The invasion by Turkey stopped the miniature civil war between the Greeks in Cyprus, and so it is impossible to say how long it would have gone on, and how many lives would have been lost in it. If the putschists had succeeded in destroying organised resistance quickly, there would undoubtedly have been torture and executions for many months afterwards. There were man) old scores to be settled; and the fighting of that first week had created many new ones. In the area between Paphos and Limassol, where there was strong resistance, the men of the coup are said to have buried some of Makarios' supporters alive, and to have put out the eyes of others.
There is one terrible image of what might have happened in Cyprus, which comes down to us from a much earlier period in Greek history. Thucydides describes the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, in the year 431 BC. It started in the city-state of Corcyra, the present-day island of Corfu, or Kerkira. as it is called in modern Greek.
... the Corcyrans continued to massacre those of their own citizens they considered to be their enemies. Their victims were accused of conspiring to overthrow the democracy, but in fact men were often killed on grounds of personal hatred or else by their debtors because of the money that they owed. There was death in every shape and form.
And as usually happens in such situations people went to every extreme and beyond it. There were fathers who killed their sons; men were dragged from the temples or butchered on the very altars: and some were actually walled up in the temple of Dionysios and died there . . . To fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meanings. What used to be described as a thoughtless act of aggression was now regarded as the courage one would expect to find in a party member: to think of the future and to wait was merely another way of saying one was a coward: any idea of moderation was just an attempt to disguise one's unmanly character: ability to understand a question from all sides meant that one was totally unfitted for action. Fanatical enthusiasm was the mark of a real man, and to plot against an enemy behind his back was perfectly legitimate self-defence. Anyone who held violent opinions could always be trusted, and anyone who objected to them became suspect.
From this, at least, most of the Greek Cypriots were spared. But the cost was very high: the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey, and the loss of many people and much territory in war.
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From The Heart Grown Bitter (Cambridge University Press, 1981), chapter 4.
www.cyprus-conflict.net/coup-%20'74%20-loizos.htm
http://www.argaki.com/Downloads/The%20W ... 201974.htm
http://books.google.com/books?id=wzPG7b ... &ct=result
