Cyprus-Forum.com

[MrH]

Please read below, Need I say more?

The Cyprus Problem by River Daniel age 13
Friday, August 6, 2010
By River Daniel (Age 13)


It was recently Peace And Freedom Day and I asked readers to send me information about what happened before, during and after the 1974 war and also what the future may hold for Cyprus and it’s people. From the information I was given and from research I have created a time line of Cyprus events which might have led to the Cyprus war.

1571
This was when the Ottomans ruled Cyprus. When the Ottomans took over from the Venetians most Cypriots were relieved as the Venetians used Cyprus purely for finance, but even today some Greek Cypriots won’t forgive the Ottomans for how they killed 20,000 Greek Cypriots during their first siege. The Ottomans were Turkish and considering later events, Turkey has never been a favourite of some Greek Cypriots. Another problem with Cyprus at the time was that it lacked skilled craftsmen so families from southern Turkey were moved to Cyprus and were untaxed for three years. Some people say these were the first Turkish Cypriots to come to Cyprus.

1878
By the end of the Ottoman Empire 5,750 Turkish families were moved to Cyprus and lived in over 100 villages. When the Russians started to approach Cyprus territory it alarmed the English as they had an important military base close by and so they reached an agreement with the Ottomans that England would occupy the island for the Ottomans.

While the Cypriots had at first welcomed British rule in the hope of achieving national liberation they soon became disillusioned. Britain taxed the Cypriots heavily in order to pay back the Sultan for giving the island to them. Also at the start of the English rule Cypriots were not allowed to participate in the administration of Cyprus as those decisions were left to the High Commissioner and London but a few years later the system changed and some members of the council were selected by Cypriots, but in reality their participation was very small.

Later the British were also faced with another two major political problems as the Greek Cypriots now wanted enosis with Greece and this resulted in the second problem of keeping them in harmony with Turkish Cypriots who having heard of Greek Cypriots wanting enosis, wanted partition with Turkey. Around this time the British undertook an extensive program of public works including the construction of roads and bridges and improving drinking supplies and also built the first railway line. They also improved the ports and more hospitals and schools were built. Maybe to make Cyprus a more favourable place to live and encourage Cypriots that British rule was the right thing. Later, because Turkey sided with Germany in World War I, Britain offered Cyprus to Greece for siding with Britain against Germany and Turkey. However, this suggestion was rejected along with the chance of enosis. Then during the Second World War Britain again offered Cyprus to Greece in return for help in Bulgaria and Britain was rejected yet again.

EOKA
After the Second World War the Greek Cypriots demanded self determination and, when instead they were offered a new constitution, Colonel George Grivas launched EOKA. EOKA was a terrorist group whose prime job was to rid the Cypriots of British rule and increase chances of enosis with Greece. The campaign started when the first EOKA bombs exploded at 00.30 hours on 1st of April 1955, lasting until 1959 and causing the death of more Greek Cypriots than British. EOKA received direct support from Greece in terms of money, arms and organization. Under a 1959 compromise settlement known as Zurich-London agreements, Cyprus became an independent Republic in 1960. Since then, April 1 is a national holiday to celebrate the EOKA. It is celebrated in memorial services in churches and gatherings in cities and villages in the Greek Cypriot part of Cyprus.

TMT
TMT was a group very much like EOKA apart from the fact that they were Turkish. TMT stands for the Turkish Resistance Organization and they were created to counter the Greek Cypriot fighters’ organization, EOKA, and also to bring partition to Cyprus. All of the members were called mujahid and the name of their leader was Fatin Rüştü Zorlu. They were also known for using the sign of a Gray Wolf which in Turkey is a symbol and important archetype of mythology and the organization announced itself to Cyprus on the 29th November 1957 by handing out leaflets for partition. TMT was mainly active between 1957 and 1974 and were constantly accused of terrorism and killing left wing Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots but TMT claimed it was only in response to the danger of EOKA.

