Cyprus-Forum.com

[soyer]

Turkish Cypriots raped, killed


67-year-old Andreas Dimitriu says men in a Turkish Cypriot village were killed and women were raped by Greek Cypriot soldiers and members of his underground group three decades ago

A former member of a Greek Cypriot underground group defending the unification of the island with Greece has confessed in remarks to the media that the group, along with Greek Cypriot soldiers, had raped women and killed men of a Turkish Cypriot village during a campaign of attacks on the Turkish population of Cyprus three decades ago.

The group, the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA), launched attacks on Turkish Cypriots during the 1960s and early 1970s in a violent campaign aimed at enosis, or unification of Cyprus with Greece. Andreas Dimitriu, a 67 year-old Greek Cypriot who was a member of EOKA-B, an offshoot of EOKA, during the period of ethnic violence on the island, confessed in a media interview that he had helped to gather men of the Turkish Cypriot village of Tohni (Taşkent) in a coffee house.

The men were later taken away by EOKA-B members entering the village, and all but one male Turkish Cypriot had been killed, Dimitriu told Greek Cypriot newspaper Alithia on Sunday.

He, however, said that he was unaware that the Turkish Cypriot men were to be killed and that he learned their fate a few days afterward.

Turkish Cypriot women of the village were then raped by Greek Cypriot soldiers seeking revenge on Turkish Cypriots, he also said.

“Such things were happening at that time. What did we do that was different from what was going on all over Cyprus?” he asked.

The confessions came after a Turkish Cypriot woman who had survived the Greek Cypriot violence in Taşkent village identified Dimitriu during an earlier interview with the same newspaper as the person who had taken away her father.

Her father was among those killed by EOKA-B members in the village.

Dimitriu said he had thought the men rounded up in the village's coffee house would be held captive in order to get some Greek Cypriots held by Turkish Cypriots released and said that he had no idea that these men were to be killed.

“We were given the instruction to round up all the men capable of fighting to be used for the exchange of Greek Cypriot captives. We did whatever we did together with the legal forces of the state,” Dimitriu said.


CYPRIOT GREEKS AND TURKS NEVER HAVE AND NEVER WILL BE ABLE TO LIVE IN PEACE........TAKSIM TODAY......

[pantheman]

Soyer,

exactly what are you hoping to achieve by showing this??

You will find that this sort of thing went on, on both sides, its sad history and yes it does make it hard to intergrate, but as your sole aim is to spread hatred in the hope that you will get your partition, I think you have a very long way to go.

I can also show such items regarding what the TMT did to GCs, then what?

Grow up will you, you silly little boy.

[paliometoxo]

like the turkish did when they came to invade and devide the island in two?

Bombing for peace is like F***ing for Virginity

[Paphitis]

The Turkish Terrorist Organisation T.M.T.
The first inter-communal violence in the recent history of Cyprus was, in fact, caused by T.M.T. This was the result of a policy of hate cultivated by the Turkish Cypriot leadership and it aimed at persuading world public opinion that Turkish Cypriots could not co-exist with Greek Cypriots and, therefore, partition in one form or another was necessary. On 12 June 1958 eight innocent and unarmed Greek Cypriot civilians from Kondemenos village were murdered by T.M.T. terrorists near the Turkish populated village of Geunyeli. That was the first incident involving human lives. According to the findings of the "Commission of Inquiry into the Incidents at Geunyeli" (appointed by the British colonial administration), which were also included in the official report of Sir Paget Bourke, Chief Justice of Cyprus, "for some days prior to 12 June, in fact from 7 June, inter-communal feeling was running very high in the island and there had been many instances of attacks by Turks, particularly in Nicosia, upon members of the Greek community and upon Greek property". There is no reference to attacks on Turkish Cypriots as there were no such attacks. The T.M.T. terrorists attacked again in 1963. This is evidenced by the fact that they were found in possession of vast quantities of arms. Moreover, Turkish intentions were revealed in the "Deniz" incident when the Turkish ship full of arms was sent to Cyprus as early as 1959, after the conclusion of the Agreement on Cyprus.

