Here is a nifty wrap-up of the Cyprus issue, below. (Followed by related articles.) Cyprus and the Greeks are a whole different matter regarding the purpose of this web site, but Cyprus is often brought up as an example of Turkish barbarism (since everyone believes, thanks to effective propaganda, that the Turks suddenly decided to "invade" the island... even though the Turkish republic has never had expansionism in her agenda) during arguments for the Armenian "Genocide"... therefore, this page offers a token look at the matter.
Nobody denies the Turks have historically had a hand in massacres from time to time, in a region (or a world) where nobody's hands have been clean. It is so ironic, however, that massacres from the Turkish end are isolated examples of disgusting violence... but when it's the turn of Armenians or Greeks to shed others' blood, they typically go at it with the intention and hope of a complete ethnic cleansing. Remember... genocide alludes to a systematic extermination with orders from the top, exactly what the Turks are usually charged with.
In the case of Cyprus.... anyone hear of the AKRITAS plan?
It's infuriating when these Orthodox peoples ... having learned well from the methods of the annihilating Russians (as the Serbs demonstrated in Bosnia, not long ago)... are the ones who demonstrate true genocidal bloodthirstiness, and yet still remain the darlings of the West, when the Turks are regarded as the bad boys. What's the similarity between the Armenian "Genocide" and Cyprus? The Armenians and Greeks keep provoking, provoking, provoking... and when Turkey finally explodes, these Orthodox peoples get theirs at the end. (Armenians and Greeks ACT... and the Turks... usually after a long and patient while... REACT.) Unfortunately, the Turks — thanks to existing prejudices, combined with the lobbies and well-oiled propaganda campaigns of the Turcophobes — wind up regarded as the villains.
"Greek Cypriot fanatics appear bent on a policy of genocide."
The Washington Post, Feb. 17, 1964
Former British parliamentarian Michael Stephen reminds Mr. Michael B. Christides, the Charge d'affaires of the Greek Embassy in Ankara and many others who appear to have forgotten what indeed was the case in Cyprus from 1963 to 1974.
MICHAEL STEPHEN
(Ankara - Turkish Daily News 13 May 1999)
(Ankara - Turkish Daily News 13 May 1999)
The assertion by Mr. Christides (May 10) that there was no ethnic cleansing or attempted genocide of Turkish Cypriots by Greek Cypriots is ridiculous. Until influential Greek Cypriots come to terms with the appalling behavior of their community toward the smaller Turkish Cypriot community and stop trying to persuade themselves and the world that each side was as much to blame as the other, there will be no reconciliation in Cyprus.
In his memoirs, American Undersecretary of State George Ball said: "Makarios's central interest was to block off Turkish intervention so that he and his Greek Cypriots could go on happily massacring Turkish Cypriots. Obviously we would never permit that."
The fact is, however, that neither the United States, the United Kingdom, nor the United Nations, nor anyone, other than Turkey ever took effective action to prevent it.
On Feb. 17, 1964 the Washington Post reported that "Greek Cypriot fanatics appear bent on a policy of genocide."
Former British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home said, "I was convinced that if Archbishop Makarios could not bring himself to treat the Turkish Cypriots as human beings he was inviting the invasion and partition of the island."
On July 28, 1960 Makarios, the Greek Cypriot president, said: "The independence agreements do not form the goal -- they are the present and not the future. The Greek Cypriot people will continue their national cause and shape their future in accordance with THEIR will."
In a speech on Sept. 4, 1962 at Panayia, Makarios said, "Until this Turkish community forming part of the Turkish race that has been the terrible enemy of Hellenism is expelled, the duty of the heroes of EOKA can never be considered terminated."
In November 1963 the Greek Cypriots demanded the abolition of no less than eight of the basic articles that had been included in the 1960 agreement for the protection of the Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Cypriots, naturally, refused to agree. The aim of the Greek Cypriots was to reduce the Turkish Cypriot people to the status of a mere minority, wholly subject to the control of the Greek Cypriots, pending ultimate destruction or expulsion of the Turkish Cypriots from the island.
"When the Turkish Cypriots objected to the amendment of the Constitution, Makarios put his plan into effect, and the Greek Cypriot attack began in December 1963," wrote Lt. Gen. George Karayiannis of the Greek Cypriot militia ("Ethnikos Kiryx" 15.6.65). The general was referring to the notorious "Akritas" plan, which was the blueprint for the annihilation of the Turkish Cypriots and the annexation of the island to Greece. On Christmas Eve 1963 the Greek Cypriot militia attacked Turkish Cypriot communities across the island. Large numbers of men, women, and children were killed and 270 mosques, shrines and other places of worship were desecrated. On Dec. 28, 1963, the Daily Express carried the following report from Cyprus: "We went tonight into the sealed-off Turkish Cypriot quarter of Nicosia in which 200 to 300 people had been slaughtered in the last five days. We were the first Western reporters there, and we have seen sights too frightful to be described in print. Horror so extreme that the people seemed stunned beyond tears."
On Dec. 31, 1963, The Guardian reported: "It is nonsense to claim, as the Greek Cypriots do, that all casualties were caused by fighting between armed men of both sides. On Christmas Eve many Turkish Cypriot people were brutally attacked and murdered in their suburban homes, including the wife and children of a doctor -- allegedly by a group of 40 men, many in army boots and great coats."
Although the Turkish Cypriots fought back as best they could and killed some militia, there were no massacres of Greek Cypriot civilians.
On Jan. 1, 1964, the Daily Herald reported: "When I came across the Turkish Cypriot homes they were an appalling sight. Apart from the walls they just did not exist. I doubt if a napalm attack could have created more devastation. Under roofs which had caved in I found a twisted mass of bed springs, children's cots, and grey ashes of what had once been tables, chairs and wardrobes. In the neighboring village of Ayios Vassilios I counted 16 wrecked and burned out homes. They were all Turkish Cypriot. In neither village did I find a scrap of damage to any Greek Cypriot house."
On Jan. 2, 1964, the Daily Telegraph wrote: "The Greek Cypriot community should not assume that the British military presence can or should secure them against Turkish intervention if they persecute the Turkish Cypriots. We must not be a shelter for double-crossers."
On Jan. 12, 1964, the British High Commission in Nicosia wrote in a telegram to London: "The Greek [Cypriot] police are led by extremists who provoked the fighting and deliberately engaged in atrocities. They have recruited into their ranks as 'special constables' gun-happy young thugs. They threaten to try and punish any Turkish Cypriot police who wishes to return to the Cyprus Government.... Makarios assured Sir Arthur Clark that there will be no attack. His assurance is as worthless as previous assurances have proved."
On Jan. 14, 1964, the Daily Telegraph reported that the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Ayios Vassilios had been massacred on Dec. 26, 1963 and reported their exhumation from a mass grave in the presence of the Red Cross. A further massacre of Turkish Cypriots, at Limassol, was reported by The Observer on Feb. 16, 1964; and there were many more.
On Feb. 6, 1964, a British patrol found armed Greek Cypriot police attacking the Turkish Cypriots of Ayios Sozomenos. They were unable to stop the attack.
On Feb. 13, 1964, the Greeks and Greek Cypriots attacked the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Limassol with tanks, killing 16 and injuring 35.
On Feb. 15, 1964, the Daily Telegraph reported: "It is a real military operation which the Greek Cypriots launched against the 6,000 inhabitants of the Turkish Cypriot quarter yesterday morning. A spokesman for the Greek Cypriot government has recognized this officially. It is hard to conceive how Greek and Turkish Cypriots may seriously contemplate working together after all that has happened."
On Sept. 10, 1964, the U.N. Secretary-General reported that "UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances. ...it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting. In Ktima 38 houses and shops have been destroyed totally and 122 partially. In the Orphomita suburb of Nicosia, 50 houses have been totally destroyed while a further 240 have been partially destroyed there and in adjacent suburbs."
The U.K. House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs reviewed the Cyprus question in 1987 and reported unanimously on July 2 of that year that "although the Cyprus Government now claims to have been merely seeking to 'operate the 1960 Constitution modified to the extent dictated by the necessities of the situation,' this claim ignores the fact that both before and after the events of December 1963 the Makarios Government continued to advocate the cause of << enosis >> and actively pursued the amendment of the Constitution and the related treaties to facilitate this ultimate objective." The committee continued: "Moreover, in June 1967 the Greek Cypriot legislature unanimously passed a resolution in favor of <<enosis, >> in blatant contravention of the 1960 Treaties and Constitution." (Art. 1 of the Treaty of Guarantee prohibited any action likely to directly or indirectly promote union with any other state or partition of the island, and Art. 185(2) of the Constitution is to similar effect).
Professor Ernst Forsthoff, the neutral president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Cyprus, told Die Welt on Dec. 27, 1963: "Makarios bears on his shoulders the sole responsibility for the recent tragic events. His aim is to deprive the Turkish community of their rights." In an interview with the UPI press agency on Dec. 30, 1963 he said, "All this happened because Makarios wanted to take away all constitutional rights from the Turkish Cypriots." The United Nations not only failed to condemn the forceable usurpation of the legal order in Cyprus, but actually rewarded it by treating the by then wholly Greek Cypriot administration as if it were the government of Cyprus (Security Council Res. 186 of 1964). This acceptance has continued to the present day, and reflects no credit upon the United Nations, nor upon Britain, nor the other countries who have acquiesced.
Holdwater says: No different than today! The Greek Cypriots are regarded as "Cyprus," while the Turkish Cypriots are treated as though they don't exist.
