Σ.Ε.Κ.Α. Victoria
The Justice for Cyprus Co-ordinating Committee, Webmaster: Pavlos Andronikos
The Justice for Cyprus Co-ordinating Committee, Webmaster: Pavlos Andronikos
Douglas Murray, "Occupied Territories": What About Cyprus, Kashmir, Tibet?, Gatestone Institute, 23 July 2013.
...the Turkish invasion of Cyprus is not even a disputed matter. It was certainly not some understandable territorial gain made after aggressive war waged by Greece. It was outright theft—an annexation: state terrorism. The entire international community recognizes it as such.
Uzay Bulut, “Cyprus: 46 Years of Turkish Occupation”, Frontpage Mag, 31 August 2020.
The [Turkish Foreign] ministry cannot be more wrong. Cyprus has been a majority-Greek island for millennia – demographically and culturally. The Turkish presence in Cyprus, however, only dates back to the Ottoman occupation from 1571 to 1878. Never until the Turkish military intervention in 1974 did the northern part of Cyprus have a Turkish majority. Both the north and south of the island were majority-Greek and majority-Christian until then. Nonetheless, the myth of Cyprus being a Turkish island is popular with many Turks...
Sener Levent, “Hair-raising stories of atrocities by the invading Turkish Army troops in Cyprus, in 1974”, Hellas Journal 21 January 2019.
In that prison there was one commanding officer, a captain named Essat Oktay Gildiran. In 1974, he was also in Cyprus. In the operation that some call “peace operation” and I call “rape operation”. Look how he was boasting to the prisoners at Diarbakkir: “In the war of 1974 we conducted an operation against a Greek Cypriot village. I drunk the blood of a Greek Cypriot boy whose head I had cut. Even if I drink your own Kurdish blood, I will still want more”. There are also testimonies of other soldiers who were sent to Cyprus during the operation of 1974...
Uzay Bulut, “Justice for Cyprus: The goal should be freedom from occupation”, H Fusion, 9 July 2018.
A just solution to the problem of the Turkish invasion would reject any line or border within Cyprus. The 1974 invasion and the ongoing occupation have victimized hundreds of thousands of Greek Cypriots. But the BBF is not a just solution. It is really an attempt to maintain the division and segregation in the island. Any so-called “solution” proposed on the basis of partition and apartheid should be rejected. A true settlement has to be based on the undoing of the crimes committed by Turkey in 1974 and since.
Peter Michael, “Woman speaks out after 44 years about rape ordeal at age 12 during Turkish invasion”, Cyprus Mail, 28 July 2018.
The woman, who was then 12, told Politis that on the night her family and the others were killed, she was taken to another room by the soldiers. “They took me first. My father knew what was about to happen. He was screaming, he fell to his knees and he begged them.”
She added that while she heard the gunshots, and screams of her father and brother, the soldiers took turns sexually assaulting her.
The next day, she said, she remembers being taken by a soldier after being abandoned in the house for the night. The soldier took her past the area with the bodies, and she recalled seeing them shot, and her brother’s body without a head.
Uzay Bulut, “The Ethnic Cleansing of Northern Cyprus: Confessions of a Turkish-Cypriot Mass Murderer”, Gatestone Institute, 6 June 2018.
Question: Why did you engage in those activities? Was it an adventure or for excitement?
Yenağralı: No, it was for Turkishness.
Question: Was it easy to kill these people?"
Yenağralı: There is nothing more enjoyable... We took great pleasure after we killed those people.
Question: Did you care about whether these people were criminal or not?
Yenağralı: Why would anyone [care]? Criminal or not... As long as they are kafirs [infidels], they belong to the same race of dogs... When we wanted to shoot the kafir, [the two women members of the group] hid guns in their [brassieres] and carried them for us.
Lambros George Kaoullas, “Why do Cypriot Greeks reject “peace” plans?”, It Ain't Necessarily So, 26 May 2016.
The answer is simple: because all “peace” plans to this day are based on the philosophy of the “Bizonal Bicommunal Federation” (BBF). Even the one negotiated at this very moment. The BBF provides that the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus (RoC) and the non-recognised, illegal, secessionist “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” will be evened out and become the two constituent states in a loose confederation. Each statelet in this setting will be Greek and Turkish and the population majorities in each one will be unchangeable — by constitution. In other words, a form of post-modern apartheid, draped with the soft and innocuous terminology of “conflict resolution” seminars to cover its monstrous deficiencies.
Kyriacos Kyriakides, “Political Islam’s Made-in-Cyprus Trojan Horse”, The Clarion Project, 12 April 2016.
Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus, which forced Christians out of their ancestral homes, has created the phenomenon of ‘bizonality’, a geographical separation between Muslims and Christians. Strangely, this new reality has even become the basis of the UN-led Cyprus negotiations — despite the Security Council’s own resolutions condemning Turkey’s actions.
Lambros George Kaoullas, “From TMT to ISIS: Turkey conducts politics with the same old field manuals”, It Ain't Necessarily So, 17 Dec 2015.
It was exactly these sorts of activities that ushered Turkey into the Cyprus problem. In September 1955, the government of Adnan Menderes instigated the Septemvrianá pogroms against the Greek community of Constantinople. The pogroms, which also hit the Armenian and Jewish communities particularly hard, were ignited by an insignificant bomb blast at the Turkish Consulate in Thessaloniki, and placed by an agent provocateur of the Turkish secret services. He later became the governor of Nevşehir.
In 1958, another bomb at the Press Office of the Turkish Consulate in Nicosia led to the first serious conflicts between Cypriot Greeks and Cypriot Turks on the island. The leader of TMT Rauf Denktaş admitted that the bomb was placed by “Turkish teddyboys”. These incidents, accompanied by a sustained propaganda campaign, cultivated and nurtured the hate against Cypriot Greeks, who at the time were waging an anti-colonial, national-liberation revolution in pursuit of self-determination.
Kyriacos Kyriakides, “Turkey Needs to Practice in Turkey What It Preaches in Cyprus”, Gatestone Institute, 20 September 2015.
Turkey has claimed all along that it stays in Cyprus to “protect” the Turkish Cypriot minority. Since Turkey has “protected” them, almost half of Turkish Cypriots have abandoned Cyprus. They have been conveniently replaced by Anatolian Turks whose Islamic orientation and ethos could not be more foreign to Cyprus.
If Turks are so keen on “saving” minorities, why have they not applied the same principles in Turkey to save their own Kurds?
With these circumstances in mind, it might be helpful to summarize the demands of the Turkish Cypriot minority and their patron, Turkey.
Philippos Stylianou, “Setting the Record Straight Over the Troubles of 63-64”, Cyprus Mail, 9 March 2014.
I gave a lot of thought as to whether I should respond to my old Enosis colleague and dear friend Loucas Charalambous who, in a recent comment in the Sunday Mail, tried to justify the secret Turkish Cypriot designs in 1963 to break away from the newly founded Republic of Cyprus and set up a separate entity.
In the end – rather than continue harping on the deliberate myth of “bad Greeks-poor Turks” as Loucas Charalambous, of all people, is doing – I decided that setting the record straight about what happened back then is in the interest of permanent peace on the island. For no solution, however firm and elaborate it might be, can last if one of the parties feels that the other has wronged, cheated, compelled or humiliated it....
“Court makes €90 million award against Turkey for Cyprus human rights violations”, 12 May, 2014.
Human rights judges have declared that Turkey should pay Cyprus 90,000,000 euros (EUR) as a result of human rights violations.
In today’s Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Cyprus v. Turkey (application no. 25781/94), which is final, the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that Turkey was to pay Cyprus 30,000,000 euros (EUR) in respect of the non-pecuniary damage suffered by the relatives of missing persons and EUR 60,000,000 in respect of the non-pecuniary damage suffered by the enclaved Greek-Cypriot residents of the Karpas peninsula.
Cyprus Is an Island, 1946, a film held by the BFI (ID: 14895).
Cyprus is an Island is a black and white documentary shot on location in 1946... The film was directed by Ralph Keene and scripted by the author and poet Laurie Lee. .. Cyprus is an Island was originally intended for a British audience and was premiered in 1946 at the Curzon Cinema in London. .. Lee and Keene detailed their experiences of making the documentary in their book, We Made a Film in Cyprus. The film was originally proposed by the Governor of Cyprus and later received the backing of the Colonial Office and the Ministry of Information. The brief for Keene and Lee was to ‘find a film about a people as yet unfilmed. A people of whom there was a great deal to say, but of whom a great deal must be left unsaid. [...] We had to make a film about an island which was a crown colony, and we had to show some of the benefits which Colonial Government bestows’.
“From Famagusta to Vienna by Niki Marangou”
Set against the backdrop of pre-World War II, this intriguing novel by prize-winning author Niki Marangou is... based on letters written by her late parents. She is fascinated by historical places. Her next book, Yezoul, is about a woman living in 19th-century Athens. The full-time writer lives in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Marios Leonida–Evriviades, “ Cyprus ‘Czech-mated',” Jerusalem Post, 22 April 2013.
