Do you enjoy watching the grass grow? No? Me neither but unfortunately this is the type of speed in which change for the better is brought about in the so-called Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
In case you haven’t heard about the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus don’t worry the term describes the Northern part of Cyprus which is illegally occupied by Turkey for decades and no one urgently wants to do anything about it – unless of course you consider the non-recognition of this phony nation as doing something.
Other than Namibia & Singapore who promised to not enforce laws criminalising homosexual acts the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus doesn’t even dream of doing so. In fact if you wish to gain a much clearer picture of the Turkish cypriot goverment’s understanding of civil rights just recall that ethnic minorities in Northern Cyprus did not hold the right to vote as of 2012 in utter disregard of their very own law.
Of course we’ve heard in December 2011 that this self-proclaimed nation had precise plans to decriminalise homosexuality after a politician had been arrested for homosexual contacts in October 2011 (which the Northern Cyprus claimed was because he had sex with a teenager yet the charge made was that of sex against the “natural order”). But given the fact at least two inmates have been charged for having had sexual relations with each other in Februrary 2012 little has become out of the plan to decriminalise homosexuality.
Now ince again the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has promised the world that they would start resembling a normal state a bit more but given the government’s history of broken promises in exactly that area I am very, very skeptical.
Maybe our friends from the (self-proclaimed) Freedom Flotilla – normally occupied by distributing out of date medication that the intended recipients refuse to accept – want to sail to Northern Cyprus not only to make the world aware of the ongoing occupation of parts of the Republic of Cyprus but also to demand votes for ethnic minorities and raise awareness of the plight of LGBT residents in this territory?
Queer Impressions 