Cyprus is an island country in the Mediterranean. Its neighbors are
Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Greece and Israel. The official languages are
Greek and Turkish. Ethnically, the state has Greeks, Turks, Armenians
and Maronites. 82% are Christians and 25% are Muslims. The area of the
state is small, only 9,251 sq km. The population is about 11,90,000.
Cyprus has one of the most horrible constitutions in the world. It has
some good aspects, which are lost is the shadow of its negative aspects.
The image of distrust towards each other has emerged in the
constitution.
What are the good aspects of the constitution? If
someone is arrested, the reason must be stated in his language. Must be
appeared before a judge within 24 hours, otherwise must be released. If
something is identified as a crime in the law, then if anyone has been
involved in such incidents in the past, he or she or zee will not be
tried.
Religions that have no secret provisions are legal to
observe. The right to practice and propagate one's religion individually
or as a group, openly or secretly is recognized. The religion of one's
will be of legal guardian's till the age of 16. No tax will be levied
from any previous date. No one will be discriminated against for any
ground including community, race, religion, language, gender, political
or other affiliation, national or social lineage, birth, caste, wealth,
social class. No citizen shall be entitled to use or enjoy any title of
nobility or social distinction.
These are positive aspects. Now let's discuss the negative aspects.
A Greek president will be elected by the vote of the Greek community,
and a Turkish vice-president will be elected by the vote of the Turkish
community. Note that if a person is Greek, his or her mother tongue must
be Greek and he or she must be a member of Greek Orthodox. Beside that,
to be Turkish, his or her mother tongue must be Turkish and he or she
must be a Muslim. A married woman will be considered to belong to the
community in which her husband belongs. The President and the
Vice-President will jointly appoint the Minister. 7 will be Greek
ministers and 3 will be Turkish ministers. The Greek president will
appoint and dismiss the Greek minister, and the Turkish vice president
will appoint and dismiss the Turkish minister.
Not only the
government, but also their legislature has the same type of rules. The
country will have an army of 2,000 members, of which 60% will be Greeks
and 40% Turks. However, 70% of the police will be Greek and 30% will be
Turkish.
Although their past is responsible for adopting such a
constitution. You need to know the history of Cyprus. However, such a
constitution is the constitution of a mentally ill persons.
Admirable Articles of Cyprus's Constitution
Article 10
1. No person shall be held in slavery or servitude.
2. No person shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.
3. For the purposes of this Article the term "forced or compulsory labour" shall not include-
- any work required to be done in the ordinary course of detention imposed according to the provisions of Article 1I or during conditional release from such detention;
- any service of a military character if imposed or, in case of conscientious objectors, subject to their recognition by a law, service exacted instead of compulsory military service;
- any service exacted in case of an emergency or calamity threatening the life or well-being of the inhabitants.
Article 11 (Part of it)
2. No person shall be deprived of his liberty save in the following cases when and as provided by law:--
- a. the detention of a person after conviction by a competent court;
- b. the arrest or detention of a person for non-compliance with the lawful order of a court;
- c. the arrest or detention of a person effected for the purpose of bringing him before the competent legal authority on reasonable suspicion of having committed an offence or when it is reasonably considered necessary to prevent his committing an offence or fleeing after having done so;
- d. the detention of a minor by a lawful order for the purpose of educational supervision or his lawful detention for the purpose of bringing him before the competent legal authority;
- e. the detention of persons for the prevention of spreading of infectious diseases, of persons of unsound mind, alcoholics or drug addicts or vagrants;
4. Every person arrested shall be informed at the time of his arrest in a language which he understands of the reasons for his arrest and shall be allowed to have the services of a lawyer of his own choosing.
5. The person arrested shall, as soon as is practicable after his arrest, and in any event not later than twenty-four hours after the arrest, be brought before a judge, if not earlier released.