And to quote "the New York Times" of 27.12.1963:
"Most of the fighting centered on a police station occupied by Turks in Nicosia, and on family apartments in the suburb of Omorphita. These were overrun and occupied by Turks who chased off Greek families. They were reported to have killed an unspecified number of women and children".

GCs will never be able to live in peace with TMT fanatics such as your self, Soyer.

The first inetrcommunal violence was commenced by the TMT on 12 June 58.

[Agios Ionas]

Andreas Dimitriu, a 67 year-old Greek Cypriot who was a member of EOKA-B

It's about time you learned the difference between EOKA and EOKA-B!

EOKA was the pro-enosis organisation of anti-colonialist freedom fighters battling the Brits 1955-1959. These are the 'good guys' who wanted to rid Cyprus of British rule. They had an overwhelming support by the Greek Cypriots.

EOKA-B was was a Greek Cypriot right-wing pro-enosis paramilitary organisation formed in 1971 as a response to Makarios leaving the enosis path. They were supported by the ruling Greek military junta. These are the 'bad guys'. Those who tried to overthrow Makarios and install Nikos Sampson as the dictator of Cyprus. Only a minority of the Greek Cypriots supported EOKA-B. The Makarios supporters were being killed and jailed by EOKA-B and Greek junta officers.

The games played by a minority of the Greek Cypriots with some help from Athens and with CIA and UK pulling their strings (as well as poking Turkey with a stick) weakened Cyprus. That's when Turkey took the opportunity to invade under the guise of 'intervention'. Don't blame the majority of Greek Cypriots for the actions of a few. Don't mix up EOKA and EOKA-B. EOKA-B were the 'terrorists'. EOKA were not!

Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots can very well be able to live in peace if they got rid of the Kemalist Turks and their propaganda.

[denizaksulu]

Andreas Dimitriu, a 67 year-old Greek Cypriot who was a member of EOKA-B

It's about time you learned the difference between EOKA and EOKA-B!

EOKA was the pro-enosis organisation of anti-colonialist freedom fighters battling the Brits 1955-1959. These are the 'good guys' who wanted to rid Cyprus of British rule. They had an overwhelming support by the Greek Cypriots.

EOKA-B was was a Greek Cypriot right-wing pro-enosis paramilitary organisation formed in 1971 as a response to Makarios leaving the enosis path. They were supported by the ruling Greek military junta. These are the 'bad guys'. Those who tried to overthrow Makarios and install Nikos Sampson as the dictator of Cyprus. Only a minority of the Greek Cypriots supported EOKA-B. The Makarios supporters were being killed and jailed by EOKA-B and Greek junta officers.

The games played by a minority of the Greek Cypriots with some help from Athens and with CIA and UK pulling their strings (as well as poking Turkey with a stick) weakened Cyprus. That's when Turkey took the opportunity to invade under the guise of 'intervention'. Don't blame the majority of Greek Cypriots for the actions of a few. Don't mix up EOKA and EOKA-B. EOKA-B were the 'terrorists'. EOKA were not!

Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots can very well be able to live in peace if they got rid of the Kemalist Turks and their propaganda.

Likewise, dont blame the TCs for the action for the even smaller numbers of TMT.

