Abstract:

he Republic of Cyprus became an independent state on 16 August 1960 after being declared formally as a Crown Colony on 10 March 1925 by the United Kingdom. The Constitution of the Republic, which came into effect on the day of independence, had its roots in agreements reached between the heads of government of Greece and Turkey at Zurich on 11 February 1959. These were incorporated in agreements reached between those governments and the United Kingdom in London on 19 February. On the same day, the representatives of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities accepted the documents concerned, and accompanying declarations by the three governments, as "the agreed foundation for the final settlement of the problem of Cyprus". The agreements were embodied in treaties - the Treaty of Establishment and the Treaty of Guarantee, signed by Cyprus, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the Treaty of Alliance, signed by Cyprus, Greece and Turkey - and in the constitution, signed in Nicosia on 16 August 1960. Republic of Cyprus was founded as a bi-communal state based on partnership between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. The 1960 partnership, however, lasted only three years. With a view to initiating the Akritas Plan, which put forward a deliberate campaign for changing the state of affairs created by the Constitution and ultimately realizing the ideal for Enosis. The Greek Cypriots proposed amendments to the Constitution, known as the Thirteen Points that entailed usurping the rights of Turkish Cypriots and degrading their equal co-founder status to that of a minority on the Island. Turkish Cypriots refused the Thirteen Points as an obligation to protect their treaty rights and do not recognize the situation created by the abuse of rights as legal. International community has an obligation not to recognize as lawful within the principle of ex injuria jus non oritur based on the peremptory norm of self-determination of peoples under Article 73 of the United Nations Charter, the situation created by the Greek Cypriots with the amendments to the Constitutional Treaty of 16 August 1960.

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