1960
In 1960 Cyprus became an independent republic with the former archbishop Makarios as the president of Cyprus and the vice president of Cyprus was a Turkish Cypriot. The republic was running nowhere nearly as smoothly as it should have as massive differences between the two sides began to erupt and cause problems in the partnership Republic of Cyprus and it wasn’t long before fighting started between the two groups of Cypriots.

1963
This year the civil war officially started between Turkish and Greek Cypriots and ended the hopes of a United Cyprus Republic as there were now massacres of each side and no one was safe. It started off with Turkish Cypriots leaving the republic government after a court told Makarios that he failed to uphold article 173 of the constitution which was to establish separate municipalities for the Turkish Cypriots. Makarios ignored the court and proposed thirteen amendments to the constitution. But, according to a historian called Keith Kyle, those amendments were in the Greek Cypriot’s favour as both presidents would lose their ability to overturn judgements, the separate municipalities what Turkish Cypriots wanted would be abandoned and the civil service ratio would be set to population ratios. This was not good for Turkish Cypriots because of their much smaller population compared to Greek Cypriots. This would mean that Turkish Cypriots would lose their jobs to Greek Cypriots and this was why Turkish Cypriots walked out of the civil service. After these events the Turkish Cypriots believed they were being turned from co-founders of the republic into the minority.

It also became clear some Greek Cypriots didn’t think enosis had disappeared with independence and even Makarios said “independence is the first step towards enosis” but it was not only some Greek Cypriots who wanted changes in the same way that some Turkish Cypriots wanted partition with Turkey and believed it was a ‘safeguard’ from enosis.

After the Turkish Cypriots left the government Cypriots started fighting again. On one occasion, on December 21, 1963, in the early hours of Saturday morning, around 2 a.m., six Turkish Cypriot men and four women were driving to their homes in Nicosia when they were stopped by a group of Greek Cypriot civilian men at the Turkish quarter of Tahtakale bordering the Greek Cypriot part of Nicosia. The Greek Cypriots pulled their guns and said that they were policeman. They asked for identification and wanted to search them. The Turkish Cypriots objected to this harassment and an argument began between the two sides. At this moment uniformed Greek Cypriot police men appeared suddenly in their cars carrying sterling sub-machine guns and opened fire on the Turkish Cypriots. One of the Turkish Cypriot men and one of the women died just a few hundred meters from their homes.

The Turkish were now getting involved in the fighting and in 1964 Tilliria was bombed by Turkish planes for four days and the outcome was 54 Greek Cypriots and Greeks killed and 125 injured, including civilians. The chaos of the bombing was ended after the intervention of the UN Security Council.

1974
In 1971 the Greek military Junta got involved and Colonel George Grivas returned to Cyprus and branded Makarios a traitor as Makarios had by now abandoned the idea of enosis and saw it as an obstacle to independence. Colonel George Grivas established a paramilitary group known as the National Organization Of Cyprus Fighters or EOKA-B. The junta in Athens gave funds to Grivas to carry out terrorist attacks and funded pro-enosis newspapers. When Makarios failed to disband the national guard, with its officer class dominated by mainland Greece, this meant that the junta had control over the Cyprus military establishment, leaving Makarios isolated and a vulnerable target. Makarios was worried of possible assassination attempts to kill and replace him with a pro-enosis president. One such assassination attempt was when, just after Makarios had an interview with a reporter about the Cyprus problem, the helicopter he was flying in was shot down, but Makarios was unharmed when the helicopter crashed. After more pressure on Makarios from the Greek military Junta, EOKA B and Greek Cypriots he disappeared from his house to a British base where the British flew him out of Cyprus.

