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I think it is time fo cease all dialogue between North Cyprus and the EU. North Cyprus is not a civilised nation if this type of monstrous witch-hunt is still permitted. And trade talks etc should cease.
Cypriot re-unification talks must be put on hold until homosexuality is decriiminalizsed in the North.
Even Turkey (which controls North Cyprus) is far more advanced than the apparently backward, bigotted dump of North Cyprus.
We cannot allow primitive backward countries like North Cyprus into the EU.
Turkey doesn’t control Northern Cyprus in a legislative sense. Yes, there are Turkish troops there, but Northern Cyprus essentially has its own government, legal system, elections etc..
Turkey in no way controls Northern Cyprus legislatively than Britain controls Bermuda, Jersey or Anguilla. There is responsibility for foreign and military issues but legislation and day to day governance is independent in each of these places as much as it is in Northern Cyprus from Turkey.
I agree homosexuality needs to be decriminalized in the north and the men who have been detained in relation to this matter should be released forthwith.
I am not sure that reunification talks should be stopped, but this could be an opportunity to allow the Northern Cypriots to prove that they are keen to move on the issue of human rights, and the those from southern Cyprus should challenge the north to do so.
Turkey bankrolls the TRNC. If they ‘told’ the TRNC government to decriminalise homosexuality, then that is what would happen.
It’s amazing what money can buy.
“Unlike Cyprus, the Northern Republic still has British colonial laws against homosexuality. In July, newspaper reports said two men were arrested for having sex in a hotel.”
WTF?
This part of Cyprus is a sovereign state with no legal ties to the UK since 1975, and its strict and inhuman laws against homosexuality are in place because of its predominant religion, which is Islam.
It has had 35 years to amend any old colonial laws, and has chosen not to do so.
chrissie
Actually I am a bit out of date. It seems that the republic DID repeal the old colonial law (committing an unnatural act) that these men are alleged to being charged for, and that was back in 1998.
These men are actually being prosecuted for homosexual acts under the republic’s OWN laws, which make such acts an offence punishable by up to three years in jail.
So nothing to do with old British Colonial laws.
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/michalis-sarris/sarris-had-not-sexual-contact-17-year-old-court-hears/20111019#comments
chrissie
I went to that page and tried several times to post a comment via Facebook, but it wouldn’t go up. So I posted it here as well.
65, 17 and a 30-something. I’m assuming money exchanged hands, particularly as the 65 year old was a finance minister. Are Liam Fox and Adam Querrity in Cyprus at the moment?
sic. ‘queerity’.
I hate the lack of journalistic skill when reporting this incident. The “Cypriot” men NOT “Northern Cypriot men” were arrested. This is politically motivated. 1 of the 3 is an elderly Greek Cypriot politician from the south. Turkey controls the police in the north of Cyprus which is strange as Turkey itself decriminalised homosexuality years ago. Turkey is using the Turkish Cypriot interpretation of old British colonial laws (motivated by homophobia) to screw a Greek Cypriot politician. Turkish Cypriot gay men have inadvertantly become the bait. Homophobia and nationalism is a heady mix. Turkish Cypriots now have to contend with the thought that police without a warrant can break into their homes and arrest them for an “unnatural act”. A solution to the political problem is urgent as common decency and EU Human Rights laws are hard to enforce in an unrecognised state.
This is nearly always the case ! Such stupid legislation is used against people for political motivations . My own “father” was caught this way ! might add that a slightly liberal view of the Coran and the haddith which are the real law for any muslim would conclude that where there is the POSSIBILTY that the actors in such lewd and obscene acts have been forced into such behaviour by perversion or castration then the Karim Coran and the haddith are quite clear that the actors are “BLAMELESS” ! So there really is no excuse for such blanket one size fits all homophobic procedures in an Islamic state .
If that well known Hero and generally wonderful person “Peter thatcel” or some one like him is reading this then perhaps he or she could use this line in his or her efforts to get the Islamists to listen to him ! There is really only one natural party of government in Islamic countries and thats the Islamists. So it is to them that we must address our arguements . . . So we should be comming from an appreciative view of the Coran and the haddith . . .just banging on abiout secularism to a Muslim just reaks of Idolatry !
I smell Cypriot politics in these arrests.
This has nothing to do with colonial laws. It’s another Islamic banana republic, doomed to failure like all the others.
Isn’t most of Cyprus Greek Orthodox?
The southern part is.
This has nothing to do with religion.
This is politically motivated using homophobia as a device. Homopbobic laws were not enforced that often.
A shift has taken place
I suspect this case is less about the religion (although no doubt there are religious influences) and more about the political situation in Cyprus.
