Cyprus-Forum.com

[zan]

The Speech by Makarios Delivered before
the UN Security Council on 19 July 1974


I do not know as yet all the details of the Cyprus crisis caused by the Greek military regime. I am afraid that the number of casualties is large and that the material destruction is heavy. What is, however, our primary concern at present is the ending of the tragedy.


As I have already stated, the events in Cyprus do not constitute an internal matter of the Greeks of Cyprus. The Turks of Cyprus are also affected. The coup of the Greek junta is an invasion, and from its consequences the whole people of Cyprus suffers, both Greeks and Turks. The United Nations has a peace-keeping force stationed in Cyprus. It is not possible for the role of that peace-keeping force to be effective under conditions of a military coup. The Security Council should call upon the military regime of Greece to withdraw from Cyprus the Greek officers serving in the National Guard, and to put an end to its invasion of Cyprus.

[Main_Source]

Zan, you cannot compare the EOKA B illegalities in Cyprus to the Turkish ones. Turkey has occupied Cyprus and performed a huge act of ethnic cleansing...far worse then what any Greek forces have done. You can cut and paste as much as you want but Turkey today and for the last 31 years has far more guilt and blood on their hands.

[zan]

It's easier said than done: How do the British, Austrian or any other term presidency of the European Union, come to think of it, expect the Turks to become more forthcoming on the issue of opening up ports and airports to the Greek Cypriots -- a development that is far more than a de facto recognition of the Tassos Papadopoulos regime in southern Cyprus as the government of the entire island -- while the EU is unable, for obvious reasons, to honor its pledges to the Turkish Cypriot people and ease their international isolation?

Or how can anyone expect Ankara to stop blocking membership of the Papadopoulos administration in international organizations or conventions as the sole government of the entire island while the EU is unable, for obvious reasons, to extend to northern Cyprus a trivial economic assistance package?

Let's be serious... The EU has allowed itself to slide into the Cyprus quagmire by letting the illegitimate Greek Cypriot government of southern Cyprus join as a fully fledged member as the �government� representing the �Cyprus Republic.� Though most Turks are unwilling to admit it as such and Europe has been trying to avoid it being considered as such, the Cyprus issue became the �internal problem� of the EU as of May 1, 2004, the date of Greek Cypriot accession.

Come on! Under the 1960 founding agreements and the Constitution of the Cyprus Republic since the 1963 �Bloody Christmas� and the subsequent March 1964 expulsion of the Turkish Cypriots from the partnership administration and government officies all over the island, there is no government on the island that has legitimacy or any legal claim to be the representative of the Cyprus Republic and the entire population of the island. The Tassos Papadopoulos administration is -- and all preceeding governments in southern Nicosia were -- just the Greek Cypriot communal government, nothing else. The claim of Greek Cypriots to be the Cyprus Republic is a big lie that unfortunately could not be considered as such by the international community. This is the bitter reality that has prevented a Cyprus settlement over the past four decades.

The Cyprus problem is neither an issue of invasion and occupation nor a restless minority rejecting government rule. Turkey's intervention and its continued presence on the island are by-products of the armed Greek Cypriot campaign of cleansing the Turkish Cypriot people considered by the Greek Cypriots as the greatest impediment to the Hellenization of the island and union with Greece, that is to say, enosis.

The Cyprus problem is not Turkish Cypriot acceptance and Greek Cypriot rejection of the U.N. plan in April 2004, either. Those referanda were just a demonstration that the Greek Cypriots were persistent in their opposition to sharing power with the Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriot readiness to sacrifice once again -- the plan was far short of meeting the expectations of the Turkish Cypriots and would render 40 percent of the population refugees for a third time since 1963 -- just for the sake of reaching a compromise deal.

Such approaches as �Yes, but Greek Cypriots are members of the EU; we cannot fulfil what we promised. However, if you take this (or that) action we will note it� represent nothing other than just empty talk. Were not the Europeans aware of what they were doing in admitting in the Greek Cypriot state?

