Cyprus-Forum.com

[Deejay]

George Lanitis, a well known Greek Cypriot journalist and a former Greek
Cypriot Public Information Officer, who had worked in New York and ondon, wrote in 'The Cyprus Weekly' (13 Oct.-19 Oct. 1995)

“ For many years the official line of the government of Cyprus was that
there were 1,619 missing persons as a result of the Turkish invasion in
1974. I was serving with the Foreign Information Service of the Republic of Cyprus in London and this was the figure I was given and I was repeating, bona fide, to British journalists, who asked me about this serious humanitarian issue. Similarly, when I was working in New York, I referred to this figure in articles, lectures and meetings. I deeply apologise to all those I have told that there are 1,619 missing persons. I misled them. I was made a liar, deliberately, by the Government of Cyprus. Successive governments knew, only too well, that the number of missing persons was smaller and that there was strong evidence proving that a certain number of people claimed to be missing, were either killed in action or murdered....Governments can not afford to tell lies as they loose their credibility. Now it seems that the credibility of Cyprus is nil. Consecutive Greek Cypriot governments lied to the relatives of missing persons, to the people of Cyprus, to the United Nations and to the world community. Shame is perhaps too meaningless a word. Respect is due to those, who, even late in the day, had the courage to tell the bitter truth.”

"Papatsestos: Two days after the coup, on I7 July, I witnessed Something
which has perhaps never been witnessed by any mortal before. I saw a young Greek Cypriot buried alive. That was when two Junta officers came to my house and ordered me to accompany them to the cemetery. I thought they were going to kill me, but they said they only wanted me for burying some dead people. In the cemetery there were two open graves and two bodies lying beside them. I went to see if I could recognise them.

One was dead. But the other, a curly-haired, fair-complexioned, I8 year old youth, was moving.

Startled, I turned back and shouted: 'But Officer, this man is alive!' 'Shut
up you dirty priest, or I will shut you up for good', the officer retorted.
Then the youth was pushed into the open grave, which was filled with earth.

I swear to God that they buried this Youth while he was still alive!
(Pointing at the cemetery, Papatsestos said) Here people were buried like
dogs by the Junta. 'There were also bodies, which had been dumped outside the cemetery. They were not identified, and. not claimed. As a priest my conscience is troubled but they were holding a pistol to my head at the time. I remember the day they first came to me. They said. 'Father, we have some dead bodies, which we want you to bury'. 'Certainly', I replied and asked how many bodies they had. Seventy-seven they said. An hour later a lorry arrived and I heard someone order: 'Dump them outside'. They were the dead bodies; they were all put in one common grave, without waiting for identification by their relatives. The junta men produced some small crosses (seven only!), wrote some names on them and put them on the grave.

The Junta men scornfully called persons loyal to Makarios 'Muskos supporters'; and wanted to bury them 'like dogs', in a sheepfold outside the cemetery. And that is what they did in the end. They dug two graves with excavator, one inside and the other outside the cemetery. They buried their own dead (27) inside the cemetery and others (50) outside.



Ta Nea: Father, about the young man buried alive, could he have been saved?


Papatsestos: Of course he could have been saved. He had a wound in the right leg. I went to the hospital and asked a doctor there if a dead man could move. The doctor laughed and said 'No'. But I was not the one who had buried him alive.

Ta Nea: Could you recognise any of the junta men?

Papatsestos: They had all come from Greece for the coup. They were looting, they even broke into my house. They entered houses on the pretext of searching for deserters but actually stole valuable articles from them.

Ta Nea: Have you witnessed any other atrocities?

Papatsestos: I listened to telephone conversations between junta men. In one case they were talking about the people resisting at Kaimakli suburb, and saying: 'Shoot them all, have no mercy at all!' I also noticed that in the hospital they were giving polluted water to the sick.

Ta Nea: Father, could you swear that you have not secretly buried dead Turks in the cemetery?

Papatsestos: Only about 10. We did not know who they were or wear they were found.

TA Nea: How many bodies did you bury during the coup?

