Israeli settlements – Letter from Cyprus

Letter dated 26 August 1977 from the Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the United Nations addressed to the Secretary-General

I have the honour to attach hereto a statement by the Foreign Minister of Cyprus, His Excellency Mr. J. Cl. Christophides, on the colonization of Arab territories occupied by Israel and would be grateful if it were circulated 30, 31 and 57 of as an official document of the General Assembly, under items 28, 30, 31 and 57 of the provisional agenda and of the Security Council.

(Signed)  Zenon ROSSIDES

Ambassador Permanent Representative

* A/32/150

ANNEX

Statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Cyprus on the

colonization of Arab territories occupied by Israel

The new arbitrary and unlawful act of Israel on the western bank of the Jordan River cannot but find fully opposed the Cyprus Government. The policy of creating faits accomplish through the establishment of Israeli settlements and the alteration, in this way, of the population composition of the area violates accepted principles and fundamental norms of justice and runs counter to the General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the Middle East problem.

Such acts, far from helping the finding of a peaceful solution to the problem through negotiations, cause more tension, complicate the situation still further and destroy even the fundamental prerequisites to an approach between the interested parties and to fruitful negotiation.

The Cyprus Government condemns the decision for colonization of the occupied Arab territories and declares that it does not recognize the unlawful regime for which efforts are being made to be created on the occupied western bank of the Jordan River.  The Cyprus Government believes that reversal of the relevant decision would positively contribute to the creation of the proper climate for negotiations between all interested, parties for the finding of a just solution to the Middle East problem.

This condemnable situation is a parallel to what is happening in my country where Turkey, through its army of occupation, is engaged in systematically colonizing the occupied area by massive settlements from Turkey, after having forcibly expelled the majority indigenous Greek Cypriot inhabitants therefrom, namely, one third of the island's total population.

It is, to say the least, strange that the Turkish Foreign Minister found it possible to voice disapproval of the very acts his Government is so relentlessly perpetrating in Cyprus in an attempt to change the demographic structure of the island.

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