[soyer]

The Turkish Terrorist Organisation T.M.T.
The first inter-communal violence in the recent history of Cyprus was, in fact, caused by T.M.T. This was the result of a policy of hate cultivated by the Turkish Cypriot leadership and it aimed at persuading world public opinion that Turkish Cypriots could not co-exist with Greek Cypriots and, therefore, partition in one form or another was necessary. On 12 June 1958 eight innocent and unarmed Greek Cypriot civilians from Kondemenos village were murdered by T.M.T. terrorists near the Turkish populated village of Geunyeli. That was the first incident involving human lives. According to the findings of the "Commission of Inquiry into the Incidents at Geunyeli" (appointed by the British colonial administration), which were also included in the official report of Sir Paget Bourke, Chief Justice of Cyprus, "for some days prior to 12 June, in fact from 7 June, inter-communal feeling was running very high in the island and there had been many instances of attacks by Turks, particularly in Nicosia, upon members of the Greek community and upon Greek property". There is no reference to attacks on Turkish Cypriots as there were no such attacks. The T.M.T. terrorists attacked again in 1963. This is evidenced by the fact that they were found in possession of vast quantities of arms. Moreover, Turkish intentions were revealed in the "Deniz" incident when the Turkish ship full of arms was sent to Cyprus as early as 1959, after the conclusion of the Agreement on Cyprus.

And to quote "the New York Times" of 27.12.1963:
"Most of the fighting centered on a police station occupied by Turks in Nicosia, and on family apartments in the suburb of Omorphita. These were overrun and occupied by Turks who chased off Greek families. They were reported to have killed an unspecified number of women and children".

GCs we never be able to live in peace with TMT fanatics such as your self, Soyer.

The first inetrcommunal violence was commenced by the TMT on 12 June 58.

Wrong on 27.12.1963 Turks were not anywhere near Omorphita police station. On 25.12.1963 Omorphita police station occupied by EOKA (Greek's)

[Paphitis]

The Turkish Terrorist Organisation T.M.T.
The first inter-communal violence in the recent history of Cyprus was, in fact, caused by T.M.T. This was the result of a policy of hate cultivated by the Turkish Cypriot leadership and it aimed at persuading world public opinion that Turkish Cypriots could not co-exist with Greek Cypriots and, therefore, partition in one form or another was necessary. On 12 June 1958 eight innocent and unarmed Greek Cypriot civilians from Kondemenos village were murdered by T.M.T. terrorists near the Turkish populated village of Geunyeli. That was the first incident involving human lives. According to the findings of the "Commission of Inquiry into the Incidents at Geunyeli" (appointed by the British colonial administration), which were also included in the official report of Sir Paget Bourke, Chief Justice of Cyprus, "for some days prior to 12 June, in fact from 7 June, inter-communal feeling was running very high in the island and there had been many instances of attacks by Turks, particularly in Nicosia, upon members of the Greek community and upon Greek property". There is no reference to attacks on Turkish Cypriots as there were no such attacks. The T.M.T. terrorists attacked again in 1963. This is evidenced by the fact that they were found in possession of vast quantities of arms. Moreover, Turkish intentions were revealed in the "Deniz" incident when the Turkish ship full of arms was sent to Cyprus as early as 1959, after the conclusion of the Agreement on Cyprus.

And to quote "the New York Times" of 27.12.1963:
"Most of the fighting centered on a police station occupied by Turks in Nicosia, and on family apartments in the suburb of Omorphita. These were overrun and occupied by Turks who chased off Greek families. They were reported to have killed an unspecified number of women and children".

GCs we never be able to live in peace with TMT fanatics such as your self, Soyer.

The first inetrcommunal violence was commenced by the TMT on 12 June 58.

Wrong on 27.12.1963 Turks were not anywhere Omorphita police station. On 25.12.1963 Omorphita police station occupied by EOKA (Greek's)

Read again CLOWN! That was a quote from the New York Times on the 27 Dec 63 about the first bout of intercommunal violence instigated by the TMT itself as a prelude for TAKSIM.

[Paphitis]

PRELUDE TO PARTITION

In Cyprus, during the late 1950s a Turkish Cypriot paramilitary organisation known as Turk Mukavemet Teskilati (TMT) was formed. It was armed and supported by Turkey and it had an extreme pro-partition agenda.

