Hundreds attend annual Dawn Vigil

HUNDREDS of people holding torches and flags filled the Yavuz Landing Beach in Alsancak for the annual “Dawn Vigil” as part of the July 20 Peace and Freedom Day celebrations.

For the first time this year, the Dawn Vigil started in front of the “Museum Ship”, a refurbished landing craft used by the Turkish Navy during the 1974 military operation, which is located where the first Turkish soldiers set foot on Cyprus soil.

Marches were played throughout the night and participants commemorated the fallen and veterans by joining in with prayers, before marine commandos staged a symbolic beach landing later in the night.

Dawn Vigil committee chairman Fevzi Tanpınar said in a speech: “We now know that it is our sacred duty to be here every year on this beach and we are all justifiably proud and excited to hold the 12th Dawn Vigil.”

He continued: “When we started to hold the Dawn Vigil in 2010, we did not have a National Park, our Peace and Freedom Monument was not well cared for and our Museum Ship was not here.

“From time to time, five-star hotel projects were also planned on this beach. In these 12 years you, the Dawn Vigil participants, have both increased awareness and protected this historical beach for it to become an open-air museum.

“The peace and freedom badge was not given to this beach in vain. It was not called the lifeblood of the island, the flesh and bone and the spot where the island and Anatolia first embraced in vain.

“This beach is a legacy for all of us. We must properly turn over this beach, and therefore our history, to our children and grandchildren. We must tell our children about our glorious history of struggle.” The programme continued with laser and light shows and ended with a representative morning prayer.