The Legal Background of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus; The United Nations Security Council Resolution 186

Year 2020, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 13 - 29, 20.06.2020

Mehmet Şükrü Güzel

Abstract

The United Nations (UN) Security Council resolution 186 adopted on 4 March 1964 was wrongly understood as the recognition of the effective control of the Greek Cypriot community on the Cyprus Republic institutions by the UN. When we analyse resolution 186, one can see that the resolution had given a binding decision on the restoration of the 1960 Constitution to the Cyprus Republic under the effective control of the Greek Cypriots (CRUGC) that is the obligation to give back the right to external self-determination of the Turkish Cypriot community in their partnership Republic. The Cyprus Republic was formed in accordance to the UN General Assembly resolution 1287 of 1958 on decolonization. The Turkish Cypriot community had used their recognized right to external self-determination by the UN General Assembly with the Greek Cypriot community by the founding of the Cyprus Republic in 1960. This recognized right to external right to self-determination of the Turkish Cypriots then had taken away in 1963 with the Thirteen Amendments to the Cyprus Constitution by the Greek Cypriot community. The obligation given to CRUGC by the resolution 186 had never fulfilled till the date the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983. The Security Council decisions bind not only member states but itself as well. The UN Security Council by its resolution 541 of 1983 when considered the TRNC as legally invalid, did not make its obligation of due diligence control for the realization of the obligation given to the CRUGC by its resolution 186. Decolonization is based on the principle, “leaving no one behind” for the right of the peoples to external self-determination under Article 73 of the UN Charter. Once, the external right to self-determination is realized by decolonization, this is a jus cogens norm that is an inalienable right on which no derogation is permitted. As the Security Council did not fulfil its own responsibility for its resolution for the protection of the inalienable right to external self-determination of the Turkish Cypriot community, the Turkish Cypriot community has a legal right to form its own state under leaving no one behind principle originating from the UN Charter.

Keywords

Cyprus, Decolonization, Self-Determination, Jus Cogens

References

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