Now, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government may very well wish to fulfil its pledges to the EU. Can it convince the parliamentarians that the ruling of the Euıropean Court of Human Rights � which said Greek Cypriot applicant Myra Xenides-Arestis was deprived of the right to use her property but adjourned the case and ordered Turkey to set up a reparation mechanism for the plaintiff and about 1,400 similar cases pending at the court -- is a big enough success that merits approval of the additional protocol and recognition of the Greek Cypriot state?

The EU is confused over Cyprus. The AKP is confused over Cyprus. The lies are bare and so are the bitter realities. No one can be fooled any further with the "we shall lift Turkish Cypriot isolation" myth. There is no way out but to force a wholesome Cyprus settlement before the Turkish-EU ship soon runs aground.

Do we want Turkey to join the EU? Do we want a Cyprus settlement? Let us decide and act accordingly rather than trying to fool each other!

[Piratis]

Zan, is copy-paste propaganda the only thing you can do?
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/arti ... wsid=31617

[zan]

The ex-Prime Minister of Greece, Mitsotakis, announced that Cypriot Greeks had slaughtered Turks mercilessly under Makarios’ bad administration.

Terrible massacres carried out by the Cypriot Greeks against the Turkish population of the island 26 years ago has been confirmed by Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the ex-Prime Minister of Greece. The Cypriot Greeks, who killed Turks brutally at that time, were denying these massacres on the international arena up till now. Konstantinos Mitsotakis said that “under Makarios’ administration, Cypriot Greeks carried out killings of Turks to reach the goal of abolishing the signed agreements”. These remarkable statements of the ex-Prime Minister to the daily Greek newspaper Ta Nae have also been published on Fileleftheros, the newspaper with the highest circulation in South Cyprus. In his statements, Mitsotakis accused Archbishop Makarios with criminal mistakes. Mitsotakis said that Makarios had dragged Cyprus into bloody events in order to abolish the agreements signed personally by himself and that this process had led Cypriot Greeks to commit undeniable murders against the Turkish side. Mitsotakis also criticized Konstantin Karamanlis, the Greek Prime Minister of the period and said that “if I were in place of him I would accept the proposals made by the Turks after the operation of 20th July,1974 and would prevent the second operation”.

[bg_turk]

What ethnic cleansing against TCs are you talking about? We never confiscated the homes of TCs claiming them as ours, like you did.

No you did not, you just sold them off to "good willed" greek companies, or built airports on top of them, or simply reduced them to rubble. Even those properties which survived are currently indefinitely expropriated since their legal owners cannot reclaim them.

"TRNC" represents only the ethnic cleansing and the human rights violations against GCs.

So does the roc for TCs.

TCs choose to be our enemies and they reject all our calls for return to legality and respect of the human rights of everybody. The think that they have only rights and no responsibilities towards RoC. On one hand they act on a treasonous criminal way seeking the destruction of RoC and at the same time they expect to have rights from the state they do not recognize and they fights against.

If TCs want their rights in RoC the only thing they have to do is to accept legality. So everybody will have their rights. As I said in another thread, if TCs treat us like their enemies by violating our basic human rights, they can not expect from us to treat them with love.

The TRNCs government, which is democratically ellected by TCs and represents the free will of all those who freely choose to be its citizens, has no responsibility towards the RoC administration, which falsely claims to have jurisdiction over the North of Cyprus. The TRNC only has responsibility towards the human rights of its citizens and its former residents, that have been unfairly displaced, and this so long as they respect their responsibilities towards the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as well.

RoC has been extremely lenient to TCs. It offers to them free health care even if they pay no taxes for it (right without responsibility) and it offers to them most of their rights without asking anything in return. Instead of appreciation they complain on top of that!!

I appreciate that. It is a gesture of good will and it should be reciprocated. The TRNC should also start offering free health care to the Greek Cypriot refugees as a gesture of good will towards its potential future citizens or residents.

[zan]

What ethnic cleansing against TCs are you talking about? We never confiscated the homes of TCs claiming them as ours, like you did.

ATTEMPTED GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING IN CYPRUS

This article is written for a daily newspaper by former British Parliamentarian (1992-1997) Michael STEPHEN

Former British Parliamentarian Michael STEPHEN reminds Mr. Michael B. Christides, The Charge D’affaires of the Greek Embassy in Ankara, and many others who appear to have forgotten what indeed the case in Cyprus from 1963 to 1974.

