rights, which clearly states:
Every natural or legal person is entitled to the
peaceful enjoyment of their possessions.
That is something that Mrs. Loizidou cannot do. Her property and
possessions are in the occupied area of northern Cyprus, to which she is
refused access by the Turkish military authorities. That action by Turkey
violates article 1 of the first protocol of the convention.
Following the decision of a human rights court of which all Council of
Europe states are members, there have been many attempts by the Council,
by the Secretary General of the Council and by the Committee of Ministers,
which represents the member states of the Council, to ensure Turkey's
compliance with the judgment of the court. Regrettably, Turkey continues
to refuse to recognise the court's decision.
As a member of the British delegation to the Council of Europe, I have put
questions to whoever has been the Chairman-in-Office during the Council's
sittings in Strasbourg. I tabled a question to the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office as long ago as October 1998. I asked the then Minister
of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Gateshead, East and
Washington, West (Ms Quin), to set out the actions of the Government with
regard to the judgment. On 3 November she replied:
We are mindful of the obligation of all parties to the
European Convention on Human Rights under Article 53 of the Convention
to abide by European Court of Human Rights judgments. In the case of
Mrs. Loizidou v. Turkey, and in line with Council of Europe
procedure, the UK, along with other members of the Council of Europe's
Committee of Ministers, has invited Turkey to inform the Committee of
the measures it proposes to take in consequence of the judgment.--[Official
Report, 3 November 1998; Vol. 318, c. 541W.]
Despite that reply, there has still been a total refusal by Turkey to
honour the judgment. Regrettably, no progress is being made.
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in
Strasbourg in January, the Chairman-in-Office of the Committee of
Ministers, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Brian Cowen, made a
statement of regret that the Committee of Ministers had made no progress
towards the execution of the judgment in the Loizidou case. He said that
it was the unanimous view of the committee that the compulsory
jurisdiction of the court is an obligation that is accepted by all
contracting parties, which obviously includes Turkey. He added that he had
sent a letter to Turkish Foreign Minister Mr. Cem, emphasising the
Committee's concern at Turkey's continued failure to meet its obligations.
Recently, I asked the Secretary General of the Council of Europe to
express his view about the failure of Turkey to honour the court's
decision. He said clearly that he deeply regretted the lack of response
and commitment, and that it cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. So
we have clear statements from the Chairman-in-Office of the Committee of
Ministers and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
It is apparent to me and to many other parliamentarians that a decision
has clearly been made by the European Court of Human Rights in favour of
Mrs. Loizidou in a judgment supported by 15 votes to two. Yet we are still
seeing a member state totally refusing to honour the judgment. This is at a time when on-going discussions are taking place, in
which the Government are involved, about Turkey's possible future
membership of the European Union. Is the deliberate flouting of a decision
of the European Court of Human Rights acceptable behaviour by a future
possible member of the EU? I believe that the Government have a clear
duty. Is it acceptable that the case is allowed to drag on? Where do the
Government stand on the judgment, and what action will we seek to take,
along with our fellow member states of the Council of Europe, to see that
Turkey honours the decision of the court, which many members of the
Council and Governments believe should have been honoured long ago?
10.46 am
House of Commons (20 Apr 2000)
House of Commons Debates for 20 Apr 2000 (pt 8)
Adjournment (Easter)
Dr.
Rudi Vis (Finchley and Golders Green): I was not here at 9.30 am and I did
not think that I would be recognised, so I have not written anything down.
It is no use sending me little envelopes, because .....Speaker: Dr. Rudi Vis
11.39 am
Dr. Rudi Vis (Finchley and Golders Green): I was not here at 9.30 am and I did not think that I would be recognised, so I have not written anything down. It is no use sending me little envelopes, because I will not know exactly what I have ended up saying. I am a member of the Council of Europe and in January we had a debate about Chechnya. Many right hon. and hon. Members from this House and colleagues from the other place contributed to that excellent debate. We made several proposals to which we believed the Government of Russia should adhere and said that we would revisit the issue in April to see whether any progress had been made. However, not much progress was made, and there have been enormous human rights violations in Chechnya. These matters have been discussed by the Prime Minister and the new president of Russia, Mr. Putin.
In the context of the Council of Europe, there are other nations with poor human rights records. I wish to refer to Turkey, a nation with phenomenal human rights problems. It has other problems, such as the divided Cyprus on which there have been a large number of UN resolutions, none of which Turkey has adhered to. There is the Ilisu dam, into which we are potentially putting £200 million which will flood many of the historical areas of the Kurdish people. We have had the Loizidou case, which is now nearly 20 months old, on which Turkey is not listening to the European Court of Human Rights. The main issue is the human rights violations by Turkey, its military and Government, against the Kurdish people. I have always been amazed that we have no Kurdish representatives on the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, NATO or any of the international bodies, despite the fact that a large percentage of the population of Turkey is Kurdish. We must ask why there is no fair representation of the Kurdish people.