Nicos Samson became the president of Cyprus after Makarios was overthrown but only for eight days before he was forced out by the Turkish military. His birth name was Nicos Georghiades but when he became a journalist he changed his name to Nicos Sampson so he may be distinguished from the rest of his family. When Cyprus were under British rule he was part of George Grivas’s EOKA A and the British police found he had an unusual habit of being the first photographer at the scene of EOKA shootings. Nicos Sampson was soon arrested for having firearms in his possession which under the British emergency rule was a death sentence but he was instead given a life sentence after complaints that he had been tortured. Just a year and a half later though he was released from prison under the Zurich and London agreement in 1960 and when he returned to Cyprus he was given a heroes welcome.

In 1974 when the Greek Junta overthrew Makarios, claiming he was dead, they appointed Nicos Sampson as the replacement president chosen from several possible candidates. His regime had gathered and detained more than a thousand Makarios supporters. While Nicos Sampson was president of Cyprus there were rumors of him planning genocide on Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus. In 1981 Nicos Sampson was supposed to have said to an Athens newspaper in an interview “if Turks did not launch the operation we would have not just succeeded in enosis, we would have eradicated all Turks from the island.” However when I did research on this I found out that it was only Turkish Cypriots speaking about it and when I looked up the Nicos Sampson interview I couldn’t find out which newspaper he spoke to either. The possible plans for the genocide were one of the biggest reasons for Turkish intervention. Also on July 22nd 1974 the Washington Star News reported ” bodies littered the streets and there were mass burials, people told by Makarios to lay down their arms were being shot down by the national guard.”

So after these events Turkey landed in Cyprus on July 20th 1974 but they didn’t start well at all because when the first two squads of Turkish troops landed they started shooting at each other thinking their own squads were the enemy. But Turkey picked up from there and after just controlling a beachhead in the north they eventually controlled 38% of the island and after a second offensive finally took control of 37% of Cyprus.

Ceasefire lines were drawn in green and a buffer zone manned by the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), which had been in there since 1964. Except for occasional incidents between soldiers in the buffer zone, the island was free of violent conflict from 1974 until August 1996, when violent clashes led to the death of two demonstrators and escalated tension. The situation has been quiet since 1996.

2004
It was April 2004 when the Turkish Cypriots approved of, and the Greek Cypriots rejected, a call for a UN-sponsored plan called the Annan Plan. The plan not going through disappointed EU officials who had agreed to allow Cyprus to join that year partly because it might have resolved the problems between the two sides. There were a few reasons for the approval and rejection by each side. The Turkish Cypriots wanted to become part of a reunification as it was needed for economical reasons, plus they no longer saw the Greek Cypriots as a threat. The main reasons for the Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan Plan was that they believed it was pro-Turkish and it had inadequate safeguards for Greek Cypriots in the north who would have limited rights to return to their property. They also did not like the Cyprus flag changes and the fact that the UN security council did not guarantee post reunification security.

Cypriot points of view
“Haier” (Greek Cypriot)
“today 36 years ago, when I was around his age, I lost my father, 2 uncles and a cousin his age. They were living not far from where he is enjoying his summer break. Tell him, they were tortured before shot and buried in a mass grave. Tell him, I had to live in a tent for 2 years wondering if my father was alive. Tell him my mother died soon after leaving me and another 2 kid’s orphan. Tell him, to this day, the people he sees on TV (TC TV), telling him all these things about the story of CY, are the people that refuse to tell me where my father is buried.
Tell him, please, that even people like me have decided not to hate TCs for this. That we want peace.”

“Cyprus” (Turkish Cypriot)
“Jerry says, ‘ the rape of hundreds of Greek Cypriot women and girls‘

“numbers are based on exaggerated assumptions as it is in everything in GC propaganda machine. What would you say for the rape of hundreds of Turkish Cypriot women and girls? Do you believe that, all females in villages killed and just put into mass graves? No, they were raped first, shot and then put into graves. In society we had preferred not to talk about these rapes to much or to make it political advertisement in order not to disturb their families’ psychology and not to increase their pain even deeper. Necessary reports had taken by UN. It had happened on both side. You had been raping TC from 63 to 74.