The assertion by Mr. Christides (May 10, 1999) that there was no ethnic cleansing or attempted genocide of Turkish Cypriots by Greek Cypriots is ridiculous. Until influential Greek Cypriots come to terms with the appalling behavior of their community toward the smaller Turkish Cypriot community and stop trying to persuade themselves and world that each side was as much to blame as the other, there will be no reconciliation in Cyprus.

In his memoirs, American Undersecretary of State George Ball said: “Makarios’s central interest was to block off Turkish intervention so that he and his Greek Cypriots could go on happily massacring Turkish Cypriots. Obviously we would never permit that.” The fact is, however, that neither the United States, the United Kingdom, nor the United Nations, nor anyone, other than Turkey ever took effective action to prevent it. On Feb. 17, 1964 the Washington Post reported that “Greek Cypriot fanatics appear bent on a policy of genocide.”

Former British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas Home said, “I was convinced that if Archbishop Makarios could not bring himself to treat the Turkish Cypriots as human beings he was inviting the invasion and partition of the island.” On July 28, 1960 Makarios, the Greek Cypriot president, said: “The independence agreements do not form the goal - they are the present and not the future. The Greek Cypriot people will continue their national cause and shape their future in accordance with THEIR will.”

In a speech on Sept. 4, 1962 at Panayia Makarios said, “Until this Turkish community forming part of the Turkish race that has been the terrible enemy of Hellenism is expelled, the duty of the heroes of EOKA can never be considered terminated.”

In November 1963 the Greek Cypriots demanded the abolition of no less than eight of the basic articles that had been included in the 1960 agreement for the protection of the Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish Cypriots, naturally, refused to agree. The aim of the Greek Cypriots, was to reduce the Turkish Cypriots people to the status of a mere minority, wholly subject to the control of the Greek Cypriots, pending ultimate destruction or expulsion of the Turkish Cypriots from the island.

When the Turkish Cypriots objected to the ammendment of the Constitution, Makarios put his plan into effect, and the Greek Cypriots attack began in December 1963,” wrote Lt. Gen. George Karayiannis of the Greek Cypriot militia (“Ethnikos Kiryx” 15.6.65). The general was referring to the notorious “Akritas” plan, which was the blueprint for the annihilation of the Turkish Cypriots and the annexation of the island to Greece.

On Christmas Eve 1963 the Greek Cypriot militia attacked Turkish Cypriots communities across the island. Large numbers of men, women, and children were killed and 270 mosques, shrines and other places of worship were desecrated.

On Dec. 28, 1963, the Daily Express carried the following report from Cyprus: “We went tonight into the sealed-off Turkish Cypriot quarter of Nicosia in which 200 to 300 people had been slaughtered in the last five days. We were the first Western reporters there, and we have seen sights too frigthful to be described in print. Horror so extreme that the people seemed stunned beyond tears.”

On Dec. 31, 1963, The Guardian reported: “It is nonsense to claim, as the Greek Cypriots do, that all casualties were caused by fighting between armed men of both sides. On Christmas Eve many Turkish Cypriot people were brutally attacked and murdered in their suburban homes, including the wife and children of a doctor - allegedly by a group of 40 men, many in army boots and greatcoats.” Although the Turkish Cypriots fought back as best they could and killed some militia, there were no massacres of Greek Cypriot civilians.

On Jan.1, 1964, the Daily Herald reported: “When I came across the Turkish Cypriot homes they were an appalling sight. Apart from the walls they just did not exist. I doubt if a napalm attack could have created more devastation. Under roofs which had caved in I found a twisted mass of bed springs, children’s cots, and grey ashes of what had once been tables, chairs and wardrobes. In the neighboring village of Ayios Vassilios I counted 16 wrecked and burned out homes. They were all Turkish Cypriot. In neither village did I find a scrap of damage to any Greek Cypriot house.”

On Jan. 2, 1964, the Daily Telegraph wrote: “The Greek Cypriot community should not assume that the British military presence can or should secure them against Turkish intervention if they persecute the Turkish Cypriots. We must not be a shelter for double-crossers.”