On Aug. 12, 1964, the U.K. representative to the United Nations wrote to his government in London as follows: "What is our policy and true feelings about the future of Cyprus and about Makarios? Judging from the English newspapers and many others, the feeling is very strong indeed against Makarios and his so-called government, and nothing would please the British people more than to see him toppled and the Cyprus problem solved by the direct dealings between the Turks and the Greeks. We are of course supporting the latter course, but I have never seen any expression of the official disapproval in public against Makarios and his evil doings. Is there an official view about this, and what do we think we should do in the long run? Sometimes it seems that the obsession of some people with 'the Commonwealth' blinds us to everything else and it would be high treason to take a more active line against Makarios and his henchmen. At other times the dominant feature seems to be concern lest active opposition against Makarios should lead to direct conflict with the Cypriots and end up with our losing our bases."
Thereafter Turkish Cypriot MPs, judges, and other officials were intimidated or prevented by force from carrying out their duties. According to the Select Committee, "The effect of the crisis of December 1963 was to deliver control of the formal organs of government into the hands of the Greek Cypriots alone. Claiming to be acting in accordance with 'the doctrine of necessity,' the Greek Cypriot members of the House of Representatives enacted a series of laws which provided for the operation of the organs of government without Turkish Cypriot participation." The report of the Select Committee continued: "Equally damaging from the Turkish Cypriot point of view was what they considered to be their effective exclusion from representation at and participation in the international fora where their case could have been deployed.... An official Turkish Cypriot presence in the international political scene virtually disappeared overnight."
It is not therefore surprising that the world has been persuaded to the Greek Cypriot point of view. More than 300 Turkish Cypriots are still missing without trace from these massacres of 1963/64. These dreadful events were not the responsibility of "the Greek Colonels" of 1974 or an unrepresentative handful of Greek Cypriot extremists. The persecution of the Turkish Cypriots was an act of policy on the part of the Greek Cypriot political and religious leadership, which has to this day made no serious attempt to bring the murderers to justice.
The U.K. Commons Select Committee found that "there is little doubt that much of the violence which the Turkish Cypriots claim led to the total or partial destruction of 103 Turkish villages and the displacement of about a quarter of the total Turkish Cypriot population was either directly inspired by, or certainly connived at, by the Greek Cypriot leadership."
The U.N. secretary-general reported to the Security Council: "When the disturbances broke out in December 1963 and continued during the first part of 1964, thousands of Turkish Cypriots fled their homes, taking with them only what they could drive or carry, and sought refuge in safer villages and areas."
On Jan. 14, 1964, "Il Giorno" of Italy reported: "Right now we are witnessing the exodus of Turkish Cypriots from the villages. Thousands of people abandoning homes, land, herds. Greek Cypriot terrorism is relentless. This time the rhetoric of the Hellenes and the statues of Plato do not cover up their barbaric and ferocious behavior."
The Greek Cypriots sometimes allege that it was they who were attacked, by the Turkish Cypriots, who were determined to wreck the 1960 agreements. However, the Turkish Cypriots were not only outnumbered by nearly four to one; they were also surrounded in their villages by armed Greek Cypriots; they had no way of protecting their women and children, and Turkey was 40 miles away across the sea. The very idea that in those circumstances the Turkish Cypriots were the aggressors is absurd.
There were further attacks on the Turkish Cypriots in 1967. In 1971, General Grivas returned to Cyprus to form EOKA-B, which was again committed to making Cyprus a wholly Greek island and annexing it to Greece. In a speech to the Greek Cypriot armed forces at the time (quoted in "New Cyprus," May 1987) Grivas said: "The Greek forces from Greece have come to Cyprus in order to impose the will of the Greeks of Cyprus upon the Turks. We want << enosis >> but the Turks are against it. We shall impose our will. We are strong, and we shall do so."
By July 15, 1974, a powerful force of mainland Greek troops had assembled in Cyprus and with their backing, the Greek Cypriot National Guard overthrew Makarios and installed one Nicos Sampson as "president."
On July 22, the Washington Star News reported: "Bodies littered the streets and there were mass burials.... People told by Makarios to lay down their guns were shot by the National Guard."
On April 17, 1991, Ambassador Nelson Ledsky testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that "most of the 'missing persons' disappeared in the first days of July 1974, before the Turkish intervention on the 20th. Many killed on the Greek side were killed by Greek Cypriots in fighting between supporters of Makarios and Sampson."
(Holdwater: How many Greeks killed? See Greek source, below)
On Nov. 6, 1974, Ta Nea reported that dates from the graves of Greek Cypriots killed in the five days between July 15-20 were erased in order to blame these deaths on the subsequent Turkish military action.
On March 3, 1996, the Greek Cypriot Cyprus Mail wrote: "(Greek) Cypriot governments have found it convenient to conceal the scale of atrocities during the July 15 coup in an attempt to downplay its contribution to the tragedy of the summer of 1974 and instead blame the Turkish invasion for all casualties. There can be no justification for any government that failed to investigate this sensitive humanitarian issue. The shocking admission by the Clerides government that there are people buried in Nicosia cemetery who are still included in the list of the 'missing' is the last episode of a human drama which has been turned into a propaganda tool."
On Oct. 19 1996, Mr. Georgios Lanitis wrote: "I was serving with the Foreign Information Service of the Republic of Cyprus in London.... I deeply apologize to all those I told that there are 1,619 missing persons. I misled them. I was made a liar, deliberately, by the government of Cyprus. ...today it seems that the credibility of Cyprus is nil."
Turkish Cypriots appealed to the guarantor powers for help, but only Turkey was willing to make any effective response.
Holdwater says: Where were YOU, Great Britain?
On July 20, 1974 Turkey intervened under Article IV of the Treaty of Guarantee.
Holdwater says: Get it now? It was not an invasion. It was a legal intervention. (Not to mention, more importantly, a moral one.) Had Turkey been scared off as she was by the Americans in 1964, there would probably be no Turkish Cypriots alive on the island today.
The Greek newspaper Eleftherotipia published an interview with Nicos Sampson on Feb. 26, 1981 in which he said, "Had Turkey not intervened I would not only have proclaimed << enosis,>> I would have annihilated the Turks in Cyprus."
Holdwater says: REAL GENOCIDE!
The Times and The Guardian reported on Aug. 21, 1974 that in the village of Tokhni on Aug. 14, 1974 all the Turkish Cypriot men between the ages of 13 and 74, except for eighteen who managed to escape, were taken away and shot. There were also reports that in Zyyi on the same day all the Turkish-Cypriot men aged between 19 and 38 were taken away and were never seen again and that Greek-Cypriots opened fire on the Turkish-Cypriot neighborhood of Paphos killing men, women, and children indiscriminately.
On July 23, 1974, the Washington Post reported that "in a Greek raid on a small Turkish village near Limassol 36 people out of a population of 200 were killed. The Greeks said that they had been given orders to kill the inhabitants of the Turkish villages before the Turkish forces arrived."
The Times and The Guardian also reported on the killings. "The Greeks began to shell the Turkish quarter on Saturday, refugees said. Kazan Dervis, a Turkish Cypriot girl aged 15, said she had been staying with her uncle. The [Greek Cypriot] National Guard came into the Turkish sector and shooting began. She saw her uncle and other relatives taken away as prisoners, and later heard her uncle had been shot." (Times 23.7.74)
On July 28, 1974 the New York Times reported that 14 Turkish-Cypriot men had been shot in Alaminos.
On July 24, 1974 France Soir reported that "the Greeks burned Turkish mosques and set fire to Turkish homes in the villages around Famagusta. Defenseless Turkish villagers who have no weapons live in an atmosphere of terror and they evacuate their homes and go and live in tents in the forests. The Greeks' actions are a shame to humanity."
On July 22, Turkish Prime Minister Ecevit called upon the United Nations to "stop the genocide of Turkish-Cypriots" and declared, "Turkey has accepted a cease-fire, but will not allow Turkish-Cypriots to be massacred."
THE WORD FROM GREECE
Athens Court of Appeal dtd. March 21, 1979: The court decision reads as follows:
"The Turkish intervention in Cyprus, which was carried out in accordance with the London-Zurich agreements, was legal. Turkey had, as one of the Guarantor Powers, the right to fulfill her obligation. The true guilty ones were the Greek Officers, who organised the coup and thereby created the conditions for an intervention."
Holdwater: Mother of Mercy! Did the Greek court actually and correctly use the word "intervention," instead of INVASION?
Don't forget, Greeks: You owe Turkey a huge thanks (which some of you gave at the time) for rescuing you from the tyranny of your military junta. If you have ever seen Costa-Gavras' 1969 movie, Z, you will be reminded of the HELL your country suffered through, before the Turks inadvertently saved your necks.
The German newspaper Die Zeit wrote on Aug. 30, "The massacre of Turkish Cypriots in Paphos and Famagusta is the proof of how justified the Turks were to undertake their intervention."
"Turkish Cypriots, who had suffered from physical attacks since 1963, called on the guarantor powers to prevent a Greek conquest of the island. When Britain did nothing, Turkey invaded Cyprus and occupied its northern part. Turkish Cypriots have constitutional right on their side and understandably fear a renewal of persecution if the Turkish army withdraws," the Daily Telegraph wrote on Aug. 15, 1996.
"Turkey intervened to protect the lives and property of the Turkish-Cypriots, and to its credit it has done just that. In the 12 years since, there have been no killings and no massacres" Lord Willis (Labor) told the House of Lords on Dec. 17, 1986.
On March 12, 1977, Makarios declared, "It is in the name of << enosis >> that Cyprus has been destroyed."
The United Nations, the Commonwealth, and the rest of the world have put political expediency before principle and failed to condemn this appalling behavior. Greek Cypriots are guilty of attempted genocide but no action has ever been taken against them. Instead they have been rewarded by recognition as the government of all Cyprus. The Turkish Cypriots by contrast were frozen out of the United Nations, the Commonwealth and almost every other international organization. *
The author Michael Stephen was a member of the British Parliament from 1992-1997.
