Cyprus-Forum.com

[Bananiot]

Have you heard Papadopoulos's version on the event?

[denizaksulu]

Have you heard Papadopoulos's version on the event?

Lets have Bananiot. It seems tat not two sides, but we have three sides to this sad story.

[Oracle]

Have you heard Papadopoulos's version on the event?

Will this be a Bananiot version of the Papadopoulos version? .... or will there be some uncharacteristic provision of evidence? .... seeing as it's nearly Christmas (miracles could happen )

[Bananiot]

Papadopoulos was speaking to Lazaros Mavros, the maverick journalist who overflows with nationalism and of course, Mavros played the interview again the day after his funeral, in order to honour him. Papadopoulos was asked about the case by Mavros and he replied that Greek Cypriot militia were trying to flash out Turkish Cypriot snipers from houses in a built up area. I think he mentioned the village of Yerolakkos. He explained that in such cases, there is a need to use grenades and that grenades were tossed in houses and that this was the only way to make any progress. Unfortunately, he said, one of the grenades killed the three young kids and this was nothing but an unfortunate incident which is likely to happen in any war. Then, he went on to explain that the Turkish Cypriots later tried to exploit the tragic death of the kids and that the Turks deliberately placed the lifeless bodies of the dead kids in the bath so that the scene could arouse strong emotions against the Greek side.

[denizaksulu]

So this atrocity is now claimed by both sides. Oh the poor innocents.

May they rest in peace.

[BirKibrisli]

I took my 9 year old son horseriding in the Megallong Valley,near Sydney yesterday...Our guide turned out to be a Greek Cypriot man of 22 ( a boy really) who was on a working holiday in Australia...He was a most pleasant young man,but somewhat taken back when he found out I was of Turkish Cypriot origin... He had never spoken to a TC before,had never crossed to the North...During our hour-long ride we talked about Cyprus now and Cyprus during the era this thread is about...What made me sad, but didnt surprise me, was that he had no idea at all of the 63 events...He thought the Cyprus problem started in 1974 when Turkey invaded...By the end of hour talk he was angry at the Cypriot authorities for only teaching him half the story...He gave me his email adress and insisted I visit him in Cyprus when I am there next...He lives in Polis...About 15 kms from my place of birth...

So,yes,these stories must be told in the spririt of reconciliation...
If we don't know our past we cannot really get the future right...

And before GR or Oracle gets in, I have no link for this story...I am the source,and I exist...

[Nikitas]

The killings in 1963 are half the story. The other half, the really unforgiveable one, is that between 1968 and 1974, when the trouble had quieted down and there were no clashes, we GCs forgot that there were TCs on the island. It was a strange situation, out of sight out of mind. I lived in London at the time and went to Cyprus in the summer of 1973. Maybe I had the advantage of the detachment that distance gives, but the abnormality in the situation was evident, you could almost touch it. Every time I mentioned it I received strange looks from family and friends. They could not fathom what I was talking about.

Talking to student friends that I left behind years earlier, especially those who had gone to Athens to study and had become involved in the EOKA B side, another thing was evident, to me anyway. Their political involvement had nothing to do with patriotism or nationalism. It was boredom that led them to so called politics.

I know it sounds almost insolent to say this, but that was the perception then, and it still feels right. None of these guys could tell you a thing about the practicalities of their ideal- Enosis. They had never thought about it because their concern was to be involved in something big, a big idea in a small place. A big idea that took them out of the boredom of life in a small island and made them feel important.

And to get back to the situation in 1963. Sure there were politics at work, and machinations by both motherlands. But there was also a personal level which we overlook. In a small place where everyone knows everyone, 1963 was payback for 1958 on a very personal level. It is no coincidence that the worst was done by GCs in Omorfita, where the worst was done by TCs in 1958. I feel sure that the people who fought in Omorfita in December 1963 knew each other by first name. This is not to excuse the events, but it is an explanation that we should not overlook when we are talking about a solution and the future.

[Bananiot]

Can't really buy that Nikitas, sorry.

[Jerry]

I took my 9 year old son horseriding in the Megallong Valley,near Sydney yesterday...Our guide turned out to be a Greek Cypriot man of 22 ( a boy really) who was on a working holiday in Australia...He was a most pleasant young man,but somewhat taken back when he found out I was of Turkish Cypriot origin... He had never spoken to a TC before,had never crossed to the North...During our hour-long ride we talked about Cyprus now and Cyprus during the era this thread is about...What made me sad, but didnt surprise me, was that he had no idea at all of the 63 events...He thought the Cyprus problem started in 1974 when Turkey invaded...By the end of hour talk he was angry at the Cypriot authorities for only teaching him half the story...He gave me his email adress and insisted I visit him in Cyprus when I am there next...He lives in Polis...About 15 kms from my place of birth...

So,yes,these stories must be told in the spririt of reconciliation...
If we don't know our past we cannot really get the future right...

And before GR or Oracle gets in, I have no link for this story...I am the source,and I exist...

I hope you persuaded him to join the forum Bir, or at least to watch and learn.

[Tim Drayton]

I was starting to wonder if had just dreamed about the debate in the TC press about the Kumsal massacre and the "children in the bath" photograph, but I am starting to track one or two articles down.

Here are a couple of articles in Turkish that appeared in the press last February:

http://www.kibrisgazetesi.com/printa.ph ... 0&art=5223

http://www.volkangazetesi.net/index.asp ... ewsid=2767

I am in no way trying to deny the horror that was experienced by many Turkish Cypriots in 1963-1964, but on the other hand the official account of the events at that house in Kumsal on 24 December 1963 do not entirely seem to ring true. This is important given the way the Turkish Cypriot leadership has exploited this event - having turned the house into a "Museum of Barbarism" and preserved the bloodstained bath - to bring up a generation of Turkish Cypriots to believe that Turkish and Greek Cypriots can never again live together.