On Jan. 12, 1964, the British High Commission in Nicosia wrote in a telegram to London: “The Greek (Cypriot) police are led by extremists who provoked the fighting and deliberately engaged in atrocities. They have recruited into their ranks as ‘special constables’ gun-happy young thugs. They threaten to try and punish any Turkish Cypriot police who wishes to return to the Cyprus Government… Makarios assured Sir Arthur Clark that there will be no attack. His assurance is as worthless as previous assurance have proved.

On Jan. 14, 1964, the Daily Telegraph reported that the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Ayios Vassilios had been massacred on Dec. 26, 1963 and reported their exhumation from a mass grave in the presence of the Red Cross. A further massacre of Turkish Cypriots, at Limasol, was reported by the Observer on Feb. 16, 1964; and there were many more.

On Feb. 6, 1964, a British patrol found armed Greek Cypriot police attacking the Turkish Cypriots of Ayios Sozomenos. They were unable to stop the attack.

On Feb. 13,1964, the Greeks and Greek Cypriots attacked the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Limassol with tanks, killing 16 and injuring 35. On Feb. 15, 1964, the Daily Telegraph reported: “It is a real military operation which the Greek Cypriots launched against the 6,000 inhabitants of the Turkish Cypriot quarter yesterday morning. A spokesman for the Greek Cypriot government has recognized this officially. It is hard to conceive how Greek and Turkish Cypriots may seriously contemplate working together after all that has happened.”

On Sep. 10, 1964, the U.N. Secretary-General that, “UNFICYP carried out a detailed survey of all damage to properties throughout the island during the disturbances. …it shows that in 109 villages, most of them Turkish-Cypriot or mixed villages, 527 houses have been destroyed while 2,000 others have suffered damage from looting. In Ktima 38 houses and shops have been destroyed totally and 122 partially. In the Orphomita suburb of Nicosia, 50 houses have been totally destroyed while a further 240 have been partially destroyed there and in adjacent suburbs.”

The U.K. House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs reviewed the Cyprus question in 1987,and reported unanimously on July 2 of that year that “although the Cyprus Government now claims to have been merely seeking to ‘operate the 1960 Constitution modified to the extent dictated by the necessities of the situation,’ this claims ignores the fact that both before and after the events of December 1963 the Makarios Government continued to advocate the cause of enosis and actively pursued the amendment of the Constitution and related treaties to facilitate this ultimate objective.”

The committee continued: “Moreover, in June 1967 the Greek Cypriot legislature unanimously passed a resolution in favor of enosis, in blatant contravention of the 1960 Treaties and Constitution.” (Art. 1 of the Treaty of Guarantee prohibited any action likely to directly or indirectly promote union with any other state partition of the island, and Art. 185 (2) of the Constitution is to similar effect.)

Prof. Ernst Forsthoff, the neutral president of the Supreme Constitutional Court of Cyprus, told Die Welt on Dec. 27, 1963: “Makarios bears on his shoulders the sole responsibility for the recent tragic events. His aim is to deprive the Turkish community of their rights.” In an interview with the UPI press agency on Dec. 30, 1963 he said, “All this happened because Makarios wanted to take away all constitutional rights from the Turkish Cypriots.”

The United Nations not only failed to condemn the forceable usurpation of the legal order in Cyprus, but actually rewarded it by treating the by then wholly Greek Cypriot administration as if it were the government of Cyprus (Security Council Res. 186 of 1964). This acceptance has continued to the present day, and reflects no credit to upon the United Nations, nor upon Britain, nor the other countries who have acquiesced.

On Aug. 12, 1964, the U.K. representative to the United Nations wrote to his government in London as follows:
“What is our policy and true feelings about the future of Cyprus and about Makarios? Judging from the English newspapers and many others, the feeling is very strong indeed against Makarios and his so-called government, and nothing would please the British people more than to see him toppled and the Cyprus problem solved by the direct dealings between the Turks and the Greeks. We are of course supporting the latter course, but I have never seen any expression of the official disapproval in public against Makarios and his evil doings. Is there an official view about this, and what do we think we should do in the long run? Sometimes it seems that the obsession of some people with ‘the Commonwealth’ blinds us to everything else and it would be high treason to take a more active line against Makarios and his henchmen. At other times the dominant feature seems to be concern lest active opposition against Makarios should lead to direct conflict with the Cypriots and end up with our losing our bases.”

