supporttheunderdog wrote:Not as low as back-shooting unarmed women in the street.
Well, since the topic has been derailed, I might as well say my opinion on the murder of D.J. Cutliffe you have been referring to time and again:
You are insulting our intelligence (and your own).
Are you really trying to make us believe that that Grivas would be so stupid as to order, approve, accept or even just ignore the gunning down/cold blooded murder of an innocent British woman, mother of seven children and the wounding of another one? Are you really asking us to believe that Grivas, a master in tactics and propaganda, could not predict what any moron would have predicted, i.e., the disastrous/negative impact that such a murder would have against him, against EOKA and against the Greeks and what strong a propaganda card it would offer to the British?
Let’s list some of the reactions and results that this murder caused:
1. It enraged the British troops and boosted their determination for combat and revenge, at a moment when their moral was at the lowest. Two civilians were murdered by a British military mob that same day (beaten to death) and two more died of heart attacks which they suffered during the beatings.
2. It enraged the British Public Opinion, including the British media, at a moment when doubts were growing strong in Britain about the correctness of the British policy in Cyprus and about the methods of the colonial forces on the Island.
3. It appalled the Greek Cypriots, the Greeks in Greece and the rest of the world.
4. It offered to the colonial authorities both the excuse they were seeking for the tightening of their oppressive methods as well as the alibi for the crimes they had committed till then and those to follow.
5. It defamed Grivas and EOKA.
6. It offered a very strong card to the British propaganda to defame EOKA and the Greek Cypriots even to this day (take your relevant posts for instance about EOKA being cowardly back shooters of women).
7. And last, but not least (take note of this one) it made the British even more sympathetic than before towards their “brothers in arms” (the Turkish Cypriots) and offered another to the colonial authorities another excuse for their cooperation with TMT thugs against EOKA and the Greek Cypriots.
So who could have done it?
As you know, Grivas condemned the murder immediately and denied that EOKA members had anything to do with it.
The mayor of Nicosia offered a 5,000 pound reward to anyone who would give information about the shooters.
Prominent Cypriot personalities accused the British secret services for master minding the murder so that by this they would achieve all above negative results against EOKA, the cause and the Greeks. Don’t tell me that such a thought is appalling because we all know how far the cynical colonial authorities and the secret services can go and have gone in order to achieve their goals. Is it possible that the victim chosen was an embarrassment to the British community in Cyprus at that time and thus “expendable”? Some Greek Minister, I remember having seen somewhere, did suggest that the motives of the murder had to do with some kind of an extra marital relation of the victim.
How about the TMT having planned and executed the murder in order to turn the Brits and the international public opinion in their favor and against the Greeks?
One can even claim that it was the work of some thugs who acted on their own for reasons no one will ever know.
Pick any of the three choices above.
But don’t you come in here again and tell me it was EOKA that planned and committed this murder. Because it was not and you know it! And certainly, you have no evidences or proof. Not even suspects.
P.S. 1. How do you explain that the shooters did not harm shoot/kill the 18 year old daughter of the victim who saw them, tried to stop them by throwing her arms at them and would be able to identify them in the event they would be caught and lined up for recognition?
2. How do you explain that, in their murderous frenzy, they did not finish off the wounded woman who would also be able to recognize them?
3. Such behavior tells me that the murderers were rather sure of themselves and certain that they would not be caught/questioned/brought to justice for their act.
Is there a sensible answer/explanation you can offer about all the above?