Holdwater says: Of course, it's dangerous to generalize. If one implies a race is entirely made up of devils or angels, then one shows one's racist stripes. (As with many of the testimonies you can read about in this web site... where the Gladstones, Morgenthaus, Lloyd Georges, George Hortons, and practically every Greek and Armenian, who would have you believe the Turks are a race of devils.) So I'd like to remind the reader that men and women of honor and integrity certainly exist among the "Orthodox peoples."
However, do you see a pattern here? We're not getting too much into the unimaginable extermination policies of the Russians (Read Justin McCarthy's " The Ethic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims"... it is truly an eye-opener)... but the Orthodox peoples have used the Russians' example as their model. These policies are still followed, horrifyingly, to this day... Cyprus and the Bosnia/Kosova conflict are still relatively recent, as is the Russian brutality in Chechnya. Not to mention the criminal way the Armenians handled themselves, when they attacked Azerbaijan.
Here's the M.O.: (Think about the things Serbia's Slobodan Milosevic would say in interviews, if you remember... and then think about how he would act). (1) Do your nasty business (2) Lie and deny when confronted, having zero honor... and blame the other party, as much as you can — groundless though the charges may be (3) Support each others' criminal behavior, as Greece supported Serbia during the Bosnia conflict (4) When possible, don't simply do a little massacre here and there; try to make it part of an actual extermination campaign. Don't forget Muslim lives are regarded as expendable, in the West (5) Count on the Western world's support, if the "enemy" are the Muslims. Count on their lack of principles. Get rewarded for your crimes, as Armenia has been, in her aggression against Azerbaijan.
If the accounting of the Cyprus tale above sounds like the truth, then think.... think about the Armenian "Genocide."
Is it possible the Armenians started it? Even though they claim to be "helpless and innocent" (Read "Article 2," above)?
Is it possible most of the Western sources they cite could have been biased?
Is it possible the Western sources for the Turks are much more reliable, given that Westerners don't usually have loyalty for the Turks?
Is it possible that the crimes committed by the Armenians against their fellow Ottomans were indeed genocidal in nature... as ironic as that may be? (Read "Article 4," above.)
Is it possible that most of the anti-Turkish reports you have been exposed to throughout your life have been part of a wide scale misinformation campaign? (Read "Article 5," above.)
U.S. Secretary of State George Ball on Archbishop Makarios' honor, 1964:
When I discussed the question with our UN ambassador, Adlai Stevenson, he responded with far more heat than I had expected. During the "troubles" he had stayed for three days in Archbishop Makarios's residence and he regarded his former host with total contempt. The Archbishop was, he said, a wicked, unreliable conniver who concealed his venality under the sanctimonious vestments of a religious leader; the only way to deal with Makarios, Stevenson assured me, was by "giving the old bastard absolute hell." In all the years I had known Adlai I had never heard him speak of anyone with such vitriol. "I have sat across the table from that pious looking replica of Jesus Christ," he said, "and if you saw him with his beard shaved and a push-cart, you would recall the old saying that there hasn't been an honest thief since Barabbas."
Ffrom Ball's 1982 memoir, "The Past Has Another Pattern"; read more at cyprus-conflict.net/Ball%20-%2064.htm
George Finlay wrote:
(In History of the Greek Revolution, London, 1861, p. 172)
"In the meantime the Christian population had attacked and murdered the
Mussulman population in every part of the peninsula. The towers and
country homes of the Mussulmans were burned down, and their property was
destroyed, in order to render the return of those who had escaped into
fortresses hopeless. From the 26th of March until Easter Sunday, which
fell, in the year 1821, on the 22nd of April, it is supposed that fifteen
thousand (Muslim) souls perished in cold blood and that about three
thousand farmhouses of Turkish dwellings were laid waste."
For more Greek atrocities on the 1821 Uprising, see below.
GREEK PROFESSOR IRAKLIDES SAYS GREEK CYPRIOTS WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR CYPRUS ISSUE
Assistant Professor of International Relations Aleksis Iraklides from the Faculty of Political Science and History at the University of Athens stated that while observing the second round of talks between TRNC President Rauf Denktaş and the Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides, where the issue of missing persons was taken up, relatives of the so-called missing persons were protesting outside the building where the meeting was taking place, and that in Athens there was the impression that in Cyprus there were only Greek Cypriot missing persons. He said that this was not the case because there were also many Turkish Cypriot missing persons who were the victims of the EOKA-B terrorist organization and the Greek Junta. He also added that some of the so-called missing Greek Cypriots were in fact murdered by other (left-wing, Makarios supporters) Greek Cypriots.
Continuing Assistant Professor Iraklides said the reason why the Cyprus State only lasted for three-years before it was abolished is perfectly clear. He said the reason for this was the fatal 13-point plan proposed by Makarios on 13 November 1963, whereby the fate of the neighbouring community (Turkish Cypriots) would depend on the Greek Cypriot majority, who would basically put them (Turkish Cypriots) in the position of a minority.
He also said that the partition of Cyprus was as a result of the start of the bloody events of December 1963 and 1964, which led to the arrival of the UN Peace Keeping Forces to Cyprus, the gathering of most Turkish Cypriots into enclaves, and which also paved the way for all state organs to be in the hands of the Greek Cypriots.
Assistant Professor Iraklides also said that on the issue of the continuation of the inter-communal violence there are two main views; firstly that there was joint responsibility, and that secondly the main responsibility lies with the Greek Cypriots, who were responsible for starting the attacks.
He said that although the first view is generally supported by Hellenes or the friends of Hellenes, the second view is more reliable and even the UN Secretary-General, U Thant, considered this view to be correct.
(Source unknown.)
(Holdwater says: An example of an "Orthodox" man of integrity. Bravo, Professor.)
---------------------------
" 'So many tin-pot regimes are recognised around the world but not northern Cyprus, which has a freely elected government,' bristles Julia Price, chairperson of the British Residents' Society."
Rush to buy homes in north Cyprus
Helena Smith
May 19, 2002, The Observer
Why has a "Solution" Stalled for Many Years?
Helena Smith
May 19, 2002, The Observer
Why has a "Solution" Stalled for Many Years?
(Holdwater says: Alert! Turkish source below...
I'm including what may appear as biased words on the surface because they shed revealing light. Through the years, Cypriots on both sides have tried to come to an understanding, and I remember specific instances when the Turkish side was unquestionably and genuinely conciliatory, and fair. Suddenly, the Greeks would call off the talks. It would make me wonder, are the Greeks serious about coming to an understanding? (A dramatic episode of what's described occurred as recently as 2004, when the Turkish Cypriots accepted a restrictive and disadvantageous U.N. Plan. Even then, the Greek Cypriots balked.) The following is an excerpt from Cyprus vs Cyprus, by Kamil B. Raif & Bulent Akarcali, turcoman.btinternet.co.uk/cyprus-vs-cyprus.htm:
...Of course, we all know that this a well-known Greek tactic. They cry for a solution; however, when there is a hope for a solution, they immediately run away from it. There are reasons for this attitude.
The Greeks do not want a solution in Cyprus because they use their influential and capable propaganda network to damage the international reputation of Turkey using this so-called problem as bait.
The Greeks depend very much on the strong and influential lobbies they have in the European Union and the United States. With these lobbies, they always manage to turn the facts to their advantage and make the world believe that the Cyprus problem started with the intervention of the Turkish army in 1974.
The Greeks know that they are economically benefiting from this conflict at the expense of the Cypriot Turks. As such, it is in their interest to keep the conflict sustained.
Who is truly for peace in Cyprus?
On Sunday October 20, 2002 the annual UN Day celebrations took place at the Ledra Palace Hotel in the UN-controlled buffer zone. While thousands of Turkish Cypriots attended only a few hundred Greek Cypriots showed up.
As a volunteer who took part in the event I followed the Greek Cypriot TV news in the evening to see how it was reported. I was amazed at the speaker's interpretation of more Turkish participation. She said they had come for the free food being served. And one Greek Cypriot youngster asked to comment said the same thing. I cannot find words to describe such mastery of distortion in order to hide their own reluctance towards peace and friendship. Apart from reflecting how they look down on Turkish Cypriots, this mentality also shows that they do not share the same feelings for peace and friendship.
What was served was but a sandwich along with a small apple pie.
So how could anyone imagine that Turkish Cypriots are so destitute.
Beraat Mustafaoglu.
And Now For a Greek-Cypriot Source....
CYPRUS MAIL October 27, 1995
THE TRUTH IS OUT?
Out with the Truth
So now the truth is out. We are not talking about 300 dead, or 45 dead, but 96 people killed during action in 1974 — and that is only from an initial examination of 487 files out of 1,619 examined at the Attorney General’s office.
So now the truth is out. We are not talking about 300 dead, or 45 dead, but 96 people killed during action in 1974 — and that is only from an initial examination of 487 files out of 1,619 examined at the Attorney General’s office.
Successive governments have a lot to answer to. First, why these people were put on the list of missing people in the first place., and why, now that the truth is out, relatives are not put to rest once and for all on the fate of their loved ones.
News of the existence of dead persons on the list was made public more than a month ago, a fact officially confirmed by President Clerides before his departure for the United States three weeks ago.
And for all this time, 1,619 families have been virtually sitting on hot coals wondering whether one of the numbers bandied about so nonchalantly concerns a person they haven’t seen or heard for 21 years.
Eighteen of the 96 people mentioned are buried in the free areas, with no apparent reason why their relatives should not be informed immediately on their fate. But like so many other things, this will also be bogged down in government red tape, with nobody really knowing whose shoulders the unpleasant task of informing the relatives will fall upon.
The government needs to save its credibility on the matter at all costs.
But how seriously can one take authorities which have been fully aware of the existence of dead people on a list of persons whose fate has been supposedly unknown since 1974?
--------------------------
Holdwater adds: Only 96 people killed!! (Not to minimize the importance of those poor, lost souls... My point is, a hundred people is nothing — in context to the exaggerated numbers killed, presented by lying Greek propaganda all these years.)
