About two weeks later the U.N. General Assembly convened to consider the Cyprus
problem and on 13 May 1983 it adopted by an overwhelming majority a very strong
resolution on Cyprus (37/253). Among other things, the resolution, which was
sponsored by the Non-Aligned Contact Group and 12 other countries, rejects the faits
accomplis and demands the immediate withdrawal of all occupation troops from the island.
Moreover, it considers that withdrawal of these troops is an essential basis for a speedy
and mutually acceptable solution of the Cyprus problem. The resolution also calls upon the
parties concerned to refrain from any unilateral action which might adversely affect the
prospects of a just and lasting solution and also to refrain from any action which violates
or is designed to violate the independence, unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of
Cyprus.
The reaction of the Turkish Cypriot side to the verdict of the vast majority of the world's
nations was to introduce the Turkish lira as legal tender in the occupied area and to go
ahead with the setting up of a "Central Bank", as a further step in the steady
implementation of Ankara's policy to annex the northern part of the island to Turkey.
To complicate matters, the "Legislative Assembly of the T.F.S.C." voted on 17 June 1983
in favour of a "resolution" to hold a "referendum" on the declaration of a separate state in
the Turkish-held northern section of the island. The "resolution" in question claims, inter
alia, that the "Turkish people of Cyprus have the exclusive right of self-determination" and
that they have "the right to administer themselves in their own soil". The international
community expressed strong opposition to this move for it is universally held that separate
self-determination for ethnic communities or groups within the confines of sovereign
independent states would mean the fragmentation and dismemberment of a large number of
countries.