The great difficulty with TMT’s programme was that it required the uprooting of a quarter of a million people - both Greek and Turkish Cypriots - and their removal from their historic and ancestral lands. It is not surprising therefore that it was opposed by the vast majority of the island’s population. It would only have been possible to do this forcibly. The Turkish invasion can therefore be traced back to the formation of TMT and the need to forcibly separate the populations.

TURKISH INCITEMENT

TMT emerged with Ankara’s support as a powerful force, and exercised a crucial influence over the affairs of the Turkish-Cypriot community. One of its founders was Rauf Denktash, the current Turkish Cypriot political spokesman in occupied Cyprus.

The decision to create TMT was taken at the highest levels of the Turkish Menderes Government in Ankara. While facing mounting pressure from public opinion, the Turkish Government decided to use the Cyprus question as a diversion to keep the Turkish military quiet, an ever present factor in Turkish politics: that is how TMT was conceived. TMT fighters were trained, armed and led by a small group of well-disciplined Turkish officers. It established cells in towns and villages throughout Cyprus, and it selected personnel who were to be sent to Turkey for military training. It was also to become the organisational tool through which the geo-political partitionist policy of Turkey was to be enforced in Cyprus. It was a policy which aimed at segregating the Turkish and Greek Cypriots from each other as a prelude to the physical division of the island.

During the course of 1957, TMT pressured the Turkish Cypriots into withdrawing from any co-operative ties they had with the Greek Cypriots and, on the whole, they were successful; this policy later became known as the `from Turk to Turk policy’. Such encouragement was entirely alien to the co-operation and quiet existence which had always prevailed between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, but was necessary to sow the seeds of partition. A similar policy was followed in Istanbul, organised by the Turkish National Student Federation, which had worked closely with Kibris Turktur in its planning of the anti-Greek riots there back in 1955.

In Cyprus this crude policy of enforced segregation did not go unopposed amongst the Turkish Cypriots. TMT’s answer to criticism was however rapid and brutal. It assassinated prominent Turkish Cypriots who dared to publicly voice opposition or advocated co-operation between Greeks and Turks. The most widely known such murders were those of Fazil Ondur, the chief editor of the weekly newspaper Inkilapci, who was killed on 29 May 1959; and Ahmet Yahaya, a committee member of the Turkish Cypriot Athletic and Culture centre, who was killed on 5 June 1958. An attempt was also made on the life of Arif Barudi on 3 July 1958, and another one on Ahmet Sadi, the director of the Turkish office of the Pancypriot Labour Federation who, soon after the attempt against his life, left Cyprus to settle in England. The same policy continues today with the assassination in July 1996 of Kutlu Adali, the Turkish Cypriot journalist, who had the courage to condemn the partitionist project of the Turkish military establishment which leads the foreign policy of Ankara, and who advocated closer co-operation between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

TMT’s strategy was one of incitement in the hope of provoking inter-ethnic conflict with the aim of securing the separation of the two communities. It did so without any consideration to likely casualties amongst innocent Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The first such serious inter-communal fighting began in June 1958 and was the result of such incitement which the Turkish authorities have subsequently been candid on a number of occasions. Mr Emin Dirvana, a former Turkish diplomat, said: `I was informed that on 7 June 1958 a bomb had been planted in the Turkish press office in Nicosia by persons who, as was later established, had nothing to do with the Greek Cypriots. The Turks of Nicosia were then incited to be overwhelmed by holy indignation and perpetrated acts similar to those committed on 6 and 7 September 1955 in Istanbul.’

In the ITN documentary `Cyprus, Britain’s Grim Legacy’ the account continues:

`The explosion sparked off a night of riot in Nicosia. Turkish Cypriots burned and looted Greek shops and homes. Soon came counter attacks and the fighting spread around the island. A friend of mine, whose name must still be kept secret, was to confess to me that he had put this little bomb in the doorway in order to create an atmosphere of tension so that people would know that the Turkish Cypriots mattered.’