And WHO do you think killed them? The TURKS? If that's what you think, travel back up and re-read THIS.
Just like with the Armenian "Genocide." Naturally, the big, bad Turks are blamed for everything the sun shines and doesn't shine on. And yet, who winds up as the guilty, murdering party, when you dig down deep? The people recognized as the VICTIMS.
What an outrage...
Here is a take from a Northern Cypriot editorial counterpart, relating to the article shown here... and shedding further light on the shocking tale:
---------------------------------
"Missing": The Truth Emerges
Editorial
Northern Cyprus Monthly
“The truth is out� is how the Greek Cypriot English-language daily “Cyprus Mail�, in its editorial of October 27, 1995, informed readers of dramatic disclosures by the Greek Cypriot leadership regarding Greek Cypriots listed as “missing� since 1974.
According to these confessions, hundreds were known to be dead by the Greek Cypriot authorities, and by the Committee of Relatives of Greek Cypriot Missing Persons — yet this vital information was kept secret from families concerned in order to exploit their artificially-maintained agony for propaganda purposes.
The former Greek Cypriot Attorney-General, Michael Triantafilides, disclosed that the policy of including known dead people on the “missing persons� lists and withholding information from their families was adopted by the Greek Cypriot administration in 1975 at a meeting chaired by the ex-Greek Cypriot leader, the late Archbishop Makarios. (See Greek Cypriot daily ‘Alithia� of September 17, 1995 and also the text of an interview with the Greek Cypriot television station CYBC 1 on October 13, 1995)
In light of the disclosures, the Greek Cypriot administration was forced to lower the number of Greek Cypriot “missing persons� from 1,619 to 1,493.
It is very likely that this number will drop even further, since hardly a month goes by without a new shocking revelation being published in the Greek Cypriot press regarding the Greek Cypriot “missing persons.�
On April 16, 1996, the Greek Cypriot administration was finally forced to admit that more Greek Cypriots who were listed as “missing� were in fact dead and buried in South Cyprus.
Claire Angehdou, the Greek Cypriot minister entrusted with the task of coordinating with the families of “missing� Greek Cypriots, revealed that 26 additional Greek Cypriots whose names were included on the “missing persons� list were known to have been dead since 1974.
Claire Angehdou, the Greek Cypriot minister entrusted with the task of coordinating with the families of “missing� Greek Cypriots, revealed that 26 additional Greek Cypriots whose names were included on the “missing persons� list were known to have been dead since 1974.
Moreover, according to Greek Cypriot daily newspapers “Agon�, of April 17 and 18, and “Fileleftheros� of April 18, 1996, Ms. Angelidou confessed that the Greek Cypriot administration had known all along where they were buried.
According to the current Greek Cypriot Attorney-General, Alecos Markides, the remains of those 26 persons will be returned to their families this year.
On October 14, 1995, Greek Cypriot journalist Takis Agathocleus wrote a revealing article in the Greek Cypriot daily “Alithia� on the “missing� and on how vital information was kept from reaching the families of the “missing� by the Greek Cypriot authorities.
Mr. Agathocleus revealed that, following the cease-fire in 1974, he had been ordered to bury some Greek Cypriots at the village of Kontemenos. He and his friends dug up a crate with a bulldozer and buried the corpses.
The most shocking aspect of his story is that, although the identification tags of the dead had been turned over to Greek Cypriot military authorities, Mr. Agathocleus, having the opportunity to read the Greek Cypriot “missing persons� list years later, discovered to his horror that names of the persons he had himself buried at Kontemenos were also included.
Mr. Agathocleus’s pleas to correct the list fell on deaf ears. He concluded his article in dismay: “No responsible person was interested in the fact that dead people buried at Kontemenos village were listed as missing. When I tried to delve into these matters, I was asked to stop because it was not in our interest that some people whom we declared as missing should appearnot to be missing, but dead and buried�.
On 20 July, 1995, the Greek Cypriot weekly magazine “Selides� published an article on the Greek Cypriot “missing persons�, revealing further the true facts behind the inhuman Greek Cypriot propaganda on the issue. In this article a certain Christos Eliophotou recounted his bitter story.
Mr. Eliophotou had been the Chief Civil Defense Officer of the Greek Cypriot part of Nicosia District. During the last days of July, 1974, he had been called to the Greek Cypriot General Hospital at Nicosia by a Greek officer, Lieutenant George Danos, and told to take care of burying some Greek Cypriots.
This is his story: “I went to the hospital and asked for the man in charge, and a Greek officer, Lieutenant Danos, appeared. He guided me to the mortuary and showed me a number of corpses. I estimated that there were about 45 to 50 bodies. He told me to take them for burial.�
“I told him that I would take them after I had been given the details about them.�
“Then this Danos started swearing at me and saying that their identities were none of my business. I answered him, telling him that I knew my job very well and that, during the World War!!, I had served as a major in the British army and had buried many people — but none before they were identified.�
“The following day, when I went back to mortuary, they informed me that the army had buried the dead.�
Further research by the “Selides� team revealed that a total of 65 Greek Cypriots had been taken from the hospital and buried in and outside Lakadamia village cemetery, with no attempt to identify them. What is more shocking, however, is that the “Selides� team discovered that the assistant to Lieutenant Danos was none other than Nicos Serghides— the current general Secretary of the Greek Cypriots’ Pancyprian Committee of the Missing.
(end)
------------------------------
“We have taken these lands from our ancestors as Hellenic, our national duty is to deliver them to our future generations as Hellenic, however not divided but as a whole�
Enosis Loving Greek-Cypriot leader, Glafcos Clerides
Holdwater asks: When in history was Cyprus ever a Greek state?
------------------------------
TWO MORE SO-CALLED "MISSING" GREEK CYPRIOTS BURIED
(May 2003)
(May 2003)
The Greek Cypriot daily 'Simerini' reported that two Greek Cypriots, Andreas Spano and Hristaki Hristodulidi, who died in 1974 and were identified with DNA tests, were buried yesterday in separate ceremonies at Ay Varvara and Kambo.
The daily stressed that the names of the two Greek Cypriots had for years been included in the Greek Cypriot missing persons list and requests had been made to the Turkish Cypriot side to determine their fate and that the remains of the two Greek Cypriots in question were identified after investigations were carried out at the Ay Konstantiou and Eleni
cemetaries.
cemetaries.
They buried them in the South, but looked for them in the North In another report published in 'Fileleftheros' it was stated that the family of a Greek Cypriot national guard soldier, Hristakis Hristodulidis, who lost his life after being shot in the throat during the clashes in 1974, were told that he was buried in Alaykoy, whereas in fact he was buried in a mass grave in the Agios Konstantinos and Eleni cemetaries in the Greek Cypriot side.
It was reported that his family, who had suffered for years because they could not give their son a decent burial, died with this suffering.
The family's other son, Andreas, was also listed as 'missing' and it was stated that they have no information regarding their son.
Following the identification of his identity after DNA tests were carried out, after 29-years the remains of Hristakis Hristodulidis will finally be buried next Sunday.
Buried 'missing' girl Meanwhile, the Sunday Mail reported that the remains of 15 year old Vasso Socratus, who lost her life in 1974 and whose name was also included in the missing persons list, was identified through DNA testing and was buried on May 10, 2003 in South Nicosia.
It stated that Vasso Socratus, was the daughter of Yorgos and Kalliopi Socratus who used to live in Kucuk Kaymakli in 1974.
Vasso Socratus' remains were found during diggings that were being carried out to determine identities at the Konstantinu and Eleni cemeteries.
TRNC News; thanks to Jeff Ertughrul
"It is time we ... do what we think is right and just, rather than go along with what our wealthier neighbours advise."
IRISH M.P. SEAN POWER EXPLAINS CYPRUS REALITIES IN IRISH PARLIAMENT
(2002)
(2002)
Explaining the Cyprus realities in the Irish Parliament, Irish M.P. Sean Power criticized the Greek Cypriots, Greece and the E.U.
His address to the Irish Parliament is as follows:
"As I have little time at my disposal, I will use that time to deal with enlargement, in particular the application of Cyprus. I had the honour of visiting northern Cyprus during the summer with two of my colleagues from the House. To my surprise the ambassador chose to object in the strongest manner on my return. It was not my first visit and it was obvious to me that on the island there exists two democracies and two sovereign states representing their distinct peoples.
Turkey has never expressed a wish to make Cyprus a Turkish island or an annex to Turkey, which is only 40 miles away, but the Greeks have continued to press for enosis to make Cyprus part of Greece even through Greece is 500 miles away. The history and settlement of the island would weight heavily towards a Turkish claim as soldiers from the Ottoman Empire captured Cyprus in 1571. They were there until the British arrived in 1878. We do not have time to go into the full history of the island. In 1924, the Treaty of Lausanne was accepted by Turkey and Greece and Britain was then the sovereign ruler of Cyprus. There has been much change since. Gradually the Greek Cypriots made demands for enosis and Britain, playing politics, offered the island to Greece in return for them taking up arms against Bulgaria. Naturally, the Turkish Cypriots opposed enosis.
In 1950 the demand for enosis exploded under Archbishop Makarios. Britain took strong action against the militants and Makarios was exiled to the Seychelles. Turkey took a keen interest and was obviously anxious to protect the Turkish Cypriots, but the partition of the island was suggested and has some appeal in Ankara. However, Mr. Lennox-Boyd declared in the House of Commons in 1956: "Any exercise of self-determination should be affected in such a manner that the Turkish community should be given freedom to decide for themselves their future states." This was reaffirmed in 1958 by Harold Macmillian. At this stage, with a declining empire, Britain realised it did not want Cyprus as a military base but wanted bases in Cyprus. Gradually talks between Greece, Turkey and Britain, with the UN a very interested onlooker, led to a treaty of alliance and a treaty of guarantee being accepted in Zurich. Enosis and partition were banned and the two countries were to work out a system of government among themselves with Britain, Greece and Turkey. These three states were to guarantee the general state of affairs proposed under the treaty. Unfortunately, both the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots were suspicious of each other and the details of the shared government were complex and proved very difficult to operate. Harmony and success very much depended on consensus, respect for each side and security for the minority.
