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Justice for Cyprus
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The following is a report of the
"Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 the biggest crime in Europe in second half of 20th century, Cyprus envoy says
Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 the biggest crime in Europe in second half of 20th century, Cyprus envoy says
The Ambassador of Cyprus to Athens George Georgis said on Sunday the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 was the biggest crime perpetrated in Europe in the second half of the 20th century.
Georgis was addressing a memorial service held at the Athens Cathedral in memory of those who lost their lives during the tragedy of
He added that with the pretext of protecting the Turkish minority, which constitutes 18 percent of the population,
Georgis reminded that the rejection of the Annan plan by 76 percent of the people of
The memorial service was organised by the
Turkish invasion of
<http://www.lobbyforcyprus.org/press/press2005/ana_180705_invasion1974.htm>
FRENCH MUSICIAN CONDUCTS ONE-MAN ANTI-OCCUPATION PROTEST IN CYPRUS
_Nicosia, 16/08/1998 (MPA)_ A French musician and avid friend of Cyprus conducted a 24 hour one-man anti-occupation protest at the Dherynia checkpoint on Thursday to demonstrate against the continued occupation of the island's northern third.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, Michel Maillard, who is married to a Greek Cypriot from the Turkish occupied town of Famagusta, said he will remain under a tent at the Dherynia checkpoint, in the eastern coast, just like refugees did back in 1974.
His 24-hour vigil coincides with Thursday's 24th anniversary of the second phase of the Turkish invasion, and the second anniversary since the murder of Greek Cypriots, Tasos Isaak and Solomos Solomou, brutally killed by Turkish extremists during demonstrations in the Dherynia buffer zone in 1996.
Maillard said that "the world rushed to save Kuwait, the world is crying for Kosovo, but the world forgets the drama of Cyprus".
With his symbolic protest, Maillard said he wants to "say no to the fait accompli which the Turkish invasion has imposed to secure the division of Cyprus".
He said it is a shame that European countries, and especially France which is a human rights advocate, continue to support Turkey, a country where human rights are violated every day.
Maillard said the people of Cyprus should have the freedom of movement in their own country and refugees should be able to return to their homes.
FRENCH MUSICIAN CONDUCTS ONE-MAN ANTI-OCCUPATION PROTEST IN CYPRUS, July 16, 1998. March 7, 2006.
Amanda Lee was on holiday in northern Cyprus at the time of the invasion
I was in Kyrenia at the time of the invasion. I'd been out there for a month, on holiday and was out at the Six Mile Beach when the news had come a few days before of the deposition of Makarios and the attempted coup by the Greek Cypriots.
I had a long walk back to town that first day, as all the public transport stopped.
There was fighting round our hotel that first evening, as those involved in the attempted coup fought the other Cypriots.
Very noisy it was.
Amanda Lee, UK | ||||||
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A couple of days later, as the news wasn't getting any better and I had to get back to Akrotiri for my flight home (I was in the RAF at the time), I persuaded some Cypriot friends to smuggle me into Nicosia and then down across the central plain to Akrotiri.
Rather nerve-wracking although I was glad I'd got out just before the Turkish troops arrived in Kyrenia because those holiday makers left in the town were stuck for some time and were eventually taken off by RN ships.
The friends in whose hotel I had been staying, being Greek Cypriots, lost everything - and they'd only opened that summer.
The situation in Kyrenia had always seemed less fraught than in some other areas, with less space between the Turkish and Greek communities.
A tragedy all round.
Christopher Christofi was eight years old when the conflict came to his village
I was from a village called Davlos near Kantara Castle which had a radio and television mast located on the mountain.
I recall Turkish jets bombing the mountain, after which they flew past the burning forests and then down to the village. There they strafed us in the fields where we had gone for shelter.
Christopher Christofi, UK | ||||||
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I recall my father ordering me to dash across a hot and dusty wheat field to get away from the strafing, whilst he ran holding my newborn baby sister, and I remember a final jump down a crevice of five or so feet - an Olympian task it appeared to me.
After the shadow of the jets disappeared we popped our head over the edge of the crevice. Soon after a Turkish jet went spinning into a nearby mountain, its wing missing from the hit scored by the anti-aircraft guns on Kantara.