Thereafter Turkish Cypriot MPs, judges, and other officials were intimidated or prevented by force from carrying out their duties. According to the Select Committee, “The effect of the crisis of December 1963 was to deliver control of the formal organs of government into the hands of the Greek Cypriots alone. Claiming to be acting in accordance with ‘the doctrine of necessity,’ the Greek Cypriot members of the House of Representatives enacted a series of laws which provided for the operation of the organs of governments without Turkish Cypriot participation.”

The report of the Select Committee contiued: “Equally damaging from the Turkish Cypriot point of view was what they concidered to be their effective exclusion from representation at and participation in the international fora where their case could have been deployed… An official Turkish Cypriot presence in the international political scene virtually disappeared overnight.” It is not therefore surprising that the world has been persuaded to the Greek Cypriot point of view.

More than 300 Turkish Cypriots are still missing without trace from these massacres of 1963/64. These dreadful events were not the resposibility of “the Greek Colonels” of 1974 or an unrepresentative handful of Greek Cypriot extremists. The persecution of the Turkish Cypriots was an act of policy on the part of the Greek Cypriot political and religious leadership, which has to this day made no serious attempt to bring the murderers to justice.

The U.K. Commons Select Committee found that “there is little doubt that much of the violence which the Turkish Cypriots claim led to the total or partial destruction of 103 Turkish villages and the displacement of about a quarter of the total Turkish Cypriot population was either directly inspired by, or certainly connived at, by the Greek Cypriot leadership.”

The U.N. secretary-general reported to the Security Council: “When the disturbances broke out in December 1963 and continued during the first part of 1964, thousands of Turkish Cypriots fled their homes, taking with them only what they could drive or carry, and sought refuge in safer villages and areas.”On Jan. 14, 1964, “Il Giorno” of Italy reported: “Right now we are witnessing the exodus of Turkish Cypriots from the villages. Thousands of people abandoning homes, land, herds. Greek Cypriot terrorism is relentless. This time the rhetoric of the Hellenes and the statues of Plato do not cover up their barbaric and ferocious behavior.”

The Greek Cypriots sometimes allege that it was they who were attacked, by the Turkish Cypriots, who were determined to wreck the 1960 agreements. However, the Turkish Cypriots were not only outnumbered by nearly four to one; they were also surrounded in their villages by armed Greek Cypriots; they had no way of protecting their women and children, and Turkey was 40 miles away across the sea. The very idea that in those circumstances the Turkish Cypriots were the aggressors is absurd.

There were further attacks on the Turkish Cypriots in 1967. In 1971, General Grivas returned to Cyprus to form EOKA-B, which was again commited to making Cyprus a wholly Greek island and annexing it to Greece. In a speech to the Greek Cypriot armed forces at the time (quoted in “New Cyprus”, May 1987) Grivas said: “The Greek forces from Greece have come to Cyprus in order to impose the will of the Greeks of Cyprus upon the Turks. We want ENOSIS, but the Turks are aginst it. We shall impose our will. We are strong, and we shall do so.”

By July 15, 1974, a powerful force of mainland Greek troops had assembled in Cyprus and with their backing, the Greek Cypriot National Guard owerthrew Makarios and installed one Nicos Sampson as “president.” On July 22, the Washington Star News reported: “Bodies littered the streets and there were mass burials… People told by Makarios to lay down their guns were shot by the National Guard.”

On April 17, 1991, Ambassador Nelson Ledsky testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “most of the ‘missing persons’disappeared in the first days of July 1974, before the Turkish intervention on the 20th. Many killed on the Greek side were killed by Greek Cypriots in fighting between supporters of Makarios and Sampson.”

On Nov. 6, 1974, Ta Nea reported that dates from the graves of Greek Cypriots killed in the five days between July 15-20 were erased in order to blame these deaths on the subsequent Turkish military action.