From 1964 to 1967 there were many attacks on the Turkish Cypriots and in an effort to counteract the difficulty there the United Nations sent a peacekeeping force to the island, including an Irish battalion consisting of many soldiers from the Curragh. The Cypriot ambassador wonders why a Kildare person should show such an interest in Cyprus. In 1967, Turkey and Greece were on the brink of war and the Greeks wanted enosis and Turkey favoured a federation of Cyprus. In July 1974, Archbishop Makarios was overthrown and was flown out of Cyprus. The Turkish premier flew to Britain to ask Mr. Callaghan to intervene, but no action from any of the guarantee countries was taken. Countries that had pledged support to make Cyprus work were found wanting when a crisis arose.
With genuine interest and goodwill by the EU, some help can be given to find a lasting peace on the island of Cyprus. Cyprus is an applicant or admission to the EU. This should not be just for part of the island. This would only perpetuate problems as Greece is a member and Turkey is unlikely to be accepted as a member in the next draft for enlargement. We continue do drive wedges between the two parts of the island. There are not direct flights to northern Cyprus. There are grants galore for the Greeks side for the restoration of ancient sites, among other things, yet we continue to deny northern Cyprus a market for its produce and access to it by tourists.
Since Cyprus applied to become a member of the European Union all negotiations have been carried out by the Greek Cypriot Government, which does not and cannot represent the people of the entire island. The European Union has never sought a resolution of the problem as a condition of Cyprus becoming a full member and as a result, the talks between Mr.Clerides and Mr. Denktash are unlikely to prove fruitful. There is no incentive for Greek Cypriots to find a solution.
If a divided Cyprus is allowed to become a member of the European Union, serious problems will arise. The south is recognised by all states except Turkey as the Republic of Cyprus while the north is recognised only by Turkey, whose forces there for the defence of northern Cyprus may be accused of occupying the territory of an EU member state. This scenario is very likely despite the fact that Turkey has a customs union with the European Union and also been accepted as a candidate for future membership. It is time we asserted our independence in order to do what we think is right and just, rather than go along with what our wealthier neighbours advise."
(end)
(end)
Western Observations on Greek Blood Lust
David Howarth wrote:
(In "The Greek adventure - Lord Byron and Other Eccentrics in the War of Independence," London, 1976, pg. 28):
(In "The Greek adventure - Lord Byron and Other Eccentrics in the War of Independence," London, 1976, pg. 28):
"Once they (the Greeks) had started... they killed (Turks) because a mad blood-lust had come upon them all, and everyone was killing"
(Regarding the Greek uprising, which the Metropolitan of Patras, Germanos, unfurled on April 6, 1821, calling upon the Greeks to join the rebellion; the first flag of the rebels portrayed a cross over an upturned crescent, or a cross over a severed Turkish head. Source: William Miller. The Ottoman Empire and its successors. 1801-1927. 4 vols., London 1966, pg. 71... among other sources.)
William St. Clair wrote:
(In "That Greece Might Still be Free - the Philhellenes in the War of Independence," London, 1972, pg. 12):
(In "That Greece Might Still be Free - the Philhellenes in the War of Independence," London, 1972, pg. 12):
"The savage passion for revenge soon degenerated into a frenzied delight in killing and horror for their own sakes."
William St. Clair further wrote, (pg.1):
"The Turks of Greece left few traces. They disappeared suddenly and finally in the spring of 1821, unmourned and unnoticed by the rest of the world... Upwards of 20,000 Turkish men, women and children were murdered by their Greek neighbours in a few weeks of slaughter. They were killed deliberately, without qualm and scruple... Turkish families living in single farms or small isolated communities were summarily put to death, and their homes burned down over their corpses. Others, when the disturbances began, abandoned home to seek the security of the nearest town, but the defenseless streams of refugees were overwhelmed by bands of armed Greeks. In the smaller towns, the Turkish communities barricaded their houses and attempted to defend themselves as best they could, but few survived. In some places they were driven by hunger to surrender to their attackers on receiving promises of security, but these were seldom honored. The men were killed at once, and the women and children divided out as slaves, usually to be killed in their turn later. All over the Peloponnese roamed mobs of Greeks armed with clubs, scythes, and a few firearms, killing, plundering and burning. They were often led by Christian priests, who exhorted them to greater efforts in their holy work"
The above "Western" passages were taken from Professor Salahi Sonyel's excellently researched, "HOW THE TURKS OF THE PELOPONNESE WERE EXTERMINATED DURING THE GREEK REBELLION"; to read more about the Greeks' penchant for systematic murder, tune into greekmurderers.net/rebel02.html
Other Western Reports on Greek Atrocities
Holdwater: I'm not sure of the source of the following... however, it's included mainly for further reports from the Western press.
WHAT IF MASSACRES OF EOKA START AGAIN?
ANKARA (INAF) – Al sides want peace in the island. But Turkish Cypriots will for peace is stronger than others. Because they experienced war and terrors for decades. The U-turn in Cyprus is the messenger of crucial developments regarding the future of the island. A smallest mistake may cause a massacre in the island which will be worse than those lived in Checenia and Bosnia.
The experience from the past revealed that if border gates between Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Southern Cyprus will be lifted, massacres will take place in the island. Southern Cyprus which claim sovereignty on the whole island will flow to Turkish side if the borders will be lifted. They will plunder and conquer homes and workplaces. Neither Greek Cyprus press or Southern Cyrus administration rejects this possibility.
Then who will stop the genocide that might begin? Last decade of the world history was the scene of massacres because international community was not successful to stop it before it began. Pages of the history is full of massacres staged against Turks in Cyprus. In this light, there is no need for Turkish Cypriots to believe in Southern Cyprus administration.
On Monday of 15 July 1974, The Greek army officers who had been based in Cyprus staged a bloody coup, upon the instructions from Athens, against Makarios with the backing of EOKA members. Their aim was to eliminate Makarios and his supporters and then unite Cyprus with Greece (achieving ENOSIS). During the assault, the tanks commanded by the Greek officers reached up to the gates of the Presidential Palace beginning to intensively shell the building. Those Greek Cypriots who had eye-witnessed that Makarios’s men, who were trying to flee from the palace were burnt with flame-launchers near the exit-gate of the palace remind this horrifying event at ceremonies held annually on 15 July and damn those who had committed such murders.
Yet another target of Greece in Cyprus was the Turkish Cypriot Community.
Following the Greece-EOKA aggression, having failed to obtain any results from her diplomatic initiatives with her allies, Turkey, as one of the guarantors of the Republic of Cyprus, was obliged to intervene to save from the paw of the “Greek expansionism�, not only the Turkish community on the island but also the Greek Cypriots.
As a result of the clashes between the Turkish troops and EOKA members, both the Turkish side and the other side had casualties and prisoners of war.
For the past 23 years, the Greek-Greek Cypriot camp has hundreds or even thousands of scenarios on the issue of the missing, based on efforts to misrepresent the Turks as evil and barbarians.
“Daily Sketch� newspaper, in its issue dated 2 January 1964, carried an article by Louis Kirby about the “Genocide� by the Greek-Greek Cypriot side, aiming at the Turks in 1964. A passage is given below from the article:
“And when I came across the Turkish homes they were an appalling sight. Apart from the walls, they just did not exist. I doubt if a napalm bomb attack could have created more devastation. I counted 40 blackened brick and concrete “shells� that had once been homes. Each house had been deliberately set on fire by petrol. Under red tile roofs which had caved in, I found a twisted mass of bed springs, children’s cot and cribs and ankle deep grey ashes of what had once been chairs, tables, wardrobes.
In the neighbouring village of Ayios Vassilios, a mile away, I counted 16 wrecked and burned out homes, they were all Turkish. From this village more than 100 Turks had also vanished. In neither villages did I find a scrap of damage to any Greek house.�
In its “Nicosia� origin report dated 3 January 1964, Bernard Jordan, a British journalist who was one of the many foreign eyewitnesses of the events in Cyprus, had the following to say:
“The Turkish houses in the village were set on fire by launching arrows wrapped with kerosene-wetted pieces of cloth. About one hundred armed EOKA members were wandering insidiously among the villages..�
Below are given certain excerpts from the reports of foreign journalists who witnessed the “Genocide� carried out by the Greek-Greek Cypriot duo against the Turkish Cypriots.
“The Times� of 4 January 1964
“The Imam of the Omorphita (K.Kaymakli) village and his crippled and blind son were found today dead in their beds. The Turks who returned to Omorphita found Imam HÜSEYIN I�NECI riddled with machine-gun bullets.
It is said that Imam, having performed his prayers at the mosque, returned home and went to bed. Imam HÜSEYIN refused to leave his crippled son alone and stayed with him. The Turks say that they found further five corpses covered with earth.�
“New York Herald Tribune� of 13 January 1964
“I was allowed to go around the besieged Turkish sector. I was taken to the Kumsal area and, walking on the broken pieces of glass, I entered into a green-white house that had a garden of orange trees and around which a stray black-and-white car was wandering. As if the bathroom of this was a slaughterhouse, everywhere was covered with blood and a woman and three children were lying in blood in the bath. There was another dead woman in the adjacent room.�
“Daily Telegraph� of 14 January 1964
“Among the 20 refugees who were brought today from Nicosia to London were also two British women who came with children. One of these was afraid to disclose her identity because her husband stayed behind. She said that she witnessed the shooting and killing of five Turks outside her apartment flat by the Greek Cypriot police. She described how these unarmed Turks were machine-gunned while their hands were up.�
“Daily Mail� of January 1964
“Silent crowds gathered tonight outside the Red Crescent hospital in the Turkish sector of Nicosia, as the bodies of nine Turks found crudely buried outside the village of Ayios Vassilios, 13 miles away, were brought to the hospital under an escort of the (British) Parachute Regiment. Three more bodies, including one of a woman, were discovered nearby but they could not be moved.
