Cyprus-Forum.com

[denizaksulu]

...ironically, mud houses are the healthiest to live in.

They did provide ample housing for snakes, sparrows, alizavras (little lizards ) and God knows what else. Oh, I nearly forgot, humans too.

Happy New Year

[zan]

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 springs, children's cots, and gray 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's. In neither village did I find a scrap of damage to any Greek Cypriot house."

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."

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."

[zan]

Razed but not forgotten – 32 year old rubble

21.11.2008

By Marion Stuart




Until 1976 these piles of rubble in the south of Cyprus were houses, fifty-five of them, housing Turkish Cypriot families who worked mainly on the land and at the end of their days were then buried in the cemetery in the village. The families fled in 1974 to safety leaving the houses to be occupied by Greek Cypriot refugees from the north.
One of these refugees was ‘Costas’, who, together with his wife ‘Theodora’, moved in with their children. They were happy to be in a village which had been the home of Turkish Cypriots. This meant a lot to him as, in his former village a group of Greek Cypriots had come to take his life because of his political views, and he had been saved by Turkish Cypriots.
‘Costas’ is a man of strong opinions and when he was told to leave his ‘new’ home in the south - a village halfway between Larnaca and Limassol - he refused and stayed there with his ten children while all the other houses were razed to the ground, and the other Greek Cypriots rehoused. Many had new homes built for them outside the old village and are still there today.
‘Costas’ was saddened to see not only former homes destroyed but that the cemetery, which housed the remains of loved ones of earlier years, was also erased as all the village had disappeared into piles of rubble. These piles remain to this day as a reminder of unnecessary spiteful destruction, a fate suffered by many villages in the south, one of which, Yagmuralan, is fighting back. Last week the Cyprus Observer told how the people of Yagmuralan have gone to the European Court of Human Rights in an effort to make the point that it is not only the Greek Cypriots who have suffered losses. Unfortunately, for ‘Costa’s’ current village there is, at the moment, no one who will follow the lead taken by Yagmuralan.
The reason this village is not being named here is because ‘Costa’s’ life is always under threat following his love for Turkish Cypriots and all they have done for him.
‘Costas’ of course is not his real name, and it is only right and proper that he is protected as much as possible so that he can see out his days in the house that is his home.

Sad memories meet happy new life

Since the border opened, ‘Costas’ has met the original owner of the humble property in which he lives and they have become friends, as have others who lived in the village prior to 1974. One of these men, ‘Ahmet’ (another pseudonym), speaks of the days he lived there as a boy, when he witnessed an old man burnt to death in his bed, and another young boy shot for no reason other than hatred.
On a recent visit ‘Ahmet’ and ‘Costas’ shared tales of the 1950s, 60s and 70s when life in Cyprus seemed to be full of bloodshed and fear. ‘Costas’ told of how Turkish Cypriots in his old village hid him and his family, giving them food and shelter for 16 days in 1967. He had been working in the fields when he heard that men had come to kill all Makarios’ supporters, and he recalled that he banged his head against a tree in sheer despair as to what he could do.
‘Costas’ is now in his 80s, with his wife being a little younger, and he is proud of his ten children, 32 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. He is equally proud of the certificate he has on the wall of his home which tells of his service in the British Army in 1942, but he is not proud of what his fellow countrymen did to the village in 1976. His heart is so full of sadness at what was done that all his sympathy and support is for the Turkish Cypriots. This was clearly indicated as he went into his bedroom and produced an armful of shirts and trousers given to him by his generous children and grandchildren. With a gentle smile on his face and a warm tone in his voice, he gave them to ‘Ahmet’ saying “My children are too generous. I can only wear a few clothes. Please take them and give them to the poor people of your village. I would burn them before I gave them to the Greek Cypriots.” These gifts of clothing were accompanied by fresh figs taken from the few trees that ‘Costas’ tends on the land behind his home. For, in spite of his advancing years, his wiry frame is fit, kept so with hard work on the land and still doing a little building work which was his trade.
The piles of rubble which surround his home are a reminder to ‘Costas’ of unhappy days and of the needless destruction. They are also reminders of the lives of families now long gone. Whether any living members of those families will join those of Yagmuralan in protesting at the ECHR remains to be seen, but the presence of ‘Costas’ and his family in the area helps to preserve the memory of how Cypriots can work and live together in love and friendship.
Sadly, in the heart of ‘Costas’ there is little hope of any reconciliation, for the tears that almost flow as he talks of the good and kindness of Turkish Cypriots are also present as he shares his own personal feelings for the future as the piles of rubble that surround him indicate a destruction that can never be undone.

