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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 13 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 4713 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

Nations condemns, through successive resolutions, the continuing occupation and division of Cyprus. The European Union condemns the continuing occupation and division of Cyprus. The European Court of Human Rights continues to condemn and find against Turkey in relation to the occupation and dislocation.

The continued occupation and the division are not just issues around the territorial sovereignty and integrity of Cyprus; there are, as I say, issues around not just the human dimension of dislocation and loss of homes, loss of birthright and indeed the loss of loved ones and relatives; there has been, I have no doubt, quite significant and irreparable cultural vandalism as a result of the occupation of that significant part of a nation that has existed for thousands of years and a real desecration of some of the cultural integrity of the island as well.

So we can only continue, as supporters of peace, supporters of international law and supporters of the right of all nations to continue to live secure in their borders and for their territorial integrity and sovereignty to be recognised and maintained, to hope that the resolutions of the United Nations will ultimately be acknowledged and respected by the occupying force. That does require Turkey to accept responsibility for what it has done, to accept that the international community has, time and again, indicated to it that it does not accept its continued occupation or the legitimacy of that occupation. And it does require the international community, I think, to continue-let us hope, peacefully-to maintain pressure on Turkey to respond to those very many decisions of the United Nations in relation to Cyprus.

Of course there must be continuing frustration, as I know there is for Cypriots around the world, in terms of the apparent different levels of weight that can be brought to bear in relation to United Nations resolutions that are or are not complied with, abided by, recognised, or acknowledged. Of course one can be cynical about that at one level. I am sure it is a reflection that I know many Cypriots have made that perhaps if only Cyprus had been rich in oil there may have been a slightly greater degree of attention by some within particularly the West to force an earlier recognition by Turkey of its need to abide by and respond to the United Nations resolutions in relation to it.

I am very pleased to be supporting this motion. I think it is more than appropriate that this Assembly today has come together to discuss a motion that goes to the need for a place across the sea, another country, to have issues of direct relevance to it addressed and resolved. It is in the interests of many of our citizens that this be done. We acknowledge the significant place that they hold in their hearts for their homeland, quite rightly so, and their strong desire, now 30 years essentially after the invasion, that the tragedy that has befallen Cyprus be addressed and be resolved.

I think that is certainly the view of all, as Mr Smyth indicated, right-thinking Australians and certainly members of this particular community. And I think it is a view that we can come to, whilst acknowledging that the situation in Cyprus, I have no doubt, continues to be a matter of some concern to many Turkish Cypriots. We shouldn't label or scapegoat those Turkish Cypriots that to some extent have been caught up in the invasion as well whom we know, from what we see and read of contemporary events in Cyprus, are looking for a resolution to these issues as well. I think very many of the Turkish Cypriot residents of Cyprus recognise their future is in a unified and sovereign Cyprus. They see very much their fortune as being tied to the integration of Cyprus into the European

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