by B25 » Wed Feb 17, 2010 4:30 am
georgios, in your quest to find out more about the TMT, here is a first hand experience, written by Birkibrisli on another thread.
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:50 am
I know the official history of the EOKA and the TMT,bigOZ...
I will let others (preferably GCs talk about the rights and wrongs of EOKA)
but let me tell you a few things about TMT...The movement which produced TMT started much earlier,after the 2nd world war...It was a political movement called Volkan,and it s aims were to safeguard TC interests in case of a British withdrawal.My father was one of the founders of Volkan...when it was decided that an underground fighting force was necessary to combat any possible aggression from GCs TMT was founded...My father was a regional commmader in the Paphos area (he was also a teacher) and I remember our house in Yalya turned into an arms depot,with us kids as the guardians and protectors of the loot...Many a night I lay in bed snuggling up to handguns,stenguns,and granades,while British soldiers serched our house...Being British they never thought to look under the doona of a sleeping child or a sick (!) woman...and they never found the arms...while TMT was under the control of Dr Kuchuk and A>M>Berberoglu (my father's side) it functioned pretty much as was intended...But when Turkey decided that they needed "real action men" to run TMT Rauf Denktash and Burhan Nalbantoglu took over...Turkey threatened to kill Kuchuk and his supporters if they resisted,so they didn't...soon TMT was acting like a terrorist organisation in guise as a selfdefence organisation,putting fear into their own people,and killing and bombing strategic targets to achieve their ultimate aim,Partition...This is when my father,who was an honorable man,fell out with Denktash and Co and he was on their hitlist for a while...In fact Father was on the hitlist of EOKA as well,as they rightly suspected that he was the area commander in Paphos...But when the hitman finally arrived he was from the TMT,but by divine intervention,he turned out to be one of my father's former students...So instead of killing him he warned him of the danger,and I remember a time when we were on the move all the time to avoid a second hitman...
So dear, bigOz,I owe my exile to Australia to the TMT more than the EOKA...
This does not mean that TMT did nothing good for the TCs...or that all members were murderous thugs...But the leaders were,and they were kept in check somehow by the Turkish colonel in charge of TMT during the early 60s (Kemal Coskun code named Bayraktar,who was withdrawn to Turkey after the 67 events)...sorry to disappoint you,bigOz,but after more than 50 years of keeping silent about these things,I have earned the right to talk...It is upto you to believe me or not...But ask yourself,what motivation would I have to make all this up???All this information is in the public arena these days anyway...Read Arif Hasan Tahsin Hoca's column in Afrika and you will learn the truth about the TMT...warts and all...I want to stress the point that most underground organisations like TMT eventually end up serving the interests of those who control them,and not the general community interests...TMT was conrolled by Denktash locally and Turkey overseas,so it ended up serving their interests...In the process many good,honorable people who wanted to serve the interest of the TC people or the interests of all Cypriots were killed or sent into exile...I know you mean well,bigOz,and sorry once again if I woke you up from the dream imposed by Denktash and Co's propaganda machine...
Hope it helps you understand EOKA was not as criminal as these guys would have you believe.