Greek Cypriots found: Executed in cold blood and burried in a mass grave
11 / 08 / 2009
Re-defining “CRIME”: The Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, whose country holds the rotating term Presidency of the European Union, has not yet commented on the findings of the remains of five Greek Cypriots executed in cold blood and burried in a mass grave by the invading Turkish Army.
The remains of five Greek Cypriot prisoners of war (POWs) missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus that were found in exhumations being carried out by the Investigation Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) at a mass grave in the Turkish-occupied village of Tziaos, have been identified through DNA testing.
The news drew reactions from Greek political parties on Sunday.
The five POWs, who were serving in the National Guard’s 398th Infantry Battalion, were photographed by a Turkish journalist at the time they were taken prisoners and are photographed kneeling with their hands behind their heads, circled by Turkish soldiers.
The photograph, taken on August 1974, the day they were taken prisoner, has appeared many times in the Cypriot and international press. The Turkish photographer was arrested by the National Guard two days later, and the photographic material was found in his possession. The photographer afterwards published the photographs in the Turkish daily Milliyet.
Xenophon Kallis, assistant to the Greek Cypriot member of the CMP, said that the remains of 14 more persons were found in the same mass grave, but have not yet been identified.
The president of the Pan-Cyprian Committee of Relatives of Undeclared POWs and Missing Persons, Nikos Theodosiou, said that “now it has been proved that the Turks were executing prisoners of war”.
Reactions
Main opposition PASOK officer on foreign affairs Andreas Loverdos said that this was a “blood-curdling confirmation of what we feared and validly supposed had happened”.
“It is a hair-raising confirmation of the aspect of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, an aspect which Turkey not only does not leave in the past to be forgotten, but on which it is founding its future as well. With the assistance of the forces that are opposing Europe’s political unification and are using Turkey as a pivot for this,” Loverdos added.
Coalition of the Left, Movements and Ecology (SYN) officer for foreign policy Panos Trigazis said that “this is horrendous news that brings to the forefront one of the darkest sides of the Turkish invasion, and the need to verify the fate of all the missing persons of the Cyprus tragedy of 1974″.
“This major human, ethical and political issue underlines the need for intensification of the efforts for peace in Cyprus, the implementation of international legality in the Cyprus issue and a just solution of the problem in accordance with the UN resolutions,” Trigazis added.
Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) spokesman Costas Aivaliotis said that the supporters of Turkey in the political system “received the answer of reality, with the tragic finds in Cyprus”.
“Turkey’s behavior, through the ages, remains the same: witness to this is borne by its history, its actions, its crimes. Moments such as these bring back to mind the genocide of the Pontian (Black Sea) Greeks, the Armenians, the Asia Minor Greeks, as well as the cowardly killings by Attila (code-name of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus),” Aivaliotis said, adding that “on the other hand, we must bring Turkey into the EU, as desired by Ms. (foreign minister Dora) Bakoyannis and Mr. (prime minister Costas) Karamanlis.
11 / 08 / 2009 | Tags: Europe, FREE CYPRUS!, Hellas Greece, turkish invasion of cyprus |
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