6. The judge before whom the person arrested is brought shall promptly proceed to inquire into the grounds of the arrest in a language understandable by the person arrested and shall, as soon as possible and in any event not later than three days from such appearance, either release the person arrested on such terms as he may deem fit or where the investigation into the commission of the offence for which he has been arrested has not been completed remand him in custody and may remand him in custody from time to time for a period not exceeding eight days at any one time:
Provided that the total period of such remand in custody shall not exceed three months of the date of the arrest on the expiration of which every person or authority having the custody of the person arrested shall forthwith set him free.
7. Every person who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided speedily by a court and his release ordered if the detention is not lawful.
8. Every person who has been the victim of arrest or detention in contravention of the provisions of this Article shall have an enforceable right to compensation.
Article 12
1. No person shall be held guilty of any offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute an offence under the law at the time when it was committed; and no person shall have a heavier punishment imposed on him for an offence other than that expressly provided for it by law at the time when it was committed.
2. A person who has been acquitted or convicted of an offence shall not be tried again for the same offence. No person shall be punished twice for the same act or omission except where death ensues from such act or omission.
3. No law shall provide for a punishment which is disproportionate to the gravity of the offence.
4. Every person charged with an offence shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law.
5. Every person charged with an offence has the following minimum rights:-
- a. to be informed promptly and in a language which he understands and in detail of the nature and grounds of the charge preferred against him;
- b. to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence;
- c. to defend himself in person or through a lawyer of his own choosing or, if he has no sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given free legal assistance when the interests of justice so require;
- d. to examine or have examined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as witnesses against him;
- e. to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak the language used in court.
6. A punishment of general confiscation of property is prohibited.
Article 18 (Part of it)
2. All religions whose doctrines or rites are not secret are free.
4. Every person is free and has the right to profess his faith and to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice or observance, either individually or collectively, in private or in public, and to change his religion or belief.
5. The use of physical or moral compulsion for the purpose of making a person change or preventing him from changing his religion is prohibited.
6. Freedom to manifest one's religion or belief shall be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in the interests of the security of the Republic or the constitutional order or the public safety or the public order or the public health or the public morals or for the protection of the rights and liberties guaranteed by this Constitution to any person.
7. Until a person attains the age of sixteen the decision as to the religion to be professed by him shall be taken by the person having the lawful guardianship of such person.
Article 19 (Part of it)
1. Every person has the right to freedom of speech and expression in any form.
Article 23
1. Every person, alone or jointly with others, has the right to acquire own, possess, enjoy or dispose of any movable or immovable property and has the right to respect for such right. The right of the Republic to underground water, minerals and antiquities is reserved.
Article 24 (Part of it)
3. No tax, duty or rate of any kind whatsoever shall be imposed with retrospective effect:
Article 27 (Part of it)
1. The right to strike is recognised and its exercise may be regulated by law for the purposes only of safeguarding the security of the Republic or the constitutional order or the public order or the public safety or the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the inhabitants or the protection of the rights and liberties guaranteed by this Constitution to any person.
Article 28
1. All persons are equal before the law, the administration and justice and are entitled to equal protection thereof and treatment thereby.
2. Every person shall enjoy all the rights and liberties provided for in this Constitution without any direct or indirect discrimination against any person on the ground of his community, race, religion, language, sex, political or other convictions, national or social descent, birth, colour, wealth, social class, or on any ground whatsoever, unless there is express provision to the contrary in this Constitution.
3. No citizen shall be entitled to use or enjoy any privilege of any title of nobility or of social distinction within the territorial limits of the Republic.
4. No title or nobility or other social distinction shall be conferred by or recognised in the Republic.
Facts of Cyprus's Constitution
Article 1
The State of Cyprus is an independent and sovereign Republic with a presidential regime, the President being Greek and the Vice President being Turk elected by the Greek and the Turkish Communities of Cyprus respectively as hereinafter in this Constitution provided.