‘Turkey’s obligation upon intervention should have been to restore the constitution’
This was the intention. When the intervention had started, liflets from airplanes had been distributed all over the island; they had announced their intention from media. What happens when someone shoots at you? You shoot back and fight. There were no Turkish army in Turkish site of Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaka, Pafos and most of the TC villages. They first were only in Kyrenia and north side of Nicosia. But wherever there was no Turkish army, got under heavy fire by GC. Villages were attacked, civilians were massacred. Although it was junta in control first, in the first cease-fire Makarios didn’t agree for anything neither. Then the intention had changed.”

“Antonis Antonides” (Greek Cypriot)
When I checked my email address I found 6 comments from my original article. I only chose the most non-biased one which was by someone called Antonis Antonides, however it surprised me that he was Greek Cypriot. He insisted that part of the reason the government failed in 1963 was the lack of trust and also that Greek Cypriots still wanted enosis with Greece and Turkish Cypriots wanted a partition with Turkey. One thing that really surprised me that of all six emails that I got Antonis Antonides was the only person who didn’t think Turkish Cypriots should be allowed to trade directly with the EU and along with the majority of emailers he thought the sides should remain divided and only by putting up ‘hard’ borders in Cyprus would there be a long lasting solution to the problem. I do mostly agree with Antonis Antonides except I believe that it would benefit Cyprus if it were all a part of the EU but I do agree that “hard” borders will be the only viable solution as it is quite clear that Turkish and Greek Cypriots can’t really get along together especially not as a joint republic.

I only did this article to help me understand what the big problem is in Cyprus. I didn’t care at all about stopping the arguing and fighting in Cyprus and I wasn’t trying to help everyone be friends, I just wanted to understand why there is all of the fighting and hate. And I think I now do understand.

[Get Real!]

So is this what you've been teaching your kids about operation ATTILA 74?

"So after these events Turkey landed in Cyprus on July 20th 1974 but they didn’t start well at all because when the first two squads of Turkish troops landed they started shooting at each other thinking their own squads were the enemy. But Turkey picked up from there and after just controlling a beachhead in the north they eventually controlled 38% of the island and after a second offensive finally took control of 37% of Cyprus. "

Is it any wonder why GCs hate you and want you off the island?

[Get Real!]

Please read below, Need I say more?

Yes, that you're FUCKING STUPID.

[B25]

Absolute shit, when you get statements like this "EOKA was a terrorist group " you just know the british and Turkish propoganda machines are at work and even children do as they are told.

Take this writeup and stick up your arse, your a first class twat.

[bill cobbett]

This "13 year-old Brit" ? Stands to be kicked off the land that he/she and his/her CarpetSquatting parents are trespassing on?

[bill cobbett]

... and here's a story written by some-one of a similar age, a high school child forced out of the village of Agiois Amvrosios, known the the CarpetMolesters as Esentepe...

A refugee's story: days of memories, 20 July 1974-2009

2009 saw the commemoration of 35 years since the Turkish invasion and continuing occupation. Memories of 1974 are still fresh for those who lived through those black days of war. Time has not yet faded the events.

“I was in Ayios Amvrosios in the best years of my life. At that young age you make dreams and you live them. But suddenly on the morning of 20 July, everything was stopped in its tracks. Only a few of my personal belongings remained after the war. In November 1974, amongst those items I brought with me when I came to England was my diary. I look through it every July because I do not want to leave these events to be forgotten as there was an invasion and the occupation continues. Here are some excerpts:

‘Saturday 20 July 1974
It never crossed my mind that how I woke up today could ever happen to me. Around 5.30am, I woke to the sound of bombs from Turkish warplanes. Turkey began a military attack on Cyprus. Turkish planes are ploughing through the blue sky. My brother came to my mind. He is in the army. My mum began to cry and wail. She is thinking only of her son. He has completed only six months of military service and is in the first front in Kyrenia.