Turks guarded by (the British) paratroops are still trying to locate the bodies of 20 more believed to have been buried on the same sight. All are believed to have been killed during fighting around the village at Christmas.
It is thought that a family of seven Turks who disappeared from the village may be buried here. Their house was found burnt and grenades had been dropped through the roof.
Shallow graves had apparently been hurriedly scooped by a bulldozer. The bodies appeared to have been piled in two or three metres deep. All had been shot.
One man had his arms still tied behind his legs in a crouching position and had been shot through the head. A stomach injury indicated that a grenade may have been thrown into his lap. The search for the bodies began after it had been learnt that about 12 Turks were buried on the site which is an old Turkish cemetery. It was assumed that the bodies would be those of wounded men who had died in Nicosia hospital, but all those so far recovered were fully dressed and evidently taken to straight to the rough graves after fighting.�
Daily Herald of 31 December 1963
“We went to the private clinic of Dr. Nail Adiloglu, together with other British journalists. In a room for 14, there were forty injured. We noticed that there was neither fear nor tears under the circumstances. I saw that 24-year old Ayse Ibrahim, shot in the back, lied in the same bed with her four-year old daughter whose knee was dismembered with bullets. The mother had a stroke and her child would not be able to walk for the rest of her life. In the meantime I was the bodies of three Turkish children who were killed and thrown in the same bath. And their mother was shot dead in another room. This was a horrible scene.�
Daily Telegraph of 14 January 1964
“This evening, we went to the Turkish sector of Nicosia, where 200-300 Turks were killed within nine days. We were the first Western reporters who went there. We have seen there indescribably horrifying scenes.�
Il Giorno of 14 January 1964
“It is thought that the seven-member Turkish family who disappeared from the village may be buried here. Their house was set on fire and demolished with grenades.�
Le Figaro of 15-16 February 1964
“If Turkey has not reinforced her contingent in Cyprus so far, this is a roof of Turkey’s patience. Her right to so is undeniable. If the international agreements mean anything, Turkey can save the Turkish Cypriots from further massacres. This is the ugliest form of racial discrimination. In order to blur the issue it has been alleged that both sides are to blame. However, the real culprit is the Greek Cypriot organisation called EOKA.�
Christian Science Monitor of 17 February 1964
“Robed and bearded Archbishop Makarios has the Byzantine ability of covering up the realities. The Makarios Government has deliberately started the clashes. He is determined to destroy the Turkish Cypriots.�
Christian Science Monitor of 19 February 1964
“Greek Cypriots pursue a genocidal policy against the Turkish Cypriots.�
Damnation of the murders committed by the Greek-Greek Cypriot duo against the Turks in Cyprus between 21 December 1963 and 4 March 1965 will not be lifted from them, so long as Hellenism exists.
The well-known British writer H. Scott Gibbons is yet another eyewitness to the Greek-Greek Cypriot atrocities. In one passage of his book “Peace Without Honour�, he recounts the massacre of 1963 Christmas evening as follows:
“Sounds of gunfire and rifle butts were battering the locked doors; the people were poured into the streets. A Turkish old man aged seventy was awakened by a cracking sound on his front door. When he rose from his bed, he faced many armed men who crowded the room. They asked him, ‘Have you got any children?’ The man, in an scared manner, said, ‘Yes, I have’. One of those who broke into the house ordered the old man, ‘Send him outside’. The old man had two sons aged 19 and 17 and a daughter aged 15. They were hurriedly dressed and came out. The raiding Greek Cypriots lined them up in front of the garden wall and machine-gunned them dead.
In the same raid, in yet another house, a 13-year old boy’s hands were tied behind his knees and was thrown into a room. While the Greek Cypriots were looting the house, they were beating up and kicking the boy. And while departing from the house, they shot him dead from the back of his head.�
On 21 July 1974, Greek Cypriots picked up 25 boys aged between 13 and 16 in Limassol and took them to a briquette factory. According to the eye-witnesses (who will never be able to wipe off this terrifying scene from their mind for the rest of their lives), while they were killing boys by crushing their heads under pressing machines, they were shouting, “That’s how we eradicate the Turkish race.�
Despite all these massacres and killings, the Greek-Greek Cypriot duo finds the audacity to allege that 1619 (a number wholly concocted by themselves) Greeks and Greek Cypriots had been taken as prisoners and killed by the Turks and to thrown challenges over it without any sense of shame.
What the eyewitnesses account about those days today are unbelievable. One such eyewitness is SALAHI HILAL, who was taken a prisoner at Dogruyol area and whose flesh was cut and his blood sucked, by Greek Cypriots. He describes the Greek-Greek Cypriot atrocity that is not compatible with any principle of war, as follows:
“Greeks and Greek Cypriots who captured me as a prisoner, drew out their daggers from their belts and became to cut the fleshy parts of my arms and shoulder-heads. In the meantime, a Greek officer came close to us asking the Greek Cypriots, ‘Has any of you not drunk yet the Turkish blood?’. Some of them shouted, ‘We have not drunk it yet’. Upon this, together with the Greek officer, 10-15 Greek Cypriot soldiers began to suck the blooding oozing from the injuries opened on my flesh. While I was about to be fainted, they took me outside. I saw a friend of mine who was a prisoner in their hands, whose hands and feet were tied up. Meanwhile, a Greek Cypriot drew out the grenade in his belt, removed its safety pin and threw it on to the imprisoned Turkish soldier. The poor man was cut into pieces. I did not want to live any longer..�
Genocide aimed at the Turkish Cypriots is full of incredible barbarisms. Murders committed against the Turks are countless and hair-raising.
As if the blood they have shed in 1960s is not enough, they continued with their murders in 1974 that have taken the dimension of massacres. Just as the Serbs have done in Bosnia, the Greeks in Cyprus have killed defenceless civilians just out of fun.
Let us give some examples:
20 July 1974: Greek militants raid the Alaminos village in Nicosia and machine-gun to death 14 hand-tied people, most of whom are children and elderly.
21 July 1974: Greek Cypriots raid the village of Gaziveren in Nicosia and indiscriminately open fire on to each Turk they gun on their way. Result: six are killed, of whom four are women and 22 injured.
21 July 1974: 26 unarmed Turks in Limassol are killed. 1800 people are taken as hostages.
23 July 1974: At Angolem in Nicosia Greek Cypriots first torture eight Turks, including women, children and elderly, and then are killed by shooting them through the head.
13 August 1974: At Kithasi village in Paphos, an old couple was killed with an axe.
14 August 1974: At Tokhni and Mari villages in Larnaca, 50 and 40 Turks are massacred and put into mass-graves, respectively.
14-15 August 1974: In Famagusta district, Greek Cypriots line up and kill with machine-guns and then bury en masse and then burn with petrol, 54 people of the 57-person Turkish population of the Atlilar (Aloa) village, the entire 57 people of the Sandallar (Sandallaris) village and the entire 82 people of the Murataga (Maratha) village, not even sparing 2-3 year-old children.
15 August 1974: In Paphos, two children aged five and three are used by the Greek Cypriot soldiers as shooting targets and are killed with hundreds of shots. This scene almost drive mad the eyewitnesses.
16 August 1974: At Ayios Ioannis village in Paphos, seven Turks, one of whom is a woman, are tortured to death.
12 November 1974: Three children aged between 3 and 16 and two women are killed while going to the Turkish area from the Greek area.
These are the murder-cases by the Greek-Greek Cypriot due, determined by the Unites Nations documents. Atrocities of the Greek-Greek Cypriot camp are not that much only. There are more than one thousand Turkish Cypriots who, in the period of 1963-74, have gone missing without leaving any trace behind, whose bodies have been burnt and buried or put into mass-graves in the Greek-controlled areas.
If those who force today the Turkish Cypriots to live intermingled with the Greek Cypriots, who exercise pressure on Turkey, who impose embargoes on the Turkish Cypriots wish to be a bit “fair�, they should come to the TRNC and see the realities themselves.
They should see people: whose organs were cut and who were forced at gunpoint to eat them; whose chests were incised and crosses were engraved on them; whose family members were killed before their eyes, and who try to survive despite all their pains and sufferings.
Greeks Call for the Turkish Leader Who Gave the Order to Intervene to be Tried for War Crimes
"Nicosia, Jun 3 (CNA) -- The American Hellenic Institute has called for the indictment of Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit for crimes against Cyprus and the Kurds, stating the precedent of the indictment of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.
In a letter to the US State Department Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues, David Scheffer, the General Counsel of the Institute, Eugene Rossides, states that the decision for the indictment of Milosevic "creates an important precedent of indicting an incumbent Head of Government".
He says that "the obvious analogy is Turkey's Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit" with regard to Cyprus and the Kurds.
Rossides states that "Ecevit initiated the illegal 1974 Turkish invasion of Greek Cyprus with the illegal use of US-supplied arms, during which some 200.000 Greek Cypriots were forced from their homes by the Turkish armed forces".
He adds that "over 4.000 Greek Cypriots were murdered" during the invasion, "including five Americans, who had been kidnapped by the Turkish forces".
"In the course of the occupation" of the northern third of the island, he continues, "the few Greek Cypriots who were not ethnically cleansed from the areas under illegal Turkish occupation have been subject to persistent persecution on political, racial and religious grounds", adding that "Greek Cypriot religious and cultural sites have been devastated".
Referring to the Kurds, Rossides says that "during Turkey's 15-year war against the Kurds, over 2,5 million Kurds have been forced from their homes and 2.600-3.000 villages have been torched or razed".