What happened to Cyprus in the early hours of March 25 and in the lead-up meeting of March 15 in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union, was qualitatively no different than what happened to Czechoslovakia on September 29, 1938 in Munich of Nazi-controlled Germany. In both cases a small, independent sovereign state was bullied into accepting a diktat – in the case of Czechoslovakia the loss of about a third of its territory to Nazi Germany, and in the case of Cyprus the virtual destruction of its economy for the benefit of the German-dominated eurozone...
Andrestinos Papadopoulos, “Minister Kasoulides’ Visit to Israel - A Political Analysis,” Cyprus Mail, 21 April 2013.
The visit of Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides and Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, George Lakkotripis to Israel was preparatory to President Nicos Anastasiades’ visit scheduled May 6-7. It took place, however, within a particular climate, characterised by two important events affecting Cyprus-Israeli relations - the attempted rapprochement between Turkey and Israel and Ankara’s threats aimed at hindering the exploitation of the natural gas in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)...
Reuters, “‘They Shot a Pigeon with an Atomic Bomb’: Cyprus Negotiator Criticizes Germany, IMF Over Bailout,” Financial Post, 19 April 2013.
One of Cyprus’s most senior civil servants has likened his country’s treatment by Germany and the IMF to the shooting of a pigeon with an atomic bomb, saying they had destroyed an economic system that worked. Christos Patsalides, permanent secretary of Cyprus’s Ministry of Finance, also described the international lenders as “forces of occupation” that cared nothing for human rights...
“Reactions to Davutoglu's Statements: This is a Conqueror's Mentality,” Turkish Cypriot and Turkish Media Review, 19 March 2013.
Izcan noted that the solution will not be achieved by blackmails and threats, but by working in a constructive manner. He argued that the Turkish Cypriots do not want the division of the island, but solution and peace...
Nicos Trimikliniotis, “The Cyprus Eurocrisis: The Beginning of the End of the Eurozone?” Open Democracy, 25 March 2013.
The Cyprus crisis is essentially a Eurozone crisis which threatens the very foundations of the European Union. This small island economy, only 0.2.% of the Eurozone, is proving to be ‘systemic’ at the political, social and economic level. The Cyprus crisis is a manifestation of a deep crisis of democracy and equality in EU institutions, which subordinates the democratic will of the people to finance interests...
Editorial, “Crisis in Cyprus”, Jerusalem Post, 23 March 2013.
Undersized as it is, Cyprus is also vulnerable. A substantial chunk of it has for decades been under Turkish occupation, an occupation that world opinion hardly appears to mind or so much as remember. Like much of southern Europe, Cyprus is in deep fiscal trouble and in urgent need of a bailout...
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, “Time for Turkey to Leave Cyprus in Peace”, Washington Times 15 June 2012.
Since its invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Turkey has claimed that it was acting as a protector and guarantor of the island’s security. But a closer examination of its actions on Cyprus indicates motivations of a very different character. Turkey’s invasion resulted in hundreds of thousands of Greek Cypriot refugees, who have been unable to return to their homes for almost 40 years. The international community has repeatedly condemned the illegal military occupation of Cyprus by Turkish troops. The United Nations Security Council has passed 75 resolutions calling for Turkey to allow Greek Cypriots to return to their homes and to withdraw its troops from Cyprus. Yet Turkey continues its occupation...
Stefanos Evripidou, “Turkey under pressure over missing persons”, Cyprus Mail 30 May 2012.
A book narrating the memoirs of high-ranking Turkish officers during the 1974 invasion has piled further pressure on Turkey to divulge information on the whereabouts and fate of missing Greek Cypriots. The government has called on the Council of Europe (COE) to pressure Turkey for access to the Turkish army’s reports and archives containing information on the identity of Greek Cypriots killed in 1974, and the location of burial sites and persons taken alive by the Turkish army who are still missing today...
Global Intelligence Files, “Turkey's Problems with Neighbors (Cyprus we're looking at you)”, WikiLeaks, released on 10 March 2012.
On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods...
Robert Ellis, “Turkey has only itself to blame if it is shunned by the EU”, The Guardian 5 Nov. 2010.
Turkey's justification for retaining control is legally indefensible, as it constantly refers to the treaty of guarantee from 1960, which gave it the right to take unilateral action after the Greek junta's coup against Archbishop Makarios in 1974. However, the exercise of this right is limited by the aim of re-establishing the state of affairs created by the treaty – that is, to recognise and guarantee the independence, territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Cyprus. This Turkey has manifestly failed to do but has instead created a Turkish state in northern Cyprus not only to the detriment of the Greek Cypriots, whose property was confiscated by the self-styled "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", but also the Turkish Cypriots, who have suffered under Turkish rule.