On March 3, 1996, the Greek Cypriot Cyprus Mail wrote: “(Greek) Cypriot governments have found it convenient to conceal the scale of atrocities during the July 15 coup in an attempt to downplay its contribution to the tragedy of the summer of 1974 and instead blame the Turkish invasion for all casualties. There can be no justification for any government that failed to investigate this sensitive humanitarian issue. The shocking admission by the Clerides government that there are people buried in Nicosia cemetery who are still included in the list of the 'missing' is the last episode of a human drama which has been turned into a propaganda tool.”

On Oct. 19, 1996, Mr Georgios Lanitis wrote: “I was serving with the foreign Information Service of the Republic of Cyprus in London… I deeply apologize to all those I told that there are 1,619 missing persons. I misled them. I was made a liar, deliberately, by the government of Cyprus… today it seems that the credibility of Cyprus is nil.”

Turkish Cypriots appealed to the guarartor powers for help, but only Turkey was willing to make any effective response. On July 20, 1974 Turkey intervened under Article IV of the Treaty of Guarantee. The Greek newspaper Eleftherotipia published an interview with Nicos Sampson on Feb. 26,1981 in which he said, “Had Turkey not intervened I would not only have proclaimed enosis, I would have annihilated the Turks in Cyprus.”

The Times and The Guardian reported on Aug. 21, 1974 that in the village of Tokhni on Aug. 14, 1974 all the Turkish Cypriot men between the ages of 13 and 74, except for eighteen who managed to escape, were taken away and shot.

There were also reports that in Zyyi on the same day all the Turkish-Cypriot men aged between 19 and 38 were taken away and were never seen again and that Greek-Cypriots opened fire on the Turkish-Cypriot neighborhood of Paphos killing men, women and children indiscriminately.

On July 23, 1974, the Washington Post reported that “in Greek raid on a small Turkish village near Limassol 36 people out of a population of 200 were killed. The Greeks said that they had been given orders to kill the inhabitants of the Turkish villages before the Turkish forces arrived.” The Times and The Guardian also reported on the killings.

“The Greeks began to shell the Turkish quarter on Saturday, refugees said. Kazan Dervis, a Turkish Cypriot girl aged 15, said she had been staying with her uncle. The (Greek Cypriot) National Guard came into the Turkish sector and shooting began. She saw her uncle and other relatives taken away as prisoners, and later heard her uncle had been shot.” (Times 23.7.1974)

On July 28, 1974 the New York Times reported that 14 Turkish-Cypriot men had been shot in Alaminos. On July 24, 1974 France Soir reported that “the Greeks burned Turkish mosques and set fire to Turkish homes in the villages around Famagusta. Defensless Turkish villagers who have no weapons live in an atmosphere of terror and they evacuate their homes and go and live in tents in the forests. The Greeks’ actions are a shame to humanity.”

On July 22, Turkish Prime Minister Ecevit called upon the United Nations to “stop the genocide of Turkish-Cypriots” and declared, “Turkey has accepted a ceace-fire, but will not allow Turkish-Cypriots to be massacred.”

The German newspaper Die Zeit wrote on Aug. 30, “The massacre of Turkish Cypriots in Paphos and Famagusta is the proof of how justified the Turks were to undertake their intervention.” “Turkish Cypriots, who had suffered from physical attacks since 1963, called on the guarantor powers to prevent a Greek conquest of the island. When Britain did nothing Turkey invaded Cyprus and occupied its northern part. Turkish Cypriots have constitutional right on their side and understandably fear a renewal of persecution if the Turkish army withdraws.” the Daily Telegraph wrote on Aug. 15, 1996.

Turkey intervened to protect the lives and property of the Turkish-Cypriots, and to its credit it has done just that. In the 12 years since, there have been no killings and no massacres” Lord Willis (Labor) told the House of Lords on Dec. 17, 1986. On March 12, 1977, Makarios declared, “It is in the name of enosis that Cyprus has been destroyed.”

The United Nations, the Commonwealth and the rest of the world have put political expediency before principle and failed to condemn this appalling behavior.Greek Cypriots are guilty of attempted genocide but no action has ever been taken against them. Instead they have been rewarded by recognition as the government of all Cyprus. The Turkish Cypriots by contrast were frozen out of the United Nations, the Commonwealth and the almost every other international organization.

