A Greek Cypriot tells his story

A personal account by a Greek Cypriot who lived through the rotten 1960s
on the Cyprus Mail website which appeared as a comment to the article January 12, 2011 'Merkel gives full support to president' by Stefanos Evripidou Published


Tue, January 18th 2011 at 09:01
S. M. comments:

I am appalled reading some of the comments in this report and of how some of our Turkish “comrades” (Cypriots & non) are willing to allow themselves to be a “laughing stock of ignorant fools” to all others in order to make a point that best suits their ego and their Turkish propaganda!

Although a GC, I am no anti-Turkish in any way. Growing up w/many G & T kids we were all best of friends! If you were born in the early 50s too, you would have been the same as I, but the way many of you write your comments, it all sounds you were born way after then during the influence of illegal Turkish infiltrators supported by British agents and soldiers and who used every trick in the book to terrorize the TC who lived peacefully with GC forcing them into the enclaves starting the early 1960s. To this day, my 2 TC friends and I are still best of friends as well as our families living not far away from each other. But, to these TC fools who write these nonsense, the Cyprus historical facts are there cast in stone & waiting for you to read all about them to enlighten yourselves.

On the population distribution front, the 1960 census show 81.14% GC & 18.86% TC & nowhere close to equal population numbers as you fools claim in your demands! Facts also show how since the mid 50’s the British forces in Cyprus systematically made every effort to arm the small minority of TC & use them against GC for their own sweet reasons. Twice my family and I (of a very young age) were terrorized by being pulled over on a country road, stood up against the roadside by TC lead by Turkish nationals in order to execute us, only by shear luck both times we were saved by other TC passing by and who knew our family! Unfortunately, there are many GC families that were not so lucky and disappeared only to be found in shallow graves in the middle of farmers fields! This is something that was happening all over the island till 1960 and all who lived those years I am sure still remember the terror we all gone trough back then! The British provocation, TC support and supply of guns to TC went on for many years after the independence in 1960 and under the cover of the UN troopers & where in many instances BR tanks were caught full of containers full of guns trying to transport them with their tanks into the Turkish enclaves. I witnessed one of those incidents on the main road exciting Morphou towards Lefka, where the situation was getting very nasty that the UN commander, the Cyprus chief of police and the commander of the Dhekelia British base were flown there to calm things down. I remember, all the containers of guns and ammunition (enough to arm a small army) were piled up in a huge pile at a nearby field and set on fire as the British were not willing to let the Cyprus police have them. It was during this period leading to 1964 that my TC friends in Morphou had to flee from Cyprus instead of moving into Turkey’s new city enclaves, like most likely the parents of some of you had to obey to do!

Finally, Turkey’s intentions of a divided island were made clear in the early months of 1963 followed by the first invasion attempt & bombardment of August 1964 w/once again the support of the British RAF in Cyprus, only to thankfully be forced to retract by their USA allies as a result to warnings from Russia to intervene in the area and the Balkans! Unfortunately, during the 1974 Turkish invasion, the British forces continued their support to Turkey and while the GC knew all about it as in the past, they did nothing, not even a protest!

And yes, on July 20 1974 I was on the front line and my unit and I fought against the Turkish invasion from the first moments of the first attack at 5:07am. And yes for although for the previous 3 days we watched on the radar the preparations for the invasion and we did nothing to prepare for it except waited like a sitting dug for them to attach. I witnessed first hand how the T ships unloaded T soldiers (if you can call them soldiers) and uploaded everything that could move from the GC homes! It looked like as the T policy of 1453, giving the right to loot G homes as a reward for fighting, applied in the same way! I wonder; is the Turkish army using nowadays the same tactic upon the TC as a thread in order to keep them under wraps? Just wonder!!!!

And yes, although my memory is lapping as I grow old, I have my war diary to rely on all details of the events effective July 15, 1974! But on a final note, it is ashamed for so many lives to be lost and so much misery to be created for no gain by anyone.

At the end of the day, there were no real winners so far since the 50’s, but only losers! We all have been played back then and you are all being played now by the few! We all lost valuable time on this short life on this planet for the gain of these few! Fight on all fools; accelerate your ulcers and die young. I learned to live my life in peace with myself and with others and constantly try to gain the so many years I lost in such a short two months time in 1974! Someday, you too maybe able to do the same, see the real light and get like each other and put the few out of business; just maybe! SM