In fact, nobody had ever claimed that the Turkish Cypriots did not matter. This reveals the essence of the matter, that the Turkish Cypriot leadership, first in Ottoman times and then during the British administration, had always occupied a position of political privilege as an ally of the occupying power. These privileges were not something the leadership were willing to give up. During early British rule, the alliance with the Turkish minority became clear in the legislative council. It worked on the principle that the British and Turkish members at least equalled or outnumbered by one vote the Greeks.

The tactics of TMT, to provoke ethnic conflict when none would otherwise have arisen, were soon to be successful. On 12 June 1958, following the press office bomb explosion, British security forces rounded up eight Greek Cypriots from the village of Kondemenos and subsequently released them near the Turkish Cypriot village of Guenyeli, approximately seven miles from where they were arrested, and a good distance from the nearest Greek villages; the released Greek Cypriots were subsequently massacred by Turkish Cypriots acting on the orders of TMT. These were the first reported inter-communal killings. These killings were carried out in the certain knowledge that Greek Cypriots would also carry out revenge attacks.

Turkey rushed to put forward a formal protest to Britain the day following the press office bomb, alleging that the Cyprus administration had failed to give the Turkish minority adequate protection. `Cyprus, partition or death, was the slogan constantly repeated by Turkish leaders and the armed paramilitaries. The claim was that Turkish Cypriots could not think of themselves as being integrated into Cypriot society. The fact that they already were, necessitated a strategy of tension and forced separation.

The principle of partition was not based on the realities of Cypriot society at the time, but on Turkey’s perceived security requirements alone. In the Summer of 1958, in the mixed suburb of Omorphita in Nicosia, TMT evicted 700 Greeks from their homes. By the end of July 1958 a much clearer line had been drawn between the Greek and Turkish quarters. The reluctance of British authorities to deal even-handedly with the violence became clearer when the partisan decisions made by the Courts at the time is taken into account. Whereas Turks arrested for participating in the riots were released, Greeks received custodial sentences for minor offences.

Sixteen Turks were, for example, arrested by the British authorities for complicity in the Nicosia riots, but they were released on condition that they stayed in at night. A Turkish policeman, sergeant Tuna, was charged with possessing a bomb and ammunition for which the mandatory penalty was clearly the death penalty. He was released and left immediately for Turkey. The only official piece of evidence that Turkish policeman were involved in bomb attacks had conveniently `disappeared’. By contrast, two Greeks who pulled down a Union Jack were each given 18 months prison sentences, whilst those subsequently involved with the possession of fire arms were hanged. In hindsight, it is hardly surprising that Greek Cypriots saw a conspiracy against their struggle for self-determination from British and Turkish Cypriot sources.

The riots in Nicosia caused by the bomb in the Turkish press office, resulted in the deaths of 56 Greek and 53 Turkish Cypriots. The higher number of Greek casualties demonstrates that the Turkish Cypriots (who of course were outnumbered in Cyprus 5:1 by Greek Cypriots) had, on the orders of TMT, pre-arranged strongholds and were thus able to fight from a much stronger position than their numerical inferiority would suggest. Clearly, by the end of 1958 the Greek Cypriot demand for self-determination was still unacceptable to both Britain and Turkey, although a new compromise needed to be worked out.

The London-Zurich agreements of 1959 finally set up the Republic of Cyprus with Archbishop Makarios III being duly elected its first President, and Dr Fazil Kutcuk its Turkish Cypriot Vice President, by their respective communities in December 1959. The Republic of Cyprus officially came into being on 16 August 1960.

Under the terms of the 1960 constitution, there was to be a fixed ratio of 70 Greek Cypriot employees for every 30 Turkish Cypriots employed by government agencies. The Turkish Cypriot leadership demanded that this parity of employment be attained within five months of independence. The public service commission pointed to the numerous difficulties of drawing 30% of the civil service including the police force from just 18% of the population. As a result, numerous posts remained unfulfilled in the search for suitably qualified Turkish Cypriot candidates.

