Cyprus-Forum.com

[brother]

Greek Cypriot state terror revealed


It is high time that the tragic realities of Cyprus are acknowledged and the responsibility for the violence and suffering imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people be shouldered by the true perpetrators

M. ERGÜN OLGUN - Undersecretary of the KKTC Presidency

A recent statement of an ex-EOKA-B (National Organization of Greek Cypriot Fighters-B) member further reveals that attacks on Turkish Cypriots during the years spanning 1963-74 were the result of a systematic Greek Cypriot campaign. The following account given by a living witness is an undeniable testament to the fact that atrocities to which Turkish Cypriots were subjected were indeed a premeditated Greek Cypriot policy.   

In an interview published in Greek Cypriot daily Alithia, a 67-year-old Greek Cypriot named Andreas Dimitriu confessed to being involved in one of the massacres of 1974. Dimitriu is reported to have revealed that, in accordance with an official order, he and a few other volunteers helped the Greek Cypriot police gather Turkish Cypriot men of the village of Tas¸kent (Dohni) into a coffee shop. Dimitriu continued to state that upon his arrival to the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Tas¸kent the day following the roundup, he found out that Greek Cypriot soldiers had already attacked many Turkish Cypriots, including the rape of a number of Turkish Cypriot women living in the quarter. The newspaper reported that fearing further atrocities, Turkish Cypriot men had gathered at the village school while the women took collective refuge in a few area homes. According to Dimitriu, all Turkish Cypriot men were taken away in a bus by armed soldiers that night. Dimitriu went on to state that he learned a few days later from a Turkish Cypriot from the village of Tatl?su (Mari) that all those who had been rounded up had been killed.

The fate of the 89 Turkish Cypriot men from Tas¸kent was later discovered in the presence of the United Nations. Having been taken by force from their homes on Aug. 14, 1974, they were brutally murdered and buried in mass graves. Bearing the guilt of this inhuman massacre, Dimitriu confessed: “These things happened in those days. What have we done that is different from what was happening throughout the island at those times? Whatever we did, we did in collaboration with the legal forces of the state.” Dimitriu claimed also that the EOKA-B members guarding the besieged Turkish Cypriots at Tas¸kent did not know that soldiers later took the Turkish Cypriots to their death.

When one rakes over the ashes of the past, many similar dreadful stories surface. It is well documented that between the years of 1963 and 1974 thousands of Turkish Cypriots had been killed and wounded, with entire populations of many Turkish Cypriot villages disappearing overnight. Greek Cypriot researcher and filmmaker Antonis Angastiniotis reported to the Greek Cypriot English-language daily Cyprus Mail on Nov. 4, 2004 that:
“All Turkish Cypriots know what happened in the villages of Aloa (Atl?lar),Maratha (Muratag<breve>a) and Sandalari (Sandallar). It is the Greek Cypriots who do not. ... The Greek Cypriots of the neighboring villages, along with army personnel, attacked these villages. They shot the children, the mothers and any old people left in the villages.… For me this became a nightmare because all these years I had been convinced that everything we had done was right.”
Turkish daily Hürriyet reported on Nov. 1, 2004 that in his short film about the massacres documenting the story of 126 people who were killed, Antonis Angastiniotis had called on the Greek Cypriot people to apologize to the Turkish Cypriot people, prosecute the culprits and pay compensation to the families of the deceased.    

As in the point noted above, it must be made clear that the future cannot and should not be held prisoner to the agonies of the past. To achieve this, a transformation is required that will facilitate healing and the emergence of a clear conscience in order to build the necessary mutual trust and confidence to move forward. As also stressed by President Denktas¸, the fact that individuals are beginning to speak about the atrocious realities of the past is a very positive development. These admissions demonstrate beyond the shadow of a doubt that the violence of the past was not the work of uncontrolled EOKA terrorists, as has been claimed by the Greek Cypriot administration, but an organized case of state terror administered by the Greek Cypriot leaders themselves. It is also important to recognize that this aggression continues even today in the form of all-encompassing embargoes on the economic, cultural and political lives of the Turkish Cypriot people. The present Greek Cypriot policy continues to be aimed at preventing each and every effort geared toward the lifting of such embargoes. This fact clearly demonstrates that the Greek Cypriot side is still determined to utilize any and all means available to deprive the Turkish Cypriots of their basic human rights.

It is high time that the tragic realities of Cyprus are acknowledged and the responsibility for the violence and suffering imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people be shouldered by its true perpetrators. Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot people cannot be held responsible for the consequences for a war Greece and its Greek Cypriot supporters started in contravention to international law and with the aim of realizing a constitutionally prohibited objective, enosis, or the union of Cyprus with Greece.

 In order to create the necessary atmosphere of confidence for a sustainable and peaceful future on the island, it is essential that Greek Cypriot leadership put an end to its campaign of reality distortion and oppressive policies. Greek Cypriot leadership needs to admit past atrocities, take responsibility for them and apologizes to the Turkish Cypriot people. It is only then that the foundation for a sustainable, negotiated settlement can be laid. 

[Piratis]

ok.
Compare the above with this:

6.000 Greek Cypriots dead during the invasion.
200.000 Greek Cypriot Refugees
1/3rd of Cyprus occupied by Turkey for 30 years.