Article 2
For the purposes of this Constitution
2. the Turkish Community comprises all citizens of the Republic who are of Turkish origin and whose mother tongue is Turkish or who share the Turkish cultural traditions or who are Moslems;
3. citizens of the Republic who do not come within the provisions of paragraph (1) or (2) of this Article shall, within three months of the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution, opt to belong to either the Greek or the Turkish Community as individuals, but, if they belong to a religious group. shall so opt as a religious group and upon such option they shall be deemed to be members of such Community:
Provided that any citizen of the Republic who belongs to such a religious group may choose not to abide by the option of such group and by a written and signed declaration submitted within one month of the date of such option to the appropriate officer of the Republic and to the Presidents of the Greek and the Turkish Communal Chambers opt to belong to the Community other than that to which such group shall be deemed to belong:
Provided further that if an option of such religious group is not accepted on the ground that its members are below the requisite number any member of such group may within one month of the date of the refusal of acceptance of such option opt in the aforesaid manner as an individual to which Community he would like to belong.
For the purposes of this paragraph a "religious group" means a group of persons ordinarily resident in Cyprus professing the same religion and either belonging to the same rite or being subject to the same jurisdiction thereof the number of whom, on the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution, exceeds one thousand out of which at least five hundred become on such date citizens of the Republic:
4. a person who becomes a citizen of the Republic at any time after three months of the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution shall exercise the option provided in paragraph (3) of this Article within three months of the date of his so becoming a citizen;
5. a Greek or a Turkish citizen of the Republic
who comes within the provisions of paragraph (1) or (2) of this Article
may cease to belong to the Community of which he is a member and belong
to the other Community upon
- a. a written and signed declaration by such citizen to the effect that he desires such change, submitted to the appropriate officer of the Republic and to the Presidents of the Greek and the Turkish Communal Chambers;
- b. the approval of the Communal Chamber of such other Community;
6. any individual or any religious group deemed to belong to either the Greek or the Turkish Community under the provisions of paragraph (3) of this Article may cease to belong to such Community and be deemed to belong to the other Community upon-
- a. a written and signed declaration by such individual or religious group to the effect that such change is desired, submitted to the appropriate officer of the Republic and to the Presidents of the Greek and the Turkish Communal Chambers;
- b. the approval of the Communal Chamber of such other Community;
- a. a married woman shall belong to the Community to which her husband belongs;
- b. a male or female child under the age of twenty-one who is not married shall belong to the Community to which his or her father belongs, or, if the father is unknown and he or she has not been adopted, to the Community to which his or her mother belongs
Article 46
The President and the Vice-President of the Republic in order to ensure the executive power shall have a Council of Ministers composed of seven Greek Ministers and three Turkish Ministers. The Ministers shall be designated respectively by the President and the Vice-President of the Republic who shall appoint them by an instrument signed by them both.
One of the following Ministries that is to say the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of Finance, shall be entrusted to a Turkish Minister. If the President and the Vice-President of the Republic agree they may replace this system by a system of rotation.
Article 48 (Part of it)
The executive power exercised by the President of the Republic consists of the following matters, that is to say:
- a. designation and termination of appointment of Greek Ministers;
Article 49 (Part of it)
The executive power exercised by the Vice-President of the Republic consists of the following matters, that is to say:
- a. designation and termination of appointment of Turkish Ministers;
Article 53
1. The President or the Vice-President of the Republic shall have the right to exercise the prerogative of mercy with regard to persons belonging to their respective Community who are condemned to death.
2. Where the person injured and the offender are members of different Communities such prerogative of mercy shall be exercised by agreement between the President and the Vice-President of the Republic; in the event of disagreement between the two the vote for clemency shall prevail.
3. In case the prerogative of mercy is exercised under paragraph I or 2 of this Article the death sentence shall be commuted to life imprisonment.
Article 62 (Part of it)
1. The number of Representatives shall be fifty:
Provided that such number may be altered by a resolution of the House of Representatives carried by a majority comprising two-thirds of the Representatives elected by the Greek Community and two-thirds of the Representatives elected by the Turkish Community.