[Piratis]

Ok, zan, so since according to you anything written in a british newspeper represents the objective truth, here is one more for you:

''Sun reporter Iain Walker sends a shock report from Cyprus on the Turkish invaders
BARBARIANS
NICOSIA, SUNDAY

'My fiance and six men were shot dead. The Turkish soldiers laughed at me and then I was raped.
GREEK CYPRIOT GIRL AGED 20

'The Turkish soldiers cut off my father's hands and legs. Then they shot him while I watched.
GREEK CYPRIOT WOMAN AGED 32

'They shot the men. My friend's wife said 'Why should I live without my husband?' A soldier shot her in the head.
GREEK CYPRIOT FARMER AGED 51

A HORRIFYING story of atrocities by the Turkish invaders of Cyprus emerged today. It was told by weeping Greek Cypriot villagers rescued by United Nations soldiers.

THEY TOLD of barbaric rape at gunpoint ... and threats of instant execution if they struggled.
THEY TOLD of watching their loved ones tortured and shot.

The villagers are from Trimithi, Karmi and Ayios Georhios, three farming communities west of the holiday town of Kyrenia, directly in the path of the Turkish Army.

Sheltered
They had been trapped since the fighting began two weeks ago and were only evacuated to Nicosia by the UN on Saturday. And today at a Nicosia orphanage they told me their tales – simply and without any prompting.

A 20-year old girl in a pretty yellow and white dress sat under a painting of Jesus tending his flock as she described how she was raped.

She had been visiting her fiance who worked in a hotel near Kyrenia when the Turks attacked. For the first 24 hours she sheltered with other villagers in a stable until they were discovered by Turkish soldiers. She then watched as her fiance and six other men were shot dead in cold blood – only a few minutes after they had been promised that they would not be harmed.

She said: ''After the shooting, a Turkish soldier grabbed me and pulled me into a ditch. I struggled and tried to escape but he pushed me to the ground.

''He tore at my clothes and they were ripped up to my waist. Then he started undressing himself.

Baby
"Another Turkish soldier who was watching us had a nine-month-old baby in his arms and, trying to save myself, I shouted that the baby was mine.

''But they laughed at me and threw the baby to the ground. I was then raped and I fainted soon after.

''When I came to my senses I saw 15 other soldiers standing round watching. The first soldier was taking off my watch and engagement ring. Others were going to rape me - when one of them objected and told them not to be animals.

''I will never forget him for saving me. He was quite unlike the rest - more like an Englishman with blond hair and blue eyes. He spoke to me in English.

''He helped me to my feet and said, 'All is OK now.'

''The others tried to stop him, but he pulled out his gun and pushed his way through and gave me back to the other women.

''When I had recovered, after a few hours, I went to where the bushes had been burned by the shelling and rubbed charcoal over my face and hands, so I would be ugly and they would not do that to me again.''

The girl, too ashamed to reveal her name, added: ''I cannot put into words the horror I feel at what happened to me. I think I would have preferred it it they had shot me.''

Mrs Elena Mateidou, aged 28 was awakened by Turkish soldiers at Trimithi.

She said: ''My husband and father were told to take off all their clothes and they walked us down a dry river bed.

''Then the soldiers separated the women and children and ushered us behind some olive trees. I heard a burst of shooting and knew that they had been killed.

''Later they took us back to the village with our hands tied behind our backs. Two soldiers took me into a room in a deserted house where they raped me.

Bodies
"One of them held a gun to my head while it was happening and said if I struggled he would shoot.

''Afterwards, a soldier took off my wedding ring and wore it himself.''

Mrs Mateidou added: ''I saw another woman being pulled into a bathroom where she too was raped.

''Later I went back to the olive groves and found the bodies of my husband and father along with five other men. My father had been stabbed and my husband shot in the belly.''

Later, United Nations soldiers brought the villagers food. ''The Turks took it away and ate it themselves said Mrs Mateidou.

Another woman who had been an intended rape victim was Miss Phrosa Meitani, aged 32.

She said: ''When I saw what was happening, I ran as quickly as I could. I saw the soldiers pointing guns at me, but I was too frightened to care.

''I hid in the olive groves and tried to get back to where I had been separated from my father.

''I watched from the bushes as they cut off his hands and legs below the knee with a double-edged cutting knife.

