It will be 38 years since the Republic of Cyprus was invaded by Turkish mainland troops. This resulted in the occupation of 38% of the island. The Turkish military then went on to declare a form of UDI in the north that is only recognised by themselves.
Cyprus is today holding the revolving Presidency of the EU so in affect the Turkish military is occupying part of EU territory. This is an unacceptable state of affairs and can not be allowed to continue. Successive attempts to resolve the 'dispute' have failed dramatically and the main reason for this is because the Republic is not prepared to accept the presence of 40,000 Turkish troops on the island on a permanent bases. No independent state can tolerate this.
Britain is one of the three guarantor powers under the 1960 treaty which guarantees the independence of the Republic but the British governments interests are served by the continuous division they are only interested in keeping their two bases there. More pressure needs to be exerted to ensure that the two communities are allowed to get together to find a solution without outside interference and until that happens there will be no solution. This is one case where the international rule of law must prevail.
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