The explosion was seen before it was heard and each repeat prompted a cheer from the harassed villagers who had all tuned their radios in to hear the news and listen to the incessant martial music.
That evening a table was made at the local taverna for the National Guard troops who descended the windy roads from the mountain in their battered truck for some respite. Although weary, they all seemed very young - a mixture of shyness and dash.
That evening the mountain had a red glow from the raging forest fires. My father went to Kantara to help the National Guardsmen.
The next day he brought some "trophies" - bits of a Turkish jet shot down nearby. I held on to these as I saw the National Guard truck drive by containing the covered bodies of the same Guardsmen who had been dining the night before.
Antonis Antoniou was only five years old during the invasion, but vividly remembers the fear he felt
I remember the sound of the airplanes and bombs. The fear, the pain and cries of women and children running to save their life.
Antonis Antoniou, VA USA | ||||||
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I remember people crying over their relatives' graves. My family was forced out of their land just because they were Greek-Cypriots. I spent my early years in tents, old houses and refugee camps. We had no food and we had to stand in line for UN aid.
I grew up in fear that the Turkish army would proceed further and kill more people. I also remember very well the arrogant and the discriminative policies of the British soldiers, the "civilized" force, when we were hungry and asking for help.
We had a family, a life a house and one morning we woke up hungry and scared in some olive tree field. All that because we had the bad-luck to be born Greek-Cypriots.
Thirty years later I realise the pity. War is evil and no one wins. Sadly enough, war is decided by "educated" people like diplomats and politicians. They sit at their fancy UN headquarters with their fancy "elite" style making war decisions for poor innocent people. I only wish that their children will never experience war in their life.
Panos Hadjinicolaou's father was murdered by Turkish Cypriots in August 1974
I was six years old. We were on holidays in our family house in Yialousa, a coastal Greek Cypriot village in Karpasia, with a population of 2500.
The Turkish army, despite the agreed ceasefire, went on to the second phase of the invasion in early August. Turkish soldiers, together with Turkish Cypriots, walked into the village cafe and arrested nine Greek-Cypriot civilians - one of them was my father.
Panos Hadjinicolaou, UK | ||||||
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Rumours say they were executed in a nearby village as a revenge to previous Greek-Cypriot violence in the area.
Turkey's response to the Greek intervention in Cyprus was disproportionate in force and brutality. An "emergency intervention" ended up a permanent land grab. Innocent people paid with their lives for the Greek nationalistic stupidity, the Turkish aggressiveness and the Anglo-American interests.
I don't want any more revenge. I want to find my father's remains and remember him properly. But, more than that, I want go back to my village, which is currently being bulldozed illegally by the Turks for a tourist "development", and re-connect with my memories and the other half of myself left in the north.
Hakan Mehmet was a member of the Turkish resistance organisation, the TMT
I was 16 at the time and we were all obliged to receive military training to fight the Greeks.
At first we were happy the Turks invaded. I remember unspeakable things being done to innocent Greek Cypriot villagers, but at the time our euphoria was such that rape and murder were hailed as patriotic acts.
Hakan Mehmet, UK | ||||||
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I remember one incident when 17 men from Ephtakomi village were dragged from their houses and executed. I was ashamed and left Cyprus soon after. The worse thing was my villagers from Galatia village were responsible.
Since that time I have tried to come to terms with what many of our leaders term a "peace operation". For peace we should be mature enough to accept what we as Turks did wrong - the atrocities committed in our name - and recognise 1974 for what it was, a brutal invasion and violation of Greek Cypriot human right and Turkish Cypriot cultural survival.
Andreas Charalambous was forced out of his village after the invasion
I was a young boy living happily with my family in a small village in Karpasia at the time. When the invasion occurred people panicked. There was very little fighting in our region and Turkish troops along with local Turkish Cypriot entered our village three weeks later.
They proceeded to round up all the men folk and beat them publicly in the village square before taking them to concentration camps in Turkey. Local Turkish Cypriots who a few days before were out neighbours joined in.
