Cyprus-Forum.com

[Nikitas]

Tim puts it very well.

Turkey behaved no better than the Greek junta towards Cyprus. The difference is that the GCs managed to disentangle themselves from the close embrace of their mother, the TCs are still in the clinch of theirs, and they have to pretend to like it. Well, not all of them but most of them.

[Oracle]

Oracle wrote:

At no point did Turkey communicate with the GCs who were themselves already in the process of terminating the coup.

Turkey did not seek alliance with the GCs ... it did not intervene to assist, but it invaded to gain for itself.

Turkey may have communicated with US, and UK and even Greece ... but at no point did they communicate with the GCs who were at the forefront of the resistance to the coup.

So why did Turkey not only by-pass the GCs but also join in killing them?

On the evening of July 19th 1974, when Turkey's decision was made:
1. The GC President, Makarios, had fled the island.
2. Sampson was in power (he didn't resign until 23rd July).
3. All the major population centres in GC hands were held by the coupists.
4. CyBC was held by the coupists.
5. The airport was held by the coupists and additional Greek soldiers had been flown in.
6. More Greek soldiers were on their way to Cyprus by sea.
7. Coupists felt sufficiently in charge to move tanks and artillery (the anti-coupists having none by now) to surround TC areas.
This seems a long way from "the GCs ... already in the process of terminating the coup"

As for the GCs who Turkey should have allied themselves with, can you suggest who they might be? I can not remember any earlier GC outcry against enosis, the illegal stationing of additional Greek soldiers on the island, the illegal National Guard (see Constitution Articles 129 onwards), the blockade imposed on TC enclaves, and the general mistreatment of TCs by armed semi-official thugs. The coup was as a struggle between two different groups of GCs - one who wanted enosis with the dictators in Athens immediately, and another group who wanted enosis with a democratic Greece at a later date.

As for "communicating with GCs at the forefront of the resistance to the coup", I suppose the Turkish ambassador at the UN could have had a word with its most public face, Makarios, but I seem to recall Makarios speaking in favour of enosis on several occasions. At the same time as letting us know the names of "the GCs in the forefront of the resistance to the coup", you might like to also suggest how Turkey should have contacted them - through a spirit medium? I have to laugh at the thought of Turkish radio making broadcasts calling upon the GCs of Cyprus to rise up and fight off the ...er Greek invaders!!

That is a long list of excuses from a country caught with its hands in the cookie jar.

If Turkey could not act in a professional, detached and unbiased manner to fulfil its "duty" as a guarantor power ..... perhaps it should have left the restoration of peace to the neutral forces ... which it chose to ignore.

It's failure to communicate its actions speaks gravely for its intent.

As everyone knows, the peaceful settlement of disputes is a peremptory rule of international law (UN Charter Article 2(3)). Turkey violated this principle in July 1974 and again in August 1974 when it rejected all options of peaceful negotiation and chose the path of force by taking unilateral action against the Republic of Cyprus, in breach of article 2, paragraph 4, of the UN Charter, which prohibits the threat of and the use of force.
Without any doubt, the 1974 Turkish invasion entailed the crime of aggression, which the Nuremberg Trials already condemned as the "supreme crime", because all subsequent war crimes and crimes against humanity flow from the initial crime against peace.
Thirty-one years after Turkey's aggression, 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus remains militarily occupied. This entails a continued aggression and a continued violation of articles 2(3) and 2(4) of the UN Charter. Moreover, the European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly condemned the manifold violations by Turkey of the European Convention, particularly with regard to the right to life, the right to family and home, the right to property, and with regard to its failure to investigate the fate of missing persons. Turkey remains in continuous breach of the ECHR and of numerous provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Turkey recently ratified.

http://alfreddezayas.com/Lectures/cyprusbrussels.shtml

[Viewpoint]

Tim puts it very well.

Turkey behaved no better than the Greek junta towards Cyprus. The difference is that the GCs managed to disentangle themselves from the close embrace of their mother, the TCs are still in the clinch of theirs, and they have to pretend to like it. Well, not all of them but most of them.

Do you pretend you did not want the coup and enosis?

[DT.]

Tim puts it very well.

Turkey behaved no better than the Greek junta towards Cyprus. The difference is that the GCs managed to disentangle themselves from the close embrace of their mother, the TCs are still in the clinch of theirs, and they have to pretend to like it. Well, not all of them but most of them.

Do you pretend you did not want the coup and enosis?

we have the dead killed by the coupists and the Turks to prove it.

[Tim Drayton]

Please read the following brief news report from July 2005:

http://www.mfa.gov.cy/mfa/Embassies/cop ... ws%207.pdf

Cyprus honours those killed in 1974 defending Republic

Cyprus remembers and pays tribute today to all those who lost their life in defence of the Republic during the 1974 military coup against the democratically elected President of Cyprus.

The military coup against the first President of the Republic, Archbishop Makarios, engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece, was followed five days later by the Turkish invasion, which resulted in the
occupation of 37 percent of the Republic's territory and its de facto division.

The wailing of sirens was heard at 08:20 local time, the very time when the coup occurred.

A church service for those killed during the coup was held in the morning of July 15 at Saints Constantinos and Eleni Church in Nicosia, in the presence of President Tassos Papadopoulos, House of Representatives
President Demetris Christofias, National Guard Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Athanasios Nikolodemos, Ambassador of Greece to Cyprus Demetris Rallis, Ministers, leaders or representatives of political parties,
other officials and relatives of those killed in defence of the Republic during the military coup. Minister of Defence Kyriakos Mavronicolas addressed the ceremony.

President Papadopoulos and other officials laid wreaths at the tombs of those killed defending the Republic.

****

Surely those GCs who laid down their lives defending the Republic deserve some respect and recognition.

[Nikitas]

VP

You really do not know GCs. Your last comment proves it. You presume that Enosis was as popular in the 70s as it was in the 50s. It was not and it is not today. But we got out of it. You are the ones who achieved Enosis and partition in one package deal all the way.

[Viewpoint]

VP

You really do not know GCs. Your last comment proves it. You presume that Enosis was as popular in the 70s as it was in the 50s. It was not and it is not today. But we got out of it. You are the ones who achieved Enosis and partition in one package deal all the way.

You may want to believe this but its well documented that your unlying desire was to gift Cyprus to Greece a watering down of our rights via Akritas would have paved the way but we stood firm and did not allow you to achieve your dream. Always remember partition was a direct respone to enosis, yours was the aim to get rid of TCs and turn Cyprus into a Greek island ours was to take a share of our island, not get rid of you but allow you your share so that you can prosper unsing the state you stole from us.

[Oracle]

VP

You really do not know GCs. Your last comment proves it. You presume that Enosis was as popular in the 70s as it was in the 50s. It was not and it is not today. But we got out of it. You are the ones who achieved Enosis and partition in one package deal all the way.

You may want to believe this but its well documented that your unlying desire was to gift Cyprus to Greece a watering down of our rights via Akritas would have paved the way but we stood firm and did not allow you to achieve your dream. Always remember partition was a direct respone to enosis, yours was the aim to get rid of TCs and turn Cyprus into a Greek island ours was to take a share of our island, not get rid of you but allow you your share so that you can prosper unsing the state you stole from us.

VP ... do you seriously believe ENOSIS is likely to happen in the future?

[umit07]

Oracle do you believe that "Official Taksim" is a serious reality????

[Oracle]

Oracle do you believe that "Official Taksim" is a serious reality????

Its "reality" is staring me in the face!