Since a majority vote of the Turkish Cypriot deputies in the house was needed to pass tax legislation, the Turkish Cypriots used it as a bargaining tool to force compliance over the 70:30 ratio and various other issues which had as their objective the continued segregation of the two ethnic groups. For example, colonial laws had to be extended eight times while both communities discussed legislation relating to separate municipalities. This provision had been the greatest victory for Turkey in this settlement. The President offered the Turks compensating safeguards, but was not prepared to implement provisions which opened the way to partition. Deadlock inevitably resulted again and again in a number of other areas.

Already by the end of the 1961 the Turkish language press was calling for intervention by the powers, meaning the UK and the US. In essence, there was a fundamental belief on the part of the Turkish Cypriots in the eventual intervention of Turkey to establish the partition of Cyprus. This belief underpinned their unco-operative attitude towards the Greek Cypriots and, not surprisingly, created the cycle of mistrust amongst Turkish Cypriots which culminated in the crisis of 1963. Indeed, one of the starkest indications of the Turkish Cypriot mistrust were the brutal political murders of Ayhan Hikmet and Ahmet Gurkhan in 1962 by TMT. Both Hikmet and Gurkhan were publishers who advocated closer association and co-operation between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. TMT was again in action to ensure that the genuine voice of the Turkish Cypriots was silenced, and this applied not only to journalists and publishers, but to many political activists and ordinary people too.

So before you open your mouth and spew you misinformation and lies, you better get down to the real problem of our division. It seems that old habits die hard.

The TMT was the prelude for instigating further intercommunal violence and division amongst GCs and TCs so that you can achieve your dream of TAKSIM!

[denizaksulu]

The Turkish Terrorist Organisation T.M.T.
The first inter-communal violence in the recent history of Cyprus was, in fact, caused by T.M.T. This was the result of a policy of hate cultivated by the Turkish Cypriot leadership and it aimed at persuading world public opinion that Turkish Cypriots could not co-exist with Greek Cypriots and, therefore, partition in one form or another was necessary. On 12 June 1958 eight innocent and unarmed Greek Cypriot civilians from Kondemenos village were murdered by T.M.T. terrorists near the Turkish populated village of Geunyeli. That was the first incident involving human lives. According to the findings of the "Commission of Inquiry into the Incidents at Geunyeli" (appointed by the British colonial administration), which were also included in the official report of Sir Paget Bourke, Chief Justice of Cyprus, "for some days prior to 12 June, in fact from 7 June, inter-communal feeling was running very high in the island and there had been many instances of attacks by Turks, particularly in Nicosia, upon members of the Greek community and upon Greek property". There is no reference to attacks on Turkish Cypriots as there were no such attacks. The T.M.T. terrorists attacked again in 1963. This is evidenced by the fact that they were found in possession of vast quantities of arms. Moreover, Turkish intentions were revealed in the "Deniz" incident when the Turkish ship full of arms was sent to Cyprus as early as 1959, after the conclusion of the Agreement on Cyprus.

And to quote "the New York Times" of 27.12.1963:
"Most of the fighting centered on a police station occupied by Turks in Nicosia, and on family apartments in the suburb of Omorphita. These were overrun and occupied by Turks who chased off Greek families. They were reported to have killed an unspecified number of women and children".

GCs we never be able to live in peace with TMT fanatics such as your self, Soyer.

The first inetrcommunal violence was commenced by the TMT on 12 June 58.

Wrong on 27.12.1963 Turks were not anywhere near Omorphita police station. On 25.12.1963 Omorphita police station occupied by EOKA (Greek's)

I think there may be some confusion as to which Police Station was being refered to. The December 1963 fighting took place at the Kyrenia road/By-Pass Police Station, near the Flour Mill (Un Degirmeni.) which was the main event which stopped the GC forces in their tracks totally surrounding the TC population of Nicosia. Had the Police station not been held by the TC's, I cannot imagine what would have happened to the TCs of Cyprus.