He adds that "some 30.000 innocent Kurds have been killed by the Turkish army" and that "extrajudicial killings, torture and deprivation of elementary civil and human rights have been routine".
Rossides stresses that Ecevit and other senior military and political officials are also culpable.
"I trust", he adds, "that the US will exploit the precedent provided" to institute proceedings to indict Ecevit and other Turkish officials in the International Criminal Court.
Rossides sent copies of his letter to US President Bill Clinton and US Administration and Congress officials."
Holdwater: Unbelievable, isn't it? The disgraceful degree of lies and deceit some Orthodox folks can sink to?
Let's see, now... we learn from Greek sources above that, first, the Greek government decreed the intervention was legal, and yet this adorable Rossides fellow calls it "illegal." He also claims "over 4.000 Greek Cypriots were murdered" by the Turks, and yet we learned from "The Turth is Out," above, that the numbers were "slightly" less. (96, and still counting... killed mainly at the hands of fellow Greeks.)
And what did Ecevit have to do with the Kurds, anyway? Did the PKK conflict begin during Ecevit's Cyprus intervention-era administration, the 1970s? (The article is from 1999, and Mr. Rossides helpfully tells us the Kurdish conflict lasted "15 years." Let's see... subtract fifteen from 1999, and you get... well, you are welcome to do the math.)
I wonder how shrill Mr. Rossides was, calling for the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic, before the Yugoslavian leader got sent to the Hague? (Greece turned a very blind eye to the crimes of the Serbs during the Bosnian and related conflicts.)
How does this intellectual sleep at night? It is stomach-churning, the lack of ethics some forms of humanity have.
Favorite guestbook commentator Nick responds further:
From: NICK
Date: 11/12/99
Date: 11/12/99
Comments
The American Hellenic Institute has called for the indictment of Ecevit........Well, let's all run for cover then. Then we can dig up Makarios and charge him too!--"Until this small community forming part of the Turkish race, which has been the terrible enemy of Hellenism is expelled from Cyprus the duty of the heroes of EOKA can never be considered as terminated." (1962)---"If Turkey comes in order to save Turkish Cypriots Turkey will find no Turkish Cypriots to save..." (1964). And this from the President of Cyprus and a "man of God." A call for ethnic cleansing? A call for genocide? "Makarios's central interest was to block off the Turkish intervention so that he and his Greek Cypriots could go on happily massacring Turkish Cypriots.." — George Ball, US Envoy. So, who exactly is the criminal here — Makarios, who engineered the destruction of the Cypriot constitution and the ethnic cleansing and murder of his fellow citizens, or Ecevit who intervened to prevent the annexation of Cyprus by Greece as he was entitled to do under the Treaty of Guarantee? We did cover this a long time ago but, for the slower contributors out there who evidently couldn't grasp a fact if it bit them, I can cover it again.
Holdwater loves the Briton, Nick... not only does he have his facts straight, he knows how to express himself in the language the genocide and related topics are often discussed in the international arena. (Of course, his logic and rationale always falls on deaf ears among our Orthodox friends, but that will usually be the case.) Below are a few other Cyprus-related thoughts, by Nick.
"... If the Turks did not take Cyprus, or if they had left it a generation or two longer, all Cypriots would be Catholic today; in 1571 the Orthodox church in Cyprus was moribund."
From: NICK
Date: 11/20/1999
Date: 11/20/1999
Comments
Hi Sikader, I was interested to read your accounts of events in Cyprus and relating to Cyprus. Well, we can trade injustices all day long and go back into the distant past. We could even go back to 1571 when the Turks took Cyprus from Venice and liberated the Orthodox church after generations of Catholic suppression. In fact, it would be fair say (assuming fairness ever enters these discussions) that if the Turks did not take Cyprus, or if they had left it a generation or two longer, all Cypriots would be Catholic today; in 1571 the Orthodox church in Cyprus was moribund. Anyway, be that as it may, I think a much more rational place to start a discussion on Cyprus is that point at which there was last agreement- 1959/60. There was an agreed constitution, there were international treaties- in short, there was a framework for a workable arrangement. In fact, Makarios himself said it was a fair and equitable agreement. It is a shame he did not maintain that opinion. One gets the impression that this comment was for the negotiating table and not for practice as the quotes I gave you a while ago would seem to indicate. In reality, the break down of the agreement in Cyprus was due to the fact that Greek Cypriot extremists were not willing to live up to a compromise agreed by everybody else. If that were not bad enough, the Greek government tries to annex the place in breach of its international treaty obligations. These are the facts that need acknowledgement if a negotiated agreement is going to emerge because these breakdowns were caused at a political level by Makarios, Grivas, Samson and others — including the Greek government. As far a Cyprus is concerned Turkish actions have always been reactive, not proactive. Turkish Cypriots were, in effect, the victims of a collective mugging in 1963 and nobody did anything practical or effective about it and there was no willingness on behalf of the Cypriot authorities (Greek) to correct what had been done. It took ten years for Turkey to actually do something concrete, and that was only in response to meddling by Athens. The suggestion that The Treaty of Guarantee excluded the option of an armed response is incorrect- and ridiculous — I wonder what reception a delegation of unarmed Turkish policemen would have had. "I say chaps, sorry to bother you and all that, but we have a copy of your constitution and you have clearly broken it — also according to this treaty I have in my hand we can...." BANG
Hi Sikader, I was interested to read your accounts of events in Cyprus and relating to Cyprus. Well, we can trade injustices all day long and go back into the distant past. We could even go back to 1571 when the Turks took Cyprus from Venice and liberated the Orthodox church after generations of Catholic suppression. In fact, it would be fair say (assuming fairness ever enters these discussions) that if the Turks did not take Cyprus, or if they had left it a generation or two longer, all Cypriots would be Catholic today; in 1571 the Orthodox church in Cyprus was moribund. Anyway, be that as it may, I think a much more rational place to start a discussion on Cyprus is that point at which there was last agreement- 1959/60. There was an agreed constitution, there were international treaties- in short, there was a framework for a workable arrangement. In fact, Makarios himself said it was a fair and equitable agreement. It is a shame he did not maintain that opinion. One gets the impression that this comment was for the negotiating table and not for practice as the quotes I gave you a while ago would seem to indicate. In reality, the break down of the agreement in Cyprus was due to the fact that Greek Cypriot extremists were not willing to live up to a compromise agreed by everybody else. If that were not bad enough, the Greek government tries to annex the place in breach of its international treaty obligations. These are the facts that need acknowledgement if a negotiated agreement is going to emerge because these breakdowns were caused at a political level by Makarios, Grivas, Samson and others — including the Greek government. As far a Cyprus is concerned Turkish actions have always been reactive, not proactive. Turkish Cypriots were, in effect, the victims of a collective mugging in 1963 and nobody did anything practical or effective about it and there was no willingness on behalf of the Cypriot authorities (Greek) to correct what had been done. It took ten years for Turkey to actually do something concrete, and that was only in response to meddling by Athens. The suggestion that The Treaty of Guarantee excluded the option of an armed response is incorrect- and ridiculous — I wonder what reception a delegation of unarmed Turkish policemen would have had. "I say chaps, sorry to bother you and all that, but we have a copy of your constitution and you have clearly broken it — also according to this treaty I have in my hand we can...." BANG
THE DISCUSSION CONTINUES...
I love the way you always try to lay the blame on someone else — the Greek junta was "imposed" by the west! Please — nothing is that simple. Supported maybe, imposed — I don't think so. Besides, the Anglo-Americans certainly did not encourage the junta to annex Cyprus in 74 — this would have been popular with Greeks had it succeeded and that is why it was attempted. The British offered Cyprus to Greece in WWI — so what. The point is that as of 1960 there was an agreement sanctioned by international treaty and a perfectly workable constitution. All parties involved undertook to maintain the constitution and agreed that Cyprus was never to become a part of any other state (articles I & II of the Treaty of Guarantee) and the guarantor powers had the right to intervene if the constitution were overthrown (article IV of the Treaty of Guarantee). This is the agreement — compromise. Before the ink was dry however, Makarios — ostensibly the leader of all Cypriots — was busy undermining the constitution; "the agreements do not form a goal — they are the present not the future. The Greek Cypriot people will continue their national cause...." Sikader, the will clearly was not there and it is also clear that Makarios was not negotiating in good faith. He always intended to break his word. You can not blame this on outside forces. Makarios, with local extremists, engineered the collapse of the constitution in 1963. Even the Greek government of the day was embarrassed by what was in effect the overthrow of the legal government of Cyprus — a coup. The Turks had the right to intervene then but, due to a whole range of reasons, did not. They restricted themselves to limited air operations and threats. Cyprus was a home grown crisis and you can't avoid this by saying the Turks are responsible for something else, somewhere else earlier — 1955 in Istanbul for example. If you want to do that we can go spiraling back in time trading horror stories until....... Well, until the fall of Constantinople where in the minds of so many Greeks, all of this starts. But that would not achieve anything. The Turks are here and they are here to stay. Going on about past injustices is a dead end street; the Turks themselves could come up with plenty of grievances if they wanted to trawl through the last 150-200 years. In Cyprus, start in 1959 and work from there.
Nick, the Brit with True Grit, now writes wonderful essays for TAT.
Dr. Nakratzas Tells Us What Happened in 1963 ("Section C")
Open Letter to a few hundred Greeks, for your information
Mr Vitaliotis,
Normally I do not answer letters from correspondents with a different ideological position, because most of them are not only ideologically abusive but also shamelessly vituperative in expression.
Your letter, I must admit, was extremely polite, and for that reason I am replying to it in this e-mail.
