A DAY TO REMEMBER
JOn January 14, 1964, the UK Daily Telegraph revealed that the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Ayios Vassilios had been massacred on December 26, 1963, and reported the exhumation of their bodies from a mass grave in the presence of the Red Cross and British paratroops. The Turkish Cypriots withdrew into defended enclaves, and it was then, not in 1974, that Cyprus was divided.
ULY 20 is an important day for anyone who wishes to understand the Cyprus problem, for it was on that day in 1974 that Turkey’s Social-Democrat Prime Minister, Bülent Ecevit, ordered his soldiers to land in Cyprus. When I met him in Ankara some years later I said: “It must have been very difficult for you to issue that order.”
No, he said: “It was very easy. We could not stand by and let Turkish Cypriots be massacred — again.” What did he mean?
In 1960 Britain gave Cyprus its independence on the basis of a Constitution agreed between the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots and endorsed by Greece and Turkey, but it soon became clear that the Greek Cypriots did not intend to respect the Constitution.
The Turkish Cypriots, therefore, took them to the Supreme Constitutional Court, which had a Greek Cypriot judge, a Turkish Cypriot judge, and a neutral President.
In February 1963 the leader of the Greek Cypriots, Makarios, declared that if the Court ruled against them they would ignore it.
On April 25, 1963, the Court did rule against and they did ignore it. The President of the Court (a German citizen) resigned and the rule of law in Cyprus collapsed on that day.
On December 28, 1963, the UK Daily Express reported: “We went tonight into the 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 frightful to be described in print.”
On January 1, 1964, the UK Daily Herald reported: “When I came across the Turkish Cypriot homes they were an appalling sight. I found a twisted mass of bed springs, children’s cots, and grey ashes of what had once been tables, chairs and wardrobes.”
On January 14, 1964, the UK Daily Telegraph revealed that the Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of Ayios Vassilios had been massacred on December 26, 1963, and reported the exhumation of their bodies from a mass grave in the presence of the Red Cross and British paratroops.
The Turkish Cypriots withdrew into defended enclaves, and it was then, not in 1974, that Cyprus was divided.
The US, the UK and the UN took no action against the Greek Cypriots, and they have led the world to treat the Greek Cypriots alone as if they were the government of Cyprus. The Turkish Cypriots have therefore suffered a grave injustice since 1963.
By June 1964 the situation in the Turkish Cypriot enclaves had become so serious that public opinion in Turkey felt that they could no longer stand by. The government of Turkey, therefore, warned that they would intervene in Cyprus under Article 4 of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee. They did not intervene because they were threatened by a letter from US President Johnson on June 5, 1964.
The Greek Cypriots tried again in 1967, when on March 27
they shelled the village of Mari for four hours, and on November 15, 2,000 armed men with artillery and armoured vehicles attacked the Turkish Cypriot enclave in Ayios Theodoros.
At the same time, the village of Geçitkale was attacked. During these attacks, UN “Peace-keepers” watched as women, children, and old men were killed — many burned alive in their own homes — and 50 houses were destroyed. Only warning flights by the Turkish Air Force prevented more massacres.
The Greeks and Greek Cypriots tried for the third time in 1974, but this time, on 20 July, the people and government of Turkey decided to act.
Since then the Turkish Cypriots have lived in the North and the Greek Cypriots in the
South. The Turkish Cypriots will never give the Greek Cypriots a fourth opportunity to dominate and destroy them whether by military, legal, or
political means.
After nearly 60 years the time has come to remedy this injustice by recognising that there are two separate states in Cyprus.
If this is done I see no reason why the two states of Cyprus should not live side by side in peace, and trade with each other for mutual benefit.
The Turkish Cypriots now have a supply of water from Turkey. This is a scarce commodity in Cyprus, which they would be willing to share with their Greek Cypriot neighbours.
Michael Stephen is an international lawyer and was a British MP for the Conservative Party from 1992 to 1997. He is the author of The Cyprus
Question (ISBN 0-9540840-0-4).