Lord Spensasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they agree that the present regime in Cyprus has for more than 15 years not respected the following requirements of the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus:
and, if so, how they can justify their continued recognition of the régime; and
- (a) Basic Article 1: a Vice-President to be elected by the Turkish Community
- (b) Basic Article 46: a Council of Ministers, three of whom are to be Turkish Cypriots, of whom one must hold either the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of Finance
- (c)Basic Article 62(2): a House of Representatives 30 per cent. of whom are to be elected by the Turkish Community
984 - (d) Basic Article 123: a Public Service 30 per cent. of whom are to be Turkish Cypriots
- (e) Basic Article 133: a Supreme Constitutional Court composed of a Greek Cypriot, a Turkish Cypriot and a neutral judge;
Why they continue to recognise the regime which now governs Cyprus in view of the fact that it (and its predecessors) have substantially altered the Basic Articles of the 1960 Constitution in contravention of Article 182(1) thereof, and bearing in mind that under the Treaty of Guarantee they guarantee, "the state of affairs established by the Basic Articles" of that Constitution.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Young)Since the Republic of Cyprus became independent in 1960 both the Cyprus Government and the Turkish Cypriot community have failed to respect various aspects of the Constitution. We made our views on this known at the time.
Before 1980 the question of recognition of Governments was not dependent on the degree to which the Constitution of the state concerned was being or was capable of being implemented. Since the change of British Government policy on recognition announced in this House on 28th April 1980 the question of dealings with Governments has similarly not been dependent on such considerations.