denizaksulu wrote:"Prior to the landing of the Turkish forces 21 people were killed within the walls of Famagusta from mortar fire from the roof tops of skyscrapers in Varosia. This was about the time of the coup against Pres. Makarios. Prior to the coup a bus was stopped by 'Greek officered National Guard. I TC was shot straight away. The other TCs , from the bus, ran for their lives and were gunned down with Automatic fire. These people were employees of the Turkish Bank in Famagusta". My Famagustan friend who related this to me last night also said that Pres Makarios had apologised for this incident.
My friends sister -in -law also related "that the Greeks were rejoicing when the Turkish army landed, as the streets of Varosha was filled with the dead and dying - Gr on Gr." She was a nurse in the General Hospital.
This sounds more like the story I heard from the UNFICYP personnel. I knew about a whole busload of people being gunned down with machine guns. But I was told it happened during the coup when the radio announced that Makarios was dead. And everybody I spoke with thought the bus was full of Makarios supporters being killed by Greek junta officers/EOKA-B. I guess back then nobody knew for sure and many of them may not have been informed about 'changes' made to reports first made during this period before they went back to their home countries.
Which information is true and which is not I'm not the person to decide. But I'm more than willing to accept that TC's indeed were killed prior to the Turkish invasion. GC's did most certainly perform atrocities. To begin with the junta supporters were quite happy to kill their own Greek Cypriot brethren and sisters just because they were supporting Makarios. What stopped them from doing the same to TC's?
However... TC's need to understand that they can't blame GC's in general for the evil things performed by EOKA-B. They can only blame those who were pulling the strings and those to actually performed the acts of violence.
What happened after the invasion started is a whole different thing. It was a reaction to the fact that Turks invaded the island. Suddenly TC's where the enemy too. And attacking civilians of the enemy side is a common, still reprehensible, behaviour in times of war.
Don't forget what the Turks did to GC civilians! Napalm bombs, rapings, the killing of elderly people, women and children, desecration of holy places. From what I've learned a quite large group of German tourists paid the ultimate price when Salaminia Tower was bombed.
Sure, some GC's with weapons in hand did horrible things to the TC population when the invasion was a fact. But quite frankly this pales in comparison to the barbaric acts of the Turkish invasion army!
We all know who pulled the strings and allowed this to happen. Cyprus was a pawn in a big game played by the major players.