Well that’s destroyed the lives of several young men whose actions did not not one scintilla of harm to the state, nor even to themselves. Their lives are now over.
The 14yo is a different matter as he is underage, as should of course be the case with any instance of abuse, but all the more compelling reason for a humane treatment. There should be no law preventing adults of either sex from being with whomever they damn well like.
Until this law is repealed, Cyprus should be denied membership of the EU, although that’s no threat nowadays.
WHICH 14yo, Derek?!
“Four of the five detained, aged 14, 16, 17 and 29, complained of police brutality in detention”
at http://www.cyprus-mail.com/michalis-sarris/sarris-had-not-sexual-contact-17-year-old-court-hears/20111019#comments
A few more interesting developments:
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/north-slammed-illegal-arrests/20111020
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/government-takes-steps-free-sarris/20111016
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/human-rights/sarris-kept-behind-bars-court-decides-his-fate/20111018
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/michalis-sarris/sarris-had-not-sexual-contact-17-year-old-court-hears/20111019
So, it seems there were between 5 and 7 males arrested and they may be seeking more. There is also reason to suspect police brutality …
Cyprus is a member of the EU
Northern Cyprus is technically a member too (although not given rights due to the dispute over territory the EU sides with the Republic of Cyprus)
“conspiring to have a sexual intercourse against the order of nature”,
What a fatastic charge, we should have that added to the UK law.
Unsuccessful troll is unsuccessful.
Id be careful who your calling a Troll, I have a much right to an opinion as anyone and it doesnt have to be the same as anyone elses, I thank you.
Following your own brand of logic, Melanie has every right to consider you a troll and express her opinion. But I see you have difficulty with your own formula when you’re the subect – very telling.
i lived in south cyprus in 2008 for a year and went to secret gay bars in limmasol what surprised me is the guys i met there were still living in fear from police, the public and of there families and this is still going on
Things are a little better in the south of the island over the last 2 or 3 years, but still light years behind most of the EU
I spent 3 weeks in Northern Cyprus in 2007. I met a lot of gay guys. There was no special bar, but on the beach and in the hammams you could pick and choose as you wanted. I had the feeling that I never seen so many gay people in one place before. Even one of the policemen I met in the street invited me home to “have some fun” as he explained it. I could not believe that homosexuality was illegal.
2,000 years of the Christian and Catholic religions have made gays criminals. It is time to make the Christians and Catholics the criminals who have been the ones who have been behind the murders and killings of gays. Christians and Catholics make haters who hate gays and bully kids to kill them. Make these Christians and Catholics pay for their crimes against gays for hundreds of years.
Of course two wrongs make a right …
Interesting that you see Catholicism as distinct from Christianity.
But in any event North Cyprus is predominantly Muslim.
And there’s me thinking that I’d like to holiday visit Cyprus for a couple of weeks (thus helping their tourist industry). No thanks.
Southern Cyprus is okay although there is still a lot of social homophobia. It is the Turkish occupied north that is the problem. Why not Mykonos?
Northern Cyprus is not recogonized by any country in the world except Turkey. Therefore the European Court of Human Rights have no jurisdiction there. Maybe we should offer to recognize Northern Cyprus on condition that they decriminalize homosexuality.
Turkey is responsible as they’re responsible for policing. See http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-arrests-in-northern-cyprus-for.html
Pink News quotes the Cyprus Mail but made the decision to describe three arrests: Sarris, a 17 year old and a 30-something. The Cyprus Mail describes 5 arrests: the other two being a 14 year old and a 16 year old.
pEDANTIC GREEK CYPRIOT? tHERE IS NO REPUBLIC OF nORTHERN cYPRUS. tURKEY IT SUITS HER TO SAY SO
Is it safe to travel to Cyprus on holiday? I have never been there, and was thinking of going.
No reason at all why you should not travel to the Republic of Cyprus (ie the southern half of the island) …
the moral leader of these perverts that use philosophical concepts of “naturalness” to perform heavy sexual acts involving body modifications,swallowing body fluids form other sex,etc,was a sick pervert who married his own sister and had children with her.
we should mock them by organizing a protest where sister and brother get married,that’s their family institution.
Many comments are fuelled by typically hasty Pink News reporting: at least one of the ‘men’ was well under the age of consent (which has been equalized in Northern Cyprus for homosexuals and heterosexuals at 17) … so this is as much a potential case of paedophilia as anything. However, as it also involves a former (Southern) Cypriot government minister who opposes the Turkish occupation of the North, it’s almost certainly politically motivated and not a real instance of the hounding of private practitioners of gay sex.
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