Cyprus-Forum.com

[BirKibrisli]

I read the following true story in the online edition of HAVADIS,a TC newspaper...The writer,Bekir Azgin ,says he has obtained conformation of it from Cleridis personally...


During his Presidency,Cleridis and his large entourage,including some cabinet ministers and high ranking RoC officials are on a plane for an official visit to the USA...
People are in high spirits,eating and drinking,telling jokes and generally having a ball...All of a sudden turbulence hits and the plane starts to shake violently...There are now screams of fear,people frozen in their seats,some yellow and vomiting violently...

All this time,Cleridis sits quietly and calmly in his seat,taking sips from his drink when ever he can,with a devilish smile on his face...When the emergency is over,his aids rush to his side,fearing the worse...Only to find him now laughing his head off...Asked whether he is feeling okey,he looks up and calmly declares, "I WAS JUST THINKING,IF THIS PLANE CRUSHES CYPRUS WOULD BE SAVED"...

http://www.havadiskibris.com/Bekir-Azgin/1939/Kibris-nasil-kurtulur.html

[wyoming cowboy]

Nice story Bir, it falls in line with the man's personality and humor.....He fought with the British and was a pilot on B-29's bombing Germany in WWII, he was shot down and held until the end of the war....he figured if noones shooting at the plane then theres a good chance nothing serious would happen.

[Piratis]

We shot him down with our votes a bit later and saved Cyprus from the plan that he was cooking along with his American bosses

[YFred]

I read the following true story in the online edition of HAVADIS,a TC newspaper...The writer,Bekir Azgin ,says he has obtained conformation of it from Cleridis personally...


During his Presidency,Cleridis and his large entourage,including some cabinet ministers and high ranking RoC officials are on a plane for an official visit to the USA...
People are in high spirits,eating and drinking,telling jokes and generally having a ball...All of a sudden turbulence hits and the plane starts to shake violently...There are now screams of fear,people frozen in their seats,some yellow and vomiting violently...

All this time,Cleridis sits quietly and calmly in his seat,taking sips from his drink when ever he can,with a devilish smile on his face...When the emergency is over,his aids rush to his side,fearing the worse...Only to find him now laughing his head off...Asked whether he is feeling okey,he looks up and calmly declares, "I WAS JUST THINKING,IF THIS PLANE CRUSHES CYPRUS WOULD BE SAVED"...

http://www.havadiskibris.com/Bekir-Azgin/1939/Kibris-nasil-kurtulur.html

What a fantastic story. How right it is too.

[Oracle]

And if the Ottomans' ships had sank, then we wouldn't have a Cyprus Problem in the first place!

[Jerry]

Nice story Bir, it falls in line with the man's personality and humor.....He fought with the British and was a pilot on B-29's bombing Germany in WWII, he was shot down and held until the end of the war....he figured if noones shooting at the plane then theres a good chance nothing serious would happen.

A full and accurate account of Clerides being shot down is here: -

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafmarham/aboutus/memory7.cfm


Approaching the coastline they were suddenly coned in searchlights and caught in a barrage of very accurate flak. A huge burst by the nose of the aircraft blew out the hydraulics rendering the gun turrets useless and causing the undercarriage to drop down. Sgt Fereday's cockpit navigational instruments were all damaged. He no longer had the use of a compass. Sgt Clerides standing in the Astro Dome watching for fighters shouted over the intercom that he had been wounded in the leg. He fainted and in falling to the floor his intercom plug was wrenched from its socket. From the rear turret Sgt Shoesmith reported that he also had been hit. Baden Fereday fighting to keep the aircraft stable momentarily lost control. The bomber went into a dive. Sgt Clerides recovering his senses and finding the aircraft plunging to earth immediately called up on the intercom. Not realising he was no longer connected to the system and receiving no reply he assumed the others had baled out. Scrambling back to the emergency hatch in the rear of the fuselage he baled out. In the meantime Sgt Fereday had regained control and flattened out at 8,000 feet. Without navigational instruments he was flying by the seat of his pants. The undercarriage and the open bomb bay were causing excessive drag.
Sgt Clerides landed safely in the outskirts of a town. He was soon surrounded by a crowd of civilians. Mistaking his Greek features for those of a Jew the cry of Jude went up from someone in the mob. In a trice they were rifling his pockets, punching and kicking him. Luckily a detachment of the Luftwaffe arrived and rescued him. He was whisked off to hospital in Bremen where an immediate operation was carried out on his leg.


If you follow the link you can read about Clerides alleged "co-operation" with the Nazis.

My father was in the RAF with Clerides, they kept in touch and met several times after the war. Clerides wrote an introduction for a book that my dad published about his time in the RAF.

[Paphitis]

I read the following true story in the online edition of HAVADIS,a TC newspaper...The writer,Bekir Azgin ,says he has obtained conformation of it from Cleridis personally...


During his Presidency,Cleridis and his large entourage,including some cabinet ministers and high ranking RoC officials are on a plane for an official visit to the USA...
People are in high spirits,eating and drinking,telling jokes and generally having a ball...All of a sudden turbulence hits and the plane starts to shake violently...There are now screams of fear,people frozen in their seats,some yellow and vomiting violently...

All this time,Cleridis sits quietly and calmly in his seat,taking sips from his drink when ever he can,with a devilish smile on his face...When the emergency is over,his aids rush to his side,fearing the worse...Only to find him now laughing his head off...Asked whether he is feeling okey,he looks up and calmly declares, "I WAS JUST THINKING,IF THIS PLANE CRUSHES CYPRUS WOULD BE SAVED"...

http://www.havadiskibris.com/Bekir-Azgin/1939/Kibris-nasil-kurtulur.html

the guy was a Mosquito pilot in WW2. It would take a lot more than severe turbulence to unsettle him.

What do you expect? Did you think he would throw his hands in the air and start screaming, "OH FUCK! WE ARE GOING TO DIE" like the rest of the idiots.

I don't think so! Like all pilots, he would have experienced far more scarier things than that. Severe Turbulence happens all the time.

Thunderstorms, Microburst, Wind Shear and even lightning strike.

[Jerry]

At the risk of being labelled a pedant: -

"Another A Flight crew flying that night was captained by Sgt Baden Fereday. Sgt Fereday was an experienced pilot with 15 operational flights recorded in his log book. Sgt Kelvin Shoesmith, an Australian, manned his rear turret. His wireless operator, Sgt Glafkos Clerides, was a Greek Cypriot who had been educated at an English Public School"

Clerides flew as wireless operator in a Wellington Bomber.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafmarham/aboutus/memory7.cfm

[denizaksulu]

And if the Ottomans' ships had sank, then we wouldn't have a Cyprus Problem in the first place!

If the Greek ships had sunk there would be no Greek colonies on the island either.

[Tim Drayton]

And if the Ottomans' ships had sank, then we wouldn't have a Cyprus Problem in the first place!

If the Greek ships had sunk there would be no Greek colonies on the island either.

And if I had never been a sparkle in my mum and dad's eye ...