[Get Real!]

Oh no! It’s the alleged quotes from Michael Steven’s crap doing the milk run again…

How about a new year’s resolution to be more credible Zanny?

[denizaksulu]

Oh no! It’s the alleged quotes from Michael Steven’s crap doing the milk run again…

How about a new year’s resolution to be more credible Zanny?

If Piratis can do re-runs ad infinitum, then so can ZAN. This is where there should be parity GR. Stop Piratis first, then................

[Get Real!]

Oh no! It’s the alleged quotes from Michael Steven’s crap doing the milk run again…

How about a new year’s resolution to be more credible Zanny?

If Piratis can do re-runs ad infinitum, then so can ZAN. This is where there should be parity GR. Stop Piratis first, then................

I was hoping we'd have a new year... try something new... take an alternative route maybe but Zanny is laying the groundwork for another repeat of last year it seems.

I for one don't plan to spend this year repeating the same stuff again over and over, so those that do may end up talking to themselves on this forum pretty soon.

[zan]

Oh no! It’s the alleged quotes from Michael Steven’s crap doing the milk run again…

How about a new year’s resolution to be more credible Zanny?

If Piratis can do re-runs ad infinitum, then so can ZAN. This is where there should be parity GR. Stop Piratis first, then................

As long as these crooks try to tell the world their lies then I am here.

[zan]

On 10 September 1964 the UN Secretary-General reported (UN doc. S/5950):
"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."

[zan]

Dr Georgios Nakratzas
Chest-physician, Writer
Postbox 50573
54013 Thessaloniki
Greece
E-mail: [email protected]
To: Mr. Prodi,
The Members of the European Parliament

Thessaloniki 29 August 2001


Dear Mr. Prodi, and Members of the European Parliament,

In view of the fact that the negotiations on the entry of the Republic of Cyprus into the European Union are shortly to enter a new and more urgent phase, as a Greek supporter of the rights of minorities in the Greek-speaking world I feel I should draw your attention to the conduct of the Greek Cypriot majority towards the Turkish Cypriot minority in 1963.
In the international press the year 1974 is referred to as the starting point of the problems of the Republic of Cyprus. And this was indeed the year when the Greek junta organized a military intervention in Cyprus intended to lead to the assassination of the President, Archbishop Makarios.
It was this criminal action on the part of Greece, which offered Turkey the pretext it needed for direct military intervention in Cyprus in its capacity as third guarantor power.
The Republic of Cyprus still derives its legitimacy from the treaty of Geneva, signed in 1959, but its political problems date from 1963.
It was in this year that the Cypriot President, Archbishop Makarios, violated the Geneva treaty by attempting to use military force to annul 13 articles of the Cypriot Constitution, thereby removing almost all the rights of the Turkish Cypriot minority as established in 1959.
Subsequently the Turkish Cypriot population was obliged to live for the next 11 years within the confines of 6 enclaves, making up just 4.86% of Cypriot territory. In 1974, following the Turkish military intervention, the Turkish Cypriots were removed to the northern part of the island. For further details of the events of 1963 I refer you to the article below, written by myself and published in 1999 in one of the smaller Athens newspapers.
In my view it would be a tragic mistake to admit Cyprus into the European Union before a final settlement of its political problem has been reached – one acceptable to the Turkish Cypriot minority. Postponement of a definitive solution until the period following the island’s entry into the European Union would constitute a violation of the rights of the Turkish Cypriot minority which would lead to a situation in certain ways comparable to that prevailing today in Bosnia-Herzegovina.