Quotation:
"We do not know if we are to survive. They have nearly taken the north part of Cyprus. I heard they have taken Mia Milia, Kythrea, Lefkoniko and are now heading for Famagusta…"

Everybody in the village was panicking. Young children like me, ran to our high school as it was on a higher position and from there we could see what was happening in the sea off Kyrenia. We saw two Turkish warships and the fire and smoke coming from them. We run home, scared. All the fellow villagers are scared and running to hide in the valleys and caves. My father gathered all of us in the orchard with apricot trees. Beneath the leaf laden trees and irritated for the moment by the sounds of cicada insects, we couldn’t see anything but we could hear the terrifying noise of aircraft bombing. Feelings cannot be described. A look around says it all. Women were kneeling to pray and sing all the psalms they knew.

We stayed in the orchard to hide until the afternoon. My father went to the coffee shop to see what was happening. He came home and told us the village hospital needed volunteers and it was a good idea to go and help. So I went there and stayed for the whole night…

Monday 22 July 1974
The first refugees from Kyrenia arrived in the village. They stayed in the primary school. We cooked in the hospital all day to offer at least a little food to the first arrivals. Today some wounded soldiers from Kyrenia came to the hospital and we took care of them. On their faces you could see pain and suffering. They told us how much they had suffered in the last two days in battles in Kyrenia and we cried with them…

Wednesday 14 August 1974
The second stage of the war. I woke up at 4.45am with the first sounds of bombs from the warships on the eastern side of Kyrenia. Soon, Turkish military aircraft started bombing again for a second time. The mountain range of Pentadaktylos is burning again.

The village emptied. My father’s brother is the only one in the family who had a truck. He unloaded all the watermelons and gathers the family together. But he does not want to leave the village, it is in his blood. My father told me how my uncle once went to work in Lefkara and when it started to get dark, he insisted on going back to his village to sleep. He never likes to sleep away from his house. So now we went to the forest of Antifonitis, a few kilometres outside the village, and then into the woods of Ypati…

It is morning, 11.30 already and the warplanes never stopped bombing. I sit under an olive tree and from there I can see four ships at sea. The planes fly so low that I feel from minute to minute they are going to bomb us. I’m scared… Nobody knows whether they will survive to tonight…

Three o’clock this afternoon passed with the fear and terror growing because the planes have not stopped passing over us. We decided to go to the village to see what was happening. Nobody was there. Facing terror, they had all left. We went home and got some necessities. I ran to make my bed because in the morning with all the panic I left it unmade and I didn’t want to find it unmade when I come home later…

My younger sister, influenced by the story of the book Aioliki Gi which she was reading those days about the Asia Minor catastrophe, ran to the yard and took some soil. The middle sister ran to the cupboard and took all the family photographs. My mother, with tears in her eyes ran to get some gold jewellery and I heard her say “there is a war. We may need to sell them for a piece of bread.” We crossed the village from one end to the other in my uncle’s truck. Everyone had left the village. We started for the unknown with no hope. When you hear on one side the sound of ships and on the other aircraft, it does not leave you with any hope. From moment to moment you wait for your turn to die. I wasn’t worried about myself, I was thinking only of all those who are fighting, my uncles, my cousins, and many others, who I knew were in the army. We had already heard that my brother was a prisoner in a hospital in Turkey. Who knows if am going to survive. My mind stops here. I can write no more… We were travelling until sunset. Some people we saw advised us the best place to go was the English bases. Eventually, after some problems, we arrived in an orchard with orange trees in Avgorou. I couldn’t believe that we were to stay there for the night and sleep under the trees…

Thursday 15 August 1974
I woke early under the orange trees. Even though it was August, I was cold. I hope it is for a few days and we will soon return to our village. God knows. I cannot believe I am far from my home. We do not know if we are to survive and I am thinking about my home. They have nearly taken the north part of Cyprus. I heard they have taken Mia Milia, Kythrea, Lefkoniko and are now heading for Famagusta…

Friday 16 August 1974
One more day under the orange trees… In the afternoon the village authorities allowed us to go and stay in the school building. We’re supposed to stay in one classroom with other families. Here they took a register of refugees. At least they gave us a meal and some blankets.