I remember one guy leading the mainland troops into the village and dragging people from their houses. He still lives happily in Ayios Andronikos village in Cyprus.
We were forced out one year later after being subjected to the worst humiliation and abuse the Turkish army had to offer. Whatever they say, it was no peace operation - the Turkish invasion was a brutal barbaric act and Turks should wake up and treat it for what it is, instead of celebrating genocide against the Greek Cypriots of northern Cyprus.
If the Germans can be mature to reflect on the Holocaust why can't the Turks do the same?
James was a child during the invasion whose family was attacked by Turkish troops
I was a 12 year old living in Cyprus during this dreadful time. I was in a small village when the Turkish Soldiers came in and started being really nasty to all the villagers.
One so-called soldier came into our house. He hit my 75-year-old grandfather, ransacked our little house, shot our dog and hit me on the way out. I remember his face, his nasty grin. I hope this guy sleeps well at night - there is a lot more I can say about him and his colleagues. May god forgive them because I know I cannot.
Fear and confusion as the Turks invaded, running out under the cover of night with nothing but the clothes on our backs.
Demetris Drakos, Cyprus | ||||||
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Leaving behind our ancestral homes, our lives and in some cases or loved ones.
And the violation still continues with churches being converted to stables and mosques and Cypriots being denied the most basic of human rights to live where they like and be free.
And the international community is doing nothing about this as Turkey we know is of great importance to the western powers and they do not want to upset the "just" state where article 305 of the legal code there can land you in prison for 10 years for simply saying in public "Turkish troops out of Cyprus".
All we want is the right to return to our homes, to our deceased ones to cry for them and our churches to pray in.
Demetris Drakos, Cyprus
I was 18 years old when I woke up to a war in Cyprus. Thirty years later I think of my Greek friends and wonder if they made it.
I was with the British forces as a civilian and had two baby girls. I was trapped in Limassol for three days with my little babies. I was lucky I was allowed the sanctuary of Akrotiri air force base, where we stayed for three weeks and listened to the massacre. I will never forget.
Brenda Wise, England
I was four years old when we left our Eftakomi village with the clothes on our backs and the tears in our eyes.
I went back 30 years later. Our first stop was the cemetery. My mother trying to find her father's unmarked grave, trying to remember the location her mother had told her about.
She held a bottle of holy water and both she and my father kept saying: if she was still alive she would know.
Unfortunately or fortunately my grandmother died in 2001 in the "free" Cyprus, two years before we were "allowed" to return to Eftakomi with a "visa".
We never found my grandfather's grave. My mother emptied the bottle of holy water everywhere she thought he might be and I tried to envision his smile as if he were alive asking him to guide me.
He was the life of the village. Everyone knew "ton Kroko". Stand-up comedian with an abundance of Turkish Cypriot friends. The barber who once made a soon to be groom bald just for a prank. Everyone loved him.
The second year we visited a Turkish Cypriot friend we encountered in the village came with us. We searched for the grave together and his eyes watered along with ours.
Again, the holy water sprinkled on the area we thought he might be and the Turkish friend telling us: "You sprinkle water too on the dead, just like us?"
Similar and the same we are Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, one face and one heart but yet the cemetery was even more devastated this summer. We couldn't see any more crosses on the graves, the few that were there the first year had disappeared, the tombstones had been broken and some moved as if the dead souls would go away if their monuments didn't exist.
Brothers and sisters we are, we are not Greeks or Turks, let's just call ourselves Cypriots, no other labeling, no more atrocities, erase the pain and live in peace just like then when o Krokos drank coffe with Mourat in Theoulos' coffee house.
They were smart enough to know that they shouldn't even look at the hate trees that had been planted by those who wished to eat their fruit one day. The big shots, the politicians, and the money-makers.
The companies buying the land in Varosi and Yialousa so their souls can be encrusted in bloody gold when they descend in the unknown. And beautiful Eftakomi and Yiouti and Krokos and Mourat untouched by all and alive still.
Despina, US
1974: Cyprus - 'a tragedy all round', march 10, 2006.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/witness/july/20/newsid_3880000/3880605.stm>
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In Memory. March 18, 2006.
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