A) In your letter you say « First of all let me state that I am Albanian by descent, 33 years of age, that my national consciousness is Greek, that I love the Albanian language and that I try, with the modest means at my disposal, to save it from oblivion » You will permit me to warn you that Mr Bletsas, Greek by nationality and consciousness and Vlach by descent, was sentenced, for the very cause you mention, to 15 months imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 drachmas.
B) In another part of your letter you make the following astonishing statement:
« I am sorry, however, not that you have a different national consciousness - wholly understandable, I am aware of the history of the Slavo-Macedonians, and your absolute right - ».
« I am sorry, however, not that you have a different national consciousness - wholly understandable, I am aware of the history of the Slavo-Macedonians, and your absolute right - ».
I am not, for your information, a Slavo-Macedonian, as you call the ethnic Macedonians, but I have, like you, a national consciousness that is 100% Greek, and this I will have as long as I live. Of course, my national identity bears no relation to that conceived by Mr Paraskevaïdis, better known as Archbishop of Athens Chrystodoulos. As for the latter, I have my doubts.
C) With regard to my letter to Mr Prodi, you write that « The excesses and atrocities committed by both sides in Cyprus in the 1960s are well known; at least, all serious (and unblinkered) Greeks and Greek Cypriots know what their compatriots did there ».
You will allow me to tell you that unfortunately young people in Greece today know virtually nothing about what happened in Cyprus over Christmas of 1963, when crimes were committed chiefly by the three parastatal military groups led by Lyssaridis, Sampson and Georgatzis.
You will allow me to tell you that unfortunately young people in Greece today know virtually nothing about what happened in Cyprus over Christmas of 1963, when crimes were committed chiefly by the three parastatal military groups led by Lyssaridis, Sampson and Georgatzis.
These bodies were armed, with the familiar Czech weapons, by Makarios himself and were intended to back the forcible imposition of the Akritas plan if the Turkish Cypriots should reject the 13 amendments to the Cypriot Constitution. Abolition of these 13 articles would have stripped the Turkish Cypriots of all their minority rights.
As Head of State Archbishop Makarios bore the entire liability for any crimes perpetrated by these gentlemen, because his mission was to protect all those living in Cyprus.
For your further information I am forwarding by Attachment my two letters to Mr Prodi.
D) At the end of your letter you make another astonishing statement:
« your letter is monumentally dishonest, in the sense that it is a deliberate distortion of fact to someone else's benefit ».
The strangest thing about this is that, even in my discussions with responsible members of the Cypriot community, they all accepted that everything I said in my article had indeed taken place. Only one person, who also accepted the truth of what I wrote, had any objection to make, and that was that it is rumoured that the terrible crime of the murder of the wife of the Turkish major and their three small children, in a bathtub in their house, was the work of Turks, in order to calumniate the Greek Cypriots !!!!!!
« your letter is monumentally dishonest, in the sense that it is a deliberate distortion of fact to someone else's benefit ».
The strangest thing about this is that, even in my discussions with responsible members of the Cypriot community, they all accepted that everything I said in my article had indeed taken place. Only one person, who also accepted the truth of what I wrote, had any objection to make, and that was that it is rumoured that the terrible crime of the murder of the wife of the Turkish major and their three small children, in a bathtub in their house, was the work of Turks, in order to calumniate the Greek Cypriots !!!!!!
I think, Mr Vitaliotis, that even you will realise that any Turkish government that accepted a federal solution, that consented in other words to the return of Mr Lyssaridis and his fellows to the Turkish Cypriot sector, would be strung up in the main square of Ankara.
The only solution is a Confederation, or a loose Federation, with a constitutional provision prohibiting Greek or Greek Cypriot troops from entering the Turkish Cypriot sector of the island. This would guarantee, 100%, both the physical safety of the Turkish Cypriots and also the existence of a single Cypriot state, which is in the interests of Greek and Turkish Cypriots alike.
Dr Georgios Nakratzas
Chest physician - Writer
Thessalonica
Chest physician - Writer
Thessalonica
Rotterdam 26.11.2001
Political Advisor to the ?F? on Greek and Balkan minority affairs.
?F?: European Free Alliance.
Minority political group in the European Parliament.
Minority political group in the European Parliament.
Greeks with Integrity Coming Out of the Woodwork!
(The emboldening below is Holdwater's doing.)
GREEK CYPRIOT AUTHOR EXPLAINS GREEK CYPRIOT ATROCITIES
Greek Cypriot author, Antonis Angastiniyotis, who questioned Greek Cypriot nationalism in his written works and in his documentary "The Voice of Blood" drew attention to the mass massacres carried out by the Greek Cypriots against the Turkish Cypriots, dedicated his new article entitled, "Barbarism Against the Turkish Cypriots.The other side of the coin", to the Turkish Cypriot schoolchildren who were brutally massacred in Murataga
in 1974 and brought to light the Greek Cypriot brutality.
in 1974 and brought to light the Greek Cypriot brutality.
In his article Angastiniyotis said:
"I'm constantly asked why I'm opening old wounds and not letting the past to be forgotten. The answer is very simple. The wounds are not old, otherwise there wouldn't be mothers dressed in black, weapons, soldiers and borders. Although I've lived on this island for 40-years, I only began to explore the other half of the realities last year and what I discovered bore a deep wound in my soul.
When I got over the propaganda wall and realized that people were knowingly hiding the other half of the reality or they were distorting the reality, the past now becomes a frightening 'present.' If you want to find more than one reality, you need to constantly dig the soil until your hands are bloody. If you talk, they say you are a traitor, threaten your life, and most of your friends turn their backs on you. You can be totally alone.
Loneliness no longer frightens me. For a long time now, at nights a group of children from Murataga come to my bed and together we read short stories. They smile happily at me because I have told their stories to the world, whereas I am engulfed in tears because of not being able to count the number of bullet wounds in their small bodies before they leave. The wounds cannot be old because when I wake up I find blood stains on my white sheets. The wounds cannot be old because up until now no one has apologized.
The animosity between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots is not new. It didn't start in 1974, or in 1963, nor when the Byzantium Empire collapsed. It started much earlier; it started during the Cain and Abel period. The start of the animosity is in the hearts of the people and as long as it remains there, we will seek the opportunity to bury Cain's dead body or take revenge from Abel.
The purpose of writing this book is social, not political. However, it is not possible to avoid the political aspects of the events. The main aim is to address every Cypriot, especially the Greek Cypriots. Because I also learned to look at the political situation of Cyprus from this point of view.
Both the domestic tension created by the 24 April 2004 referendum with the aim of reunifying the island (Annan Plan) and my daily contacts with the world, takes me to only one conclusion. Extreme nationalism that is deeply rooted in peoples' hearts is the biggest obstacle for people to reconcile. For the situation to change permission must be given to explain the realities regarding the dark corners of history. It's not possible for people to clean their souls without regretting what they've done and it's not possible for them to regret what they've done without acknowledging their faults.
The majority of the Greek Cypriot youth know very little about the events that led to the island's division. The tragic events of 1974 have been used as a huge curtain to cover up the real events that led to the division of the two people. In our schools it has always surprised me that while talking about the heroism of EOKA, they skip 15-years and continue with 1974. Either nothing happened between 1960 and 1974, or no one wants to discuss this. While researching the events during this period (1960-74), I realized that the second choice was right.
Archbishop Makarios (from ATTILA '74)
When I started to write this research, my cousin from Greece and her two daughters came to visit me and we started to discuss the events of 1963-74. The daughters knew nothing and what their mother knew was very confusing. At one stage of the discussion I mentioned some of the Greek Cypriot leadership's mistakes and all of a sudden this brought out the nationalist monster in my cousin who said: "Makarios' biggest mistake was not to have killed all the Turkish Cypriots in order for us to be comfortable."
This sweet and pretty woman, who couldn't even kill an ant, had suddenly turned into a killer who could carry out mass murders. She wanted a whole race to be wiped out. This is what I said to her: "In other words, do you mean taking out all the children from school, all mothers with their babies and all the men from their work places and taking them to a big hole in Messaria and murder them. Do you want to be one of the murder(er)s or ... one of the persons using the bulldozer to cover the mass graves."
There was silence. The example I gave helped her to understand the meaning of what she said. Then I started to speak again. "We tried this before in Ayvasil, Murataga, Atlilar, Taskent, but the only thing we succeeded in was soughing the fruits of our efforts".
Since our childhood we were taught that the Turks were barbaric dogs. My aunt used to say to me that they smelled because they weren't baptised. Whereas according to the Bible, we are modern Christians who love their environment. Then, why did our religious leader Makarios in 1964 say that 'If Turkey comes to intervene to protect the Turkish Cypriots, she will not find a single Turkish Cypriot to save.' The answer is clear. In Cyprus there is a saying, 'another priest's sermon'. In certain situations this enables us to hate. This book will deal with some of these special situations.
While there are those who claim that 'the Cyprus problem started in 1974 and the problem is an issue of invasion and can be settled if the invading forces withdrew from the island,' the Turkish Cypriots know well what they would be faced with if Turkish troops left the island. Because the bitter pain of the 11-years before the arrival of the Turkish troops has not been erased from their memories. The EU should (say) to Papadopoulos, 'the Turkish troops brought peace to Cyprus, they are the protectors of peace because as you arm yourself to take over the whole of Cyprus under the usurped title of the Cyprus Government, the Turkish Cypriots have the right to be protected and to protect their state against you'.
Those who (value) peace, unification and reconciliation should see the realities and act realistically. The realities in Cyprus have been ignored for 40-years. These realities are the existence of two equal peoples in Cyprus with the right to self-determination and that neither one of these sides can dominate or represent the other and does not have the right to be the sole government of the whole of Cyprus."
Holdwater: Bravo, Mr. Angastiniyotis; you are very courageous, and a necessary reminder of how wonderful and honorable the Greek people can be. You have also hit the nail on the head with the way many Armenians think. BRAVO!
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© Holdwater
© Holdwater
tallarmeniantale.com/cyprus.htm
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