The number does not include the crimes of TMT.

Lets not even go to the massacres of the Ottomans.

The numbers of 89 and 126 etc seem like nothing compared to the numbers above.

So where is the apology that was given to us for the 100 times more crimes against Greek Cypriots? Not only there is no apology, but the occupation still continues.

If you give me a slap and I beat you up so much that I send you to hospital, I don't think I should be the one who should demand an apology, right?

[metecyp]

The numbers of 89 and 126 etc seem like nothing compared to the numbers above.

Trying to figure out who sufferred more is useless. Many innocent civilians sufferred on both sides and all of these people need an apology. I respect GC losses in 1974, and you should respect TC losses as well instead of dismising the death of 89+126= 215 people as "nothing" compared to yours.

[brother]

Is that all you can come up with, what about this what about that, this is not about comparrison and who lost more or less, this is about crimes commited against cypriots, are you upset that the truth is coming out as if it was the other way round i would be pleased that my GC brothers had some sort of closure or idea that this was done by.........

Stop for one minute Piratis and think about how you look when your retort is based on comparrison, to me 1 life or 1000 lives carry an importance, but you quote it as insignificant, why must you make this a divided issue, if i can acknowledge your suffering can you not do the same for me.

Do you still see us as two different people, because if you do the healing process will take forever, if we see it as one people then it will be sooner than later.

I ask you piratis, can you not be pleased that the criminals who subdued our people to this atrocities will get punished, can you not be pleased that eventually we will get the TMT lot as well, this is what we need so we can see that the TC and GC majority are not barbarians it was just the facist few with power in there hands that bought this on us.

I await your reply.

[Piratis]

Metecyp, I respect your 200 or 300 or 400 dead, but when we had thousands of dead and 200.000 refugees don't you think is arrogant to demand apologies without giving any? (and with this I refer to the person that wrote the article and not to you)

to me 1 life or 1000 lives carry an importance

One life has the importance of one life, and 1000 lives the importance of 1000 lives. Except if you believe that 1 life of one kind can be equal to 1000 lives of another kind?

If you want me to fill up the forum with our dead and missing and you think this will be helpful let me know.

One thing is to document the fact (TC killed), and a whole another thing to try to exploit this event for propaganda when it is a fact that Greek Cypriots had way more losses.

[insan]

http://www.cyprusaction.org/projects/lo ... schos.html


Is he the same Andreas?


The point here, in my opinion is exactly how Andreas stated in the last paragraph of his article... The rest is meaningless..

- Why did you committed crimes?

- I believed what I did was right?

- I think I didn't commit any crimes while I was defending myself and killed some...

- I was fighting for something I believed was right... I still believe that what I did was right because GCs have the right to self-determination... Noone can take this right away from them... Sooner or later we'll win... We had to fight, we had to kill for our very rightful demand, self-determination right...

- I was fighting for something I believed was right... I still believe that what I did was right because what a TC could do while vast majority of Greeks, GCs, their politicians supporting the Enosis idea and making sneaky plans to destroy every obstacle infront of them? What could TCs do while EOKA and EOKA-B paramilitary men oppressing and killing TCs? The only alternative we had was to answer with Taksim and establishing our paramilitary organization, TMT... It was formed to defend TCs, stop Enossists and achieve Taksim... Greek and GC politicians, cadres, priests are responsible of the all losses and sufferings of Cypriots...

- Wasn't there any other way to stop the Enosists and protect TCs?

- I don't think so...

- Perhaps, prisoning Grivas in 1964...

- If Gc politicians, cadres and priests didn't give support to GC paramilitaries and take them under control; there would have been neither a reason nor an excuse for TCs to demand Taksim or form a paramilitary organization...

- What's your opinions Mr, Ex-Eoka-B?

- This is a question of self-determination right of GCs... TCs are a minority just like Maronites, Latins and Armenians... They have no seperate self-determination right... The Brits, Turkey and US has always prevented us to exercise our self-determination right. In 50s, 60s... always... If those foreign powers and TCs had accepted and respected to our self-determination right noone would have been killed or suffered in the last 50 years... We had to fight, we had to kill for our very rightful demand, self-determination right...

- Why did you kill some GCs?

- They killed my cousin ...

- I killed some while I was defending myself...

- Have you ever killed a GC during the intervention/invasion of 1974?

- Yes... The rule of the war is kill or be killed...

- Have you ever killed the innocents?

- No... I captured two civilians and handed them over ....

- Why did you kill the innocents?

- We took revenge upon them...

- What would you do if a civilian held whatever fire arm he had towards to you?

- Why did you massacre those people?

- Because our leader ordered..

- Because TCs are dogs to be killed...

- Because GCs are dogs to be killed...

- Do you have regret for what you did in the past?

- I have regret and I appology from all those Cypriots whom I have responsibility of their losses and sufferings...

- I'll never have regret for what I did in the past. If today, a similar chance has been given to me or under the same conditions, I do the same things with no hesitations...

- I have regret and I appology from all those Cypriots whom I have responsibility of their losses and sufferings... But please don't ask me to tell these in public because I ashame and feel guilty for what I did in the past...



The story which seems will never come to an end....

[brother]

it goes from bad to worse.