Support Letter of the Steering Comitee of Solidarity Network Meeting
08/08/2011
Submitted by
Steering Comitee of Solidarity Network Meeting
SUPPORT LETTER AND PRESS RELEASE
BY LGBTQI ORGANIZATIONS
FROM GREECE, MALTA, TURKEY, ALBANIA AND CYPRUS
On the 20th of July 2011, two men were taken into custody and brought to the court accused of "unnatural intercourse".
According to the law in TRNC, article 171 of Chapter 154 of the Criminal Code orders that “whoever has sexual intercourse against the order of nature with any person, or, allows sexual intercourse against the order of nature with a male, commits a serious crime and is punishable with up to five years in prison”.
According to Kibris Newspaper, the police arrested one of the men in a hostel where he stayed and the other man in a park. Cyprus Turkish police claims that A.K. and H.K. were having "unnatural intercourse" in the mentioned hostel operating within the walled city of Nicosia. The police states that the men were arrested based on complaints by their neighbours. Police also said that defendant A. K. was the subject of earlier complaints claiming that he “brings men home”. However, when in court, defendant A. K. said "I am a single man, they are slandering me". The judge Fatma Senol, decided that the two charged men should stay in custody for one day.
LGBTQI people of Cyprus (south) have been freed from discriminatory laws dating back to British colonial rule within the process of the EU accession, as also many other countries in Europe who had similar legislation. Unfortunately the laws are still in force in North Cyprus. LGBTQI people in the North claim that the existing laws are not as powerful as they used to be under the British colonial rule. However, male to male same-sex relations are still considered as a serious crime which causes insecurity.
LGBTQI organizations from Malta, Greece, Turkey, Albania and Cyprus, support HOKI (Initiative Against Homophobia) which is struggling to reform the law on sexual orientation, one of the basic human rights, in the process of harmonization of the laws of the TRNC with EU legislation.
We condemn the behaviour of the police to arrest these two men and expose their names to the public which amounts to defamation in the society where they live. We also condemn and judge to be inhumane a law that considers homosexuality among men as “unnatural intercourse” and a serious crime, especially taking into account the UN declaration in recent reports that lesbian, gay, bisexual civil rights, are considered as human rights!
The LGBTQI organizations from Malta, Greece, Turkey, Albania and Cyprus, not only condemn the criminalisation of homosexuality and same-sex behaviour but actively support HOKI in TRNC (N. Cyprus), in their efforts to reform the law and to create a society were citizens are able to choose their own way of life without fear.
BY LGBTQI ORGANIZATIONS
FROM GREECE, MALTA, TURKEY, ALBANIA AND CYPRUS
On the 20th of July 2011, two men were taken into custody and brought to the court accused of "unnatural intercourse".
According to the law in TRNC, article 171 of Chapter 154 of the Criminal Code orders that “whoever has sexual intercourse against the order of nature with any person, or, allows sexual intercourse against the order of nature with a male, commits a serious crime and is punishable with up to five years in prison”.
According to Kibris Newspaper, the police arrested one of the men in a hostel where he stayed and the other man in a park. Cyprus Turkish police claims that A.K. and H.K. were having "unnatural intercourse" in the mentioned hostel operating within the walled city of Nicosia. The police states that the men were arrested based on complaints by their neighbours. Police also said that defendant A. K. was the subject of earlier complaints claiming that he “brings men home”. However, when in court, defendant A. K. said "I am a single man, they are slandering me". The judge Fatma Senol, decided that the two charged men should stay in custody for one day.
LGBTQI people of Cyprus (south) have been freed from discriminatory laws dating back to British colonial rule within the process of the EU accession, as also many other countries in Europe who had similar legislation. Unfortunately the laws are still in force in North Cyprus. LGBTQI people in the North claim that the existing laws are not as powerful as they used to be under the British colonial rule. However, male to male same-sex relations are still considered as a serious crime which causes insecurity.
LGBTQI organizations from Malta, Greece, Turkey, Albania and Cyprus, support HOKI (Initiative Against Homophobia) which is struggling to reform the law on sexual orientation, one of the basic human rights, in the process of harmonization of the laws of the TRNC with EU legislation.
We condemn the behaviour of the police to arrest these two men and expose their names to the public which amounts to defamation in the society where they live. We also condemn and judge to be inhumane a law that considers homosexuality among men as “unnatural intercourse” and a serious crime, especially taking into account the UN declaration in recent reports that lesbian, gay, bisexual civil rights, are considered as human rights!
The LGBTQI organizations from Malta, Greece, Turkey, Albania and Cyprus, not only condemn the criminalisation of homosexuality and same-sex behaviour but actively support HOKI in TRNC (N. Cyprus), in their efforts to reform the law and to create a society were citizens are able to choose their own way of life without fear.