Papatsestos: 127, fifty of them were collected from the streets and they
were buried outside the cemetery; the other 77 were buried inside.

TA Nea: If the Turkish invasion had not taken place, would more Greek
Cypriots have been killed in the coup?

Papatsestos: Oh yes, many more. They wanted kill me too. It is rather a hard thing to say, but it is true that the Turkish intervention saved us from a merciless internecine war. They had prepared a list of all makarios
supporters and they would have slaughtered them all.

TA Nea: Now, father tell me sincerely, were people brutally killed in those
days

Papaptsestos: Yes my son. Massacres were committed outside the Kykko
monastery and in Limassol I heard with my own ears the order; 'all of them, to the last man, must be killed tonight.' Those who have witnessed these crimes are afraid to speak, as a matter of fact most of them are Grivas supporters and they will never speak.

Papatsestos have declared that he would tell his story and worries to the
Greek Premier, Mr. Constantine Karamanlis, because Makarios has done nothing about them.

TA Nea 28 February 1976


The following is the testimony of the Greek Cypriot priest

Papatsestos published in the Greek newspaper Ta Nea.
CONFESSION OF GEORGE LANITIS

[cannedmoose]

Point being... don't just post massive copy-and-paste chunks of text, have something to say about it at least

[Deejay]

I wanna know what you all think bout this article?

Thanks guys.

[cannedmoose]

I wanna know what you all think bout this article?

Thanks guys.

I thought you were leaving arkadaşım

[brother]

I think true stories like this has to be told to let people know what happened and not mislead them, i hope their is many more like this priest on both sides ready to tell the trueth however painful or horrendous.

[uzan]

[

Thanks guys.[/quote]

I thought you were leaving arkadaşım[/quote]truth is heard.

[Agios Amvrosios]

His comments are probably political.

My uncles ,my mother's brother's ,who are missing people were taken to Turkey and kept in prison. Other inmates from my mother's village returned from Turkey 3 months later. My paternal grandfather and his step father(who was blind) were also taken to turkey but they were returned after 3 months. When my grand father returned from Cyprus he had lost 15 kilos and had a broken arm which had not properly healed. My grand father's step father died shortly after returning. My grand father told me that he was given a handful of about 5-6 olives a day and a little bit of bread while they kept him in Turkey. My grandfather gave most of his rations to his step father because he was dying. There was a single cup and a bucket of drinking water to be shared by all the prisoners.

No i do not know what happened to other people but my Uncles are missing because they never returned from Turkey.

The hardest thing is that they were teenagers. Its difficult to deal with and they are always remembered by my family as being immature teenagers. They would be middle aged with families if they were alive now.

[uzan]

His comments are probably political.Yes you are right ,and Ican say samethink to you your comment are probably political to.

My uncles ,my mother's brother's ,who are missing people were taken to Turkey and kept in prison. Other inmates from my mother's village returned from Turkey 3 months later. My paternal grandfather and his step father(who was blind) were also taken to turkey but they were returned after 3 months. When my grand father returned from Cyprus he had lost 15 kilos and had a broken arm which had not properly healed. My grand father's step father died shortly after returning. My grand father told me that he was given a handful of about 5-6 olives a day and a little bit of bread while they kept him in Turkey. My grandfather gave most of his rations to his step father because he was dying. There was a single cup and a bucket of drinking water to be shared by all the prisoners.

No i do not know what happened to other people but my Uncles are missing because they never returned from Turkey.

The hardest thing is that they were teenagers. Its difficult to deal with and they are always remembered by my family as being immature teenagers. They would be middle aged with families if they were alive now.

Iam really sorry to hear that,war is war you never ever know what will happend to you or your love ones.My father killed front of us by our greek neigbours.I can't forget that at never will be.It took me so many years to came turns all greeks are not same.Now I can talk to them and we can talk about cyprus. I realiesed we can't go like list if we all the time dick the past .We can't be able to resovel THE CYPRUS PROPLEM. WE SHOULD ABLE TO LEARN TO LIVE TOGETHER IN HARMONY.