I stayed in Avgorou until 21 August. Later I went with my family to Pentakomo, a small village in Limassol, which I never knew existed and stayed until 30 August, again in a school building. From there we went to Lefkara where we were allocated an empty house. We cleaned it and settled there. I was there until 16 November 1974 and left temporarily for London until the occupation ends in Cyprus…"

The memories are still painful as the occupation continues. My brother is still missing. His name is included in the list of missing persons and his name was whispered by my father when he passed away. Some of the soil my sister took from our village in 1974 was placed on my father’s grave. My mother still dresses in black and has a memorial for him every year. The agony to know what happened to her son is still there.

I visited my house in the village five years ago but wish I had not. It was better for me to keep the memories of it as I left it on 14 August 1974. Most important though, is that the land remains there waiting for us. Perhaps the house will be destroyed and the trees my father and grandfather planted may not survive, but our children and grandchildren will bring them back.”

[bill cobbett]

The "13-year-old Brit's" parents have some explaining to do, as to how they may have come to raise their family on the stolen land belonging to others, and how they have tried to profit from the misery of others.

...so here's the first few paras of another story of the forced exodus from the same village of Agios Amvrosios (aka Esentepe) by a seventeen-year-old, which starts with the flight of some of the women and children of the village...


By Kyriacos Christodoulou

My story begins in 1974, as a 17-year old. I am from a small town in the northern part of Cyprus, called Ayios Amvrosios, where most of the invasion took place. It is difficult to explain my feelings at the time – I couldn’t believe that this was happening. I expected that the international community would not allow a massive country like Turkey to invade a country like Cyprus with 600,000 people, but it was happening before my own eyes.

There were two invasions, on July 20 and August 14. The second invasion saw most of the inhabitants of my town – including me – board whatever vehicles were available and flee to save our lives. We went across the mountain to the sanctuary. I have seen devastation, raging fires, and bombardment from sea, air and land. It was a horrific experience for a youngster like myself.

I will never forget my final journey away from Ayios Ambvosios. We were on a truck; there were maybe 50 people – mainly women and children. I can remember the driver driving around the town once more while we all screamed ‘what are you doing?’ He replied that he wanted all of us to see the town one last time. It was a very moving experience. That final departure from the place of my most carefree and loving times was when I first felt a sense of deep injustice, and that I must do something for as long as I can. And this is what I have been doing for most of the rest of my life.

[Jerry]

For those of you that don't know River Daniel is, I believe, the grandchild (an odd name, I don't know if River is male of female) of the proprietor of the North Cyprus Free Press who currently resides on GC property in the north. I have only glanced at the article but I could see no mention of the 200,000 Cypriots who were forced from their homes. I wonder if the child has ever looked at Varosha and asked why it is empty or why there is an illuminated flag on the mountainside or why his grandfather can live in Cyprus on land that is not his and yet I can't enjoy my legally owned property in north Cyprus.

[bill cobbett]

For those of you that don't know River Daniel is, I believe, the grandchild (an odd name, I don't know if River is male of female) of the proprietor of the North Cyprus Free Press who currently resides on GC property in the north. I have only glanced at the article but I could see no mention of the 200,000 Cypriots who were forced from their homes. I wonder if the child has ever looked at Varosha and asked why it is empty or why there is an illuminated flag on the mountainside or why his grandfather can live in Cyprus on land that is not his and yet I can't enjoy my legally owned property in north Cyprus.

Absolutely mate,

... and perhaps this child's CarpetScrapping parents can come and explain to my children why they can't enjoy their old man's property back in the old village.

[Omer Seyhan]

the kid needs to stay in school and dabble less in politics....until he has learn the basics. I see many faults and contradictions inn his piece, which is dangerously ignorant. the trouble is other ignorant people will read and absorb it, before passing it on to others.