NEA ANATOLI
Organ of the Central Committee of the O.A.K.K.E or O.R.C.P.G

Offices: Halkokondyli 35, tel./fax ++30 1 5232553
Athens , Friday 1 October 1999, No. 337, 200 dr.
___________________________________________________________________

The Bloody Co-existence of
Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots
(1963–1974)

George Nakratzas

Any nationalist expansionist policy can be carried out only by means of war. And the people have to be psychologically prepared for this by a propaganda device, which idealises their own acts and demonizes those of the enemy.
Greece has employed this device in the past, and continues to do so today, one typical exponent being the new Archbishop of Athens, Christodoulos, who has publicly, in the presence of the President of the Hellenic Republic, referred to the Turks as ‘the eastern barbarians’.
It is a well-known fact that the Turks treated the Greek minority in Istanbul with great barbarity in 1955; and it is equally well known that dozens, if not hundreds, of Greek Cypriot captives were executed in Cyprus in 1974. Rauf Denktash has publicly admitted it.
But what the young people of Greece have no idea of is that Turkish Cypriots were murdered by the parastatal groups run by Sampson, Yeorgadzis, and Lyssaridis between 1963 and 1967. It should be borne in mind that at that time the Cypriot government was responsible for safeguarding the life, the honour, and the property of all Cypriot citizens, irrespective of national or religious identity.
A somewhat more detailed analysis of the Greek and foreign literature on the events in Cyprus in this period may fill the gap in young modern Greeks’ knowledge.
The invasion of Cyprus by the Turkish army in 1974 resulted in the partition of the island into two zones, a northern zone populated by Turkish Cypriots and Turkish settlers and a southern zone populated by Greek Cypriots. Since then, the Cypriot government has steadfastly demanded the withdrawal of the Turkish occupation forces so that Cyprus may be restored to its former status. However, a study of the relations between the two communities between 1963 and 1967 may tell us something about the quality of their ‘peaceful co-existence’.
Regarding the Greek Cypriots’ supposed intention to live in peace and equality with the Turkish Cypriots, an extract from a speech by Archbishop Makarios in the village of Panayia is particularly telling. It is quoted by Rustem and Brother, according to whom, on 4 September 1962, Makarios said: Until this small Turkish community, forming a part of the Turkish race, which has been the terrible enemy of Hellenism, is expelled, the duty of the heroes of EOKA can never be considered as terminated. (1, p. 47)
A letter from Denktash protesting about the Panayia speech was never answered.
Fourteen months later, on 30 November 1963, Makarios submitted his famous thirteen-point amendment of the Constitution, in direct contravention, as he himself publicly admitted, of the Geneva Convention (2, p. 56). The Geneva Convention ruled out any unilateral change to the Cypriot Constitution, as also any partition of the island or unification with Greece. It should be borne in mind that even today the Republic of Cyprus derives its legitimacy from the Geneva Convention.
Makarios’s proposed changes would have meant that the Turkish Vice-President would lose his right of veto and would be elected not by the Turkish Cypriots but by the parliamentary majority, i.e. the Greek Cypriots. These two articles, together with another nine similar ones, would have lost the Turkish Cypriots the rights which the Cypriot Constitution had guaranteed them until then.
The Cypriot mass media presented the Turkish Cypriots’ refusal to accept this unilateral amendment of the Constitution as ‘Turkish insubordination to the state’, which was quite untrue, because, as we have seen, from a legal point of view it was not the Turkish Cypriots, but Makarios who had made a unilateral, arbitrary attempt to violate the Constitution.
General Karayannis, Commander of the Cypriot National Guard, confirmed that it was not the Turks who initiated the so-called insubordination in an interview in Ethnikos Kirix on 15 June 1965:
When the Turks objected to the amendment of the Constitution, Archbishop Makarios put his plan into effect and the Greek attack began in December 1963. (3, p. 87)
That Makarios had a premeditated plan to exterminate the Turks is also indirectly confirmed by the Communist Party of Cyprus, which published the following critique of the Archbishop in issue No. 57 of its organ Neos Dimokratis in July 1979: Armed by Makarios, Mr Lyssaridis . . . formed his own armed bands, which, in 1963–4, together with those of Yeorgadzis and Sampson, waged a ‘liberation struggle’ against the Turkish Cypriots and as a result brought us the Green Line and, eventually, Attila. (2, p. 67)
That the sole purpose of the so-called liberation struggle was to force the Turkish Cypriots to yield to Makarios’s unilateral amendment of the Constitution is also officially revealed by an article in the Cypriot newspaper Haravyi, which was published on the second day of the clashes, 22 December 1963: And since it is accepted that the tension is the result of the climate created by the Zurich and London agreements and the undemocratic terms of the Constitution, . . . the Turkish government, . . . which is inflaming the tempers of our fanatical compatriots, and the Turkish Cypriot leadership must reconsider their negative attitude and approach the President of the Republic’s proposals in a constructive manner. (2, p. 73)
The Greek Cypriot assault on the Turkish Cypriots started on 21 December 1963, when Greek Cypriot police officers shot and killed a Turkish Cypriot couple in the Turkish sector of Nicosia while attempting to carry out a spot check.
The most serious attack was the assault on Omorfita, a suburb of Nicosia
inhabited by 5,000 Turkish Cypriots. The Greek Cypriot parastatals were headed by
Nikos Sampson, whom the Greek Cypriot press henceforth dubbed ‘the conqueror of Omorfita’. The material damage wreaked by Sampson’s parastatals in Omorfita is described in the UN Secretary General’s report No. S/5950 to the Security Council, which states that 50 houses were totally destroyed and 240 partially destroyed (4, para. 180). As for the human losses, 4,500 Turkish Cypriots managed to flee to the Turkish sector of Nicosia and 500 were captured and taken to Kykkos School in Nicosia, where they were held with 150 Turkish Cypriots from the village of Kumsal.