''At first he screamed, and beat at them with his fists, but then he became quiet and did not utter a word. Then they shot him in the stomach while I watched.

Farmer Christos Savva Drakos, 51, saw his wife and two sons murdered.

''I was watering my orchard when the bombs started to explode,'' he said.

Shooting
''With the rest of the village we tried to run away through the groves and river beds but the Turks caught us and we surrendered.

''They searched us but no one had a gun.

''The the shooting started. It was one by one to start with and I heard my 16-year-old boy Georgios saying in a calm voice 'Daddy, they have shot me.'

''I pulled him down and we fell behind a rock, He died there in my arms. ''An officer had been attracted by the shooting and he ran up to see what was going on.

''He was furious with his men and ordered them to stop.

''My wife and my other boy Nicos, who was only 13, were dead.

''My friend's wife was terribly badly injured and she told the officer: 'Why should I live without my husband? Shoot me'.

''The officer shrugged his shoulders and walked off and a soldier shot her in the head.''

Face
If the Turkish authorities deny these allegations I will remember the drawn face of that old man cowering in a corner, his body racked with tears.

This elderly man was no actor, or a man ordered to lie for political propaganda.

He was a poor man who had lost everything he ever possessed or loved in the world.

Hotel manager Vassalious Efthimiou was the only survivor in a party of men seized by the Turks.

He said: ''They separated the men from the women and shot the 12 men.

''Those killed ranged from a 12-year-old boy to an old man in his 90's.''

His brother-in-law was shot dead while holding Efthimiou's four year-old daughter, Estella, in his arms.

Bullet
Today, Estella showed where a bullet had hit her thigh.

Efthimiou saved his own life by snatching his other daughter, Charian, aged two, and running.

He said:''I ran until my legs would carry me no longer, and I fell.

''I managed to make my way back later to a village where all the women were trembling with fear and shock.

''I handed my daughter to my wife and said I must save myself.

''I hid in a deep well in my sister's farm for seven days and nights, sitting on a little bar with my feet in the water.

''When I could not take any more I came up.''

Efthimiou and his 37-year-old wife, Helen, run the Mermaid Hotel at Six Mile Beach, Kyrenia, a popular hotel with British tourists.

PRESIDENT Glafkkos Clerides of Cyprus flew into Athens today and accused Turkish troops of mass murders and rape.

Denial
He also claimed about 20,000 Greeks had been forced out of their homes around Kyrenia.

THE TURKS issued a denial.

A spokesman said: ''The Turkish military authorities deny reports of killings and any other atrocities by Turkish troops in any area under Turkish occupation.''

THE SUN SAYS Shame on them
AS THE POLITICIANS vie to take credit for bringing a ''ceasefire'' to Cyprus, reports of appalling atrocities are filtering through from that tragic island. For, while the peace talks went on, Turkish soldiers were killing and terrorising innocent civilians. The behaviour of these troops will shock the world. As they are in Cyprus in the name of Turkey, that nation must immediately take action against the animals that wear its uniform...''

[Piratis]

Sorry, but some TCs in here shit propaganda out of their ass, they just copy paste the same old crap to excuse their crimes. If you thought that we didn't have articles etc to copy paste as well you were wrong.

However there is no point in doing that. We have no need to do that. Articles can be written by anybody. What we have on our site is justice. We have the UN resolutions and the European Court of Human Rights rulings. We do need any kind of propaganda to prove that our cause is a just one.

The only think that Turks have is lies and propaganda. Nothing more.

Yes, TCs have suffered as well. However during our common history in Cyprus, Turks have been the aggressors and the oppressors the 99% of the time. Magnifying that 1% that we have been wrong in order to excuse even more aggression and human rights violations against us will not get you anywhere.

It is time to give up the lame excuses and stop the barbarian acts. It is time to accept legality democracy and human rights for everybody and stop trying to gain on the loss of our human, legal and democratic rights.

[sadik]

If we are going to have peace and permanent solution we should stop seeing each other as opponents and accept democracy and human rights for everyone as equal Cypriots.

And how do you plan to stop us from seeing each other as opponents? Do you plan to do this by continuing to employ racist rhetoric against Turkish Cypriots?