Constitutional amendments which are up for a referendum on Sunday have received a resounding “No” by the New Cyprus Party (YKP)*, ‘Kibris Postasi’ reports.
The YKP has called on everyone to vote “no” to the constitutional amendments on Sunday. Saying that the constitutional amendments represent nothing more than tinkering for cosmetic effects under the orders of mainland Turkey, the New Cyprus Party issued a written statement detailing the reasons for their call for “no” vote to the amendments.
Some of the important highlights from YKP’s statement are as follows:
“The Turkish Republic’s military and civilian authorities together with their local representatives are continuing to impose their plan and program on us which we have been suffering for many years.”
“From time to time these forces who made the north of the Island a swampland, try to make some cosmetic alterations on it in order to extend this regime’s life and continue the process of eliminating alternative voices”
“As the last example of this agenda they united their allies in the parliament, which has no validity any more, and made some amendments (superficial) and now they urge us to say yes to them. But preparing a constitution is a serious business. Therefore the constitution is not something that could be prepared by this regime or its representatives. So they have made a mess of the articles they ‘worked’ on. They didn’t even change the commas of some articles that they copied from Turkey’s [constitution]. They said ‘children’s rights’ but they prosecuted children even before they commit a crime.
“They didn’t touch article 10** which is the barrier in front of our self-governance and self-determination”
“Therefore we say that one or two polished articles do not form a good reason to say yes to the 1985 constitution again. The main characteristic of the 1985 constitution stands solid and they expect us to say yes to that”.
“It is the time to stand against the regime and say no to its continuation”.
“Let’s say no to the ones who want us to become extinct. You cannot destroy us, we are here and we will continue to be here”
“Let’s say a strong no and show them that this country does not belong to degenerated representatives in the parliament but to us the people. Let’s show them that we say no to being governed by orders”.
*The New Cyprus Party (Turkish: Yeni Kıbrıs Partisi) is a democratic socialist Turkish-Cypriot political party which was founded in 1989.
** The Nature of Fundamental Rights and their Protection
Article 10
(1) Every person has, by virtue of his existence as an individual, personal
fundamental rights and liberties which cannot be alienated, transferred or
renounced.
(2) The State shall remove all political, economic and social obstacles which
restrict the fundamental rights and liberties of the individual in a manner
incompatible with the individual’s security, social justice and the principles
of the State being subject to the rule of law; it shall prepare the necessary
conditions for the development of the individual’s material and moral
existence.
(3) The legislative, executive and judicial organs of the State, within the spheres
of their authority, shall be responsible for ensuring that the provisions of this
Part are implemented in full.