On Christmas day, 150 of the 700 or so captives were selected and dragged away, and the sound of shooting followed.
Gibbon reports that an English teacher at Kykkos School told the High Commission that she had seen the results of the shooting; whereupon, for security reasons, the British administration put her on the first plane to London, because she was the only eye witness to what had happened (5, p. 139). As for the 150 captives, the Greek Cypriot authorities told their families for many years that they should regard them as missing. Other major assaults by the Greek Cypriots near Nicosia targeted the villages of Mathiati, Ayos Vassilios, and Kumsal. In Kumsal, the Greek Cypriot parastatals executed 150 people in cold blood.
The most apalling photograph, which went round the world, showed three small children and their mother lying dead in a pool of blood in the bath in their home. These unfortunates were the family of Major Ilhan, an officer in the Turkish expeditionary force in Nicosia (3, p. 95).
In the surgical clinic in Nicosia Hospital, the Greek Cypriots dragged from their beds twenty-two Turkish Cypriot convalescents, all trace of whom vanished for ever (3, 91).
Government and parastatal armed forces continued their attacks on the Turkish Cypriots over the next four months. One notable incident, which almost provoked a Greek–Turkish war, took place at Famagusta, where, on 11 May 1964, three Greek officers and a Greek Cypriot policeman took their car into the Turkish sector, possibly intending to make a display of power. A Turkish Cypriot policeman attempted to obstruct them, there was an exchange of fire, and in the end two of the Greek officers, the Greek Cypriot policeman, and a passing Turkish Cypriot lay dead. Two days later, the Greek Cypriots abducted thirty-two Turkish Cypriots, who were never seen again. The abduction is confirmed by the UN Secretary General’s report No. S/5764 (6, para. 93).
Lastly, on 9 August 1964, there was the attack on the Turkish Cypriot enclave of Kokkina–Mansoura, where the Turkish air force ended the hostilities by dropping napalm bombs.
The UN Secretary General’s report No. S/5950, para. 142, tells us that, during the period of the hostilities ― from 21 December 1963 to 8 June 1964 ― 43 Greek Cypriots and 232 Turkish Cypriots disappeared and have been officially posted as missing ever since. The missing Turkish Cypriots include the 150 hostages from Kykkos School in Nicosia and the 32 abductees from Famagusta.
The Cypriot media constantly show pictures of Greek Cypriot women holding photographs of their nearest and dearest and seeking information about their whereabouts; yet the Greek media have never shown similar pictures of Turkish Cypriot women seeking information about their own lost relations.
The termination of the Cypriot government’s assaults on the Turkish Cypriots led to the creation of Turkish Cypriot enclaves, where the Turkish Cypriot refugees lived in wretched conditions for no less than eleven years. According to Kranidiotis, in his book Unfortified State: Cyprus 1960–74 (in Greek), these enclaves occupied 4.86 per cent of Cypriot territory Seeing that the Greek Cypriot armed bands were unable to assert themselves over the Turks, . . . on 26 December, Makarios was obliged to accept the Green Line. . . . Six large Turkish enclaves were formed, . . . which corresponded to 4.86 per cent of the territory of Cyprus. (2, p. 75)
From 1964 to 1967, owing to the restrictive measures imposed by the Greek Cypriot government, the day-to-day efforts of the confined Turkish Cypriots consisted exclusively in a struggle for survival. Apart from imposing an economic embargo on the enclaves, the Makarios administration also banned the supply of strategic commodities, such as cement, tractors, men’s socks, and wollen clothing.
The imposition of the military dictatorship in Greece in 1967 heralded fresh problems for Cyprus. On 15 November 1967, Greek and Greek Cypriot forces armed with cannon, machine-guns, and bazookas attacked the lightly armed Turkish Cypriots in the villages of Ayos Theodoros and Kofinou in the Larnaca area. As the defences crumbled, the Greek Cypriots killed twenty-seven Turkish Cypriots (3, p. 139).
The incident brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of war, which was avoided only when the illicit Greek division and General Grivas were recalled from Cyprus.
The slaughter and looting at Kofinou were confirmed in the Greek parliament on 21 February 1986 by Andreas Papandreou, who spoke, inter alia, of the ‘great provocation of 15 November 1967,’ and added that the operation had been ‘ordered by the Supreme Command of the Greek Armed Forces [and] killing and looting took place’ (2, p. 33).
The military junta brought its political career to an end in 1974 with the invasion of Cyprus and an attempt on Makarios’s life. We shall not discuss subsequent events here, because both warring sides perpetrated crimes against humanity during that period.
Even now, both the Greek and the Turkish propaganda do their best to convince us that such acts of barbarity were commited exclusively by the other side. But this sort of propaganda is mainly intended for domestic consumption.
What needs noting is that a war was fought between two nations in 1974, and it is usually the case in any war situation that criminal elements seize the opportunity to legitimise acts that would land them in prison in peace time. The reason why the blame lies so heavily on the Greek Cypriot side is the fact that, between 1963 and 1967, the Cypriot government was exclusively responsible for any acts committed by Greek Cypriot government or parastatal armed forces.
During the forthcoming talks on the island’s entry into the European Union, the Republic of Cyprus will have two questions to answer.
Since the Cypriot government refuses
1) either to recognise the Turkish Cypriot state
or
2) to countenance a loose Greek–Turkish Cypriot confederation,
Which of the two remaining solutions has it in mind?
1) That the Turkish Cypriots should return to the villages in which they
were living before 1963?
or
2) That the Turkish Cypriots should return to the enclaves in which they were confined for eleven years?