2. Out of the number of Representatives provided in paragraph I of this Article seventy per centum shall be elected by the Greek Community and thirty per centum by the Turkish Community separately from amongst their members respectively, and in the case of a contested election, by universal suffrage and by direct and secret ballot held on the same day.
Article 63 (Part of it)
1. Subject to paragraph 2 of this Article every citizen of the Republic who has attained the age of eighteen years and has such residential qualifications as may be prescribed by the Electoral Law shall have the right to be registered as an elector in either the Greek or the Turkish electoral list:
Provided that the members of the Greek Community shall only be registered in the Greek electoral list and the members of the Turkish Community shall only be registered in the Turkish electoral list.
Article 72 (Part of it)
1. The President of the House of Representatives shall be a Greek, and shall be elected by the Representatives elected by the Greek Community, and the Vice-President shall be a Turk and shall be elected by the Representatives elected by the Turkish Community. Each shall be elected separately as above at the same meeting at the beginning and for the whole period of the term of office of the House of Representatives.
Article 126 (Part of it)
1. The President and the Vice-President of the Republic shall appoint jointly two fit and proper persons one to be the Accountant-General and the other to be the Deputy Accountant-General:
Provided that the Accountant-General and the Deputy Accountant-General shall not belong to the same Community.
Article 129 (Part of it)
1. The Republic shall have an army of two thousand men of whom sixty per centum shall be Greeks and forty per centum shall be Turks.
Article 130
1. The security forces of the Republic shall consist of the police and gendarmerie and shall have a contingent of two thousand men which may be reduced or increased by common agreement of the President and the Vice-President of the Republic.
2. The security forces of the Republic shall be composed as to seventy per centum of Greeks and as to thirty per centum of Turks:
Provided that for an initial period and in order not to discharge those Turks serving in the police on the 11th February, 1959, except those serving in the auxiliary police, the percentage of Turks may be kept up to a maximum of forty per centum and consequently that of the Greeks may be reduced to sixty per centum.
Article 133 (Part of it)
1. 1. There shall be a Supreme Constitutional Court of the Republic composed of a Greek, a Turk and a neutral judge. The neutral judge shall be the President of the Court.
Article 142
1. The President of the Republic with regard to any law or decision of the Greek Communal Chamber and the Vice-President of the Republic with regard to any law or decision of the Turkish Communal Chamber, may, at any time prior to the publication of such law or decision, refer to the Supreme Constitutional Court for its opinion the question as to whether such law or decision or any specified provision thereof is repugnant to or inconsistent with any provision of this Constitution.
2. The Supreme Constitutional Court shall consider every question referred to it under paragraph I of this Article and having heard arguments on behalf of the President or the Vice-President of the Republic, as the case may be, and on behalf of the Communal Chamber concerned, shall give its opinion on such question and notify accordingly the President or the Vice-President of the Republic, as the case may be, and the Communal Chamber concerned.
3. In case the Supreme Constitutional Court is of the opinion that such law or decision or any provision thereof is repugnant to or inconsistent with any provision of this Constitution such law or decision or such provision thereof shall not be published by the President or the Vice-President of the Republic, as the case may be.
Article 153 (Part of it)
1. 1. There shall be a High Court of Justice composed of two Greek judges, one Turkish judge and a neutral judge. The neutral judge shall be the President of the Court and shall have two votes.
Article 154
The sittings of the High Court for the hearing of all proceedings shall be public but the court may hear any proceedings in the presence only of the parties, if any, and the officers of the court if it considers that such a course will be in the interest of the orderly conduct of the proceedings or if the security of the Republic or public morals so require.
Article 174 (Part of it)
Within the limits of any such town no municipal tax, rate, fee or any other revenue shall be imposed or levied upon or collected from any person by any such municipality unless such person belongs to the same Community as the municipality concerned:
Article 175 (Part of it)
No licence or permit shall be issued to any person by a municipality
in any such town not belonging to the Community of such municipality:
