Dear Friends,
The real disability, the real defect is not loving and not producing. As the C. T. Orthopedic Disability Association, our struggle against the heart and thought disabilities, is still ongoing, and getting stronger each day, with the help of the benevolent and charitable people and administrators of our country and the support of our valuable press and media workers, who has been our voice all along the way. Our website, which you are browsing at the moment, constitutes a new means we will be using to share our work with you. C. T. Orthopedic Disability Association, which set off with the slogan “Love Overcomes Every Disability”, is just requesting “equal opportunities” from the society and the ones that govern the society, on behalf of the disability group it represents. We wish to be known not with our disabilities but with our personalities; not by hiding behind our defect but with our skills, abilities and competences. For me and my friends with the same point of view, a disability can only be a limitation for movement or mobility skills; it can neither limit our brains nor our hearts. For us, our handicaps are not our physical limitations but are the access, transport and mobility obstacles planted in front of us on our way to enrich our brains and hearts.
As citizens of the TRNC, it is among our most natural constitutional rights that the architectural obstacles are removed and that our access, transport and mobility problems are solved.  Every little thing that prevents us from living an honorable life without being restrained and excluded is a matter of discrimination and of course is a constitutional breach and therefore a crime. Furthermore, every authority that does not care, or does not use the power he has, or does not contribute in the direction of correcting or removing it  is an accomplice to this crime.  As the disabled Turkish Cypriot citizens, in every area that we were given equal opportunities, we have proved repeatedly that our skills are no less than any person without any disability. The fact that, although we are trapped within ourselves in many sports activities as a result of the unrecognized position of our country, the disabled sports activities are embraced with the rest of the world constitutes only a minor example. This is not only the triumph of determination but is the evidence that talent, love, thought and diplomatic skills cannot be defeated by handicaps. However, the ones governing the society are only spectators of the existing architectural obstacles that remain still and even the addition of new ones to the already existing ones and they keep hiding behind excuses and impediments. This has to change. If it doesn’t, one that prevent change should change.

You will be able to find the details of our work and contribute to our efforts. We should create a future without disabilities together with the young, the old, the handicapped, the unimpaired. A handicap is like the lottery, today I have the winning ticket, tomorrow you may … Be affectionate, Stay affectionate. Live unimpededly.

Mustafa ÇELİK
President