enclaved to constant harassment, restrictions on movement, denial of access to adequate medical care, denial of adequate facilities for education, especially beyond elementary education, restrictions on the right to use their property and the free exercise of their religious rights. It was, thus, a deliberate policy of national cleansing, forcing the enclaved to flee their homes. Settlement At the same time, Turkey has implemented a systematic policy of settlement of the occupied part of Cyprus since 1974 with the mass transfer of more than 160,000 Turks from Turkey in order to change the demographic profile and alter the population balance on the island. It should be stressed that the transfer of own civilian population into occupied territory constitutes a violation of international law. Specifically, Article 49 (6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the sixth paragraph of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. This policy, together with driving the Greek Cypriot inhabitants out of the region, the destruction of the cultural heritage, and the illegal change of geographical place names in the occupied part of Cyprus, aims at the elimination of every single, centuries-old Greek and Christian element, and eventually the "turkification" of the region. It also aims to change the balance of power and the social fabric in the occupied part of Cyprus, to ensure that the Turkish Cypriot leadership conforms to the policies of the Turkish government. With the mass migration of Turkish Cypriots from the occupied territories, the total number of Turkish soldiers and settlers is now greater than the remaining Turkish Cypriots. Freedom of opinion and expression A number of recent cases of persecution against Turkish Cypriot journalists by the Turkish state, as part of Turkey’s well-orchestrated policy to impose further restrictions and censorship to media and journalists, thus undermining the freedom of expression in the occupied part of Cyprus, are indicated below: For instance, the insistence of the Turkish Government to persecute Şener Levent, a Turkish Cypriot journalist and the chief editor of the newspaper “Afrika'/Avrupa”. He had been put on trial in Ankara for an article entitled “The Kurds and us”, in which the Criminal Court in Turkey judged he had insulted Turkish President Erdogan. In total, three lawsuits were filed against Sener Levent at the so called“District Court”in the occupied part of Lefkosia, conveyed by Ankara’s Criminal Court on charges of insulting President Erdogan. The Cyprus Question| A brief Introduction 32
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