Literatur


1. Rustem, and Brother,. (1998) : Excerpta Cypria For Today
Edited by Andrew Faulds MP , Lefkosha-Istanbul-London
The Friends of North Cyprus Parliamentary Group
The House of Commons, London SW1, ISBN 9963-565-09-3
2. Το κυπριακό και τα διεθνιστικά καθήκοντα των ελληνοκύπριων επαναστατών.
2η έκδοση, εκδόσεις « Εργατική Δημοκρατία », Μάιος 1989, Αθήνα.
3. Oberling, P., (1982) : The Road to Bellapais, Social Science Monographs, Boulder
Distributed by Columbia University Press, New York, ISBN 88033-0000-7
4. Report of the Secretary-General to the Security Counsil on the United Nations
operation in Cyprus , Document S/5950, 10 September 1964.
5. Gibbons, H, S., (1997) : The Genocide Files
Charles Bravos, Publishers, London , ISBN 0-9514464-2-8
6. Report of the Secretary-General to the Security Counsil on the United Nations
operation in Cyprus , Document S/5764, 15 Juni 1964.

[Get Real!]

Dr Georgios Nakratzas
Chest-physician, Writer

Shit happens when your sources are unauthorized individuals…

http://www.macedoniaontheweb.com/forum/ ... atzas.html

http://www.theturkishtimes.com/archive/ ... tters.html

http://www.mymacedonia.net/links/email4.htm