Greek Cypriot politicians call for reckoning, apologies over killings of Turkish Cypriots

NICOSIA

Muratağa and Sandallar Cemetery of Martyrs in Northern Cyprus (AA photo)

A group of Greek Cypriot politicians has called for a reckoning with the past and mutual apologies over attacks and massacres targeting Turkish Cypriots, noting that that those responsible have largely gone unpunished.

Former Greek Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis this week reposted on social media a 2016 post featuring photographs from a mass grave and issued remarks on the Turkish Cypriots massacred by Greek Cypriot armed groups in the villages of Aloda (Atlılar), Maratha (Muratağa), Sandallaris (Sandallar) and Tochni (Taşkent) on Aug. 14, 1974.

Marcoullis said that no Greek Cypriot had been punished for the killings of Turkish Cypriots, calling for the truth to be acknowledged and for both communities to apologize to one another.

“Let us acknowledge the truth and apologize to each other,” she said.

Warning that the far right continues to pose a threat on the island, Marcoullis wrote: “Unpunished crimes, unspoken truths, wounds that have not healed, pain that has not subsided.”

She stressed the need to acknowledge the facts, saying that unless the truth is confronted, crimes remain buried in silence and the suffering of both communities is acknowledged, “the divide will widen, peace will not be built, and the vision of a common homeland will forever elude us.”

Greek Cypriot lawmaker Giorgos Koukoumas also said in a written statement that the attacks against Turkish Cypriots represented one of the lesser-known chapters of Greek Cyprus’ history and could no longer be ignored by the Greek Cypriot community.

Koukoumas described the killing of 126 Turkish Cypriot women, children and elderly people by Greek Cypriot armed groups in the Famagusta area villages in August 1974, as well as the killing of a large number of Turkish Cypriot men in Tochni, as “one of the darkest pages in history.”

He said the attacks were carried out by Greek Cypriot far-right elements and stressed that most of those responsible had never been brought to justice.

“No person with a basic sense of human dignity, regardless of their political views or position on the Cyprus issue, can ignore questions such as how Turkish Cypriot children were found collectively in wells and how their remains are still being unearthed today,” Koukoumas said.

The politicians’ social media posts received support from parts of the Greek Cypriot public as well as from some politicians in the Greek Cypriot community.

Türkiye launched its 1974 Peace Operation following a coup backed by the military junta in Greece that sought to unite Cyprus with Greece. Ankara said the operation was carried out to restore constitutional order and protect the Turkish Cypriot community after years of intercommunal violence.

Following the division of the island, the Turkish Cypriot administration in the north has been recognized solely by Türkiye.