"Dear Ms. Jennifer Lopez, 800 Greek Cypriot women were raped by the Turks in 1974.."
Dear Ms Jennifer Lopez, 800 Greek Cypriot women were raped by the Turks in 1974…”
It is with dismay and shock that the people of Cyprus and especially the Greek Cypriot women in the Republic of Cyprus and elsewhere in the world, heard the news that you intend to attend the inauguration of a hotel in the occupied by Turkey part of our native country and celebrate your birthday there.
05 August 1974
Source: The Sun
Author: Iain Walker
Comment: The following article appeared in The Sun of London on 5 August 1974
BARBARIANS
The writer documents some of the brutal atrocities committed by the Turkish military in its illegal invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
''Sun reporter Iain Walker sends a shock report from Cyprus on the Turkish invaders
BARBARIANS
NICOSIA , SUNDAY
'My fiance and six men were shot dead. The Turkish soldiers laughed at me and then I was raped.
GREEK CYPRIOT GIRL AGED 20
'The Turkish soldiers cut off my father's hands and legs. Then they shot him while I watched.
GREEK CYPRIOT WOMAN AGED 32
'They shot the men. My friend's wife said 'Why should I live without my husband?' A soldier shot her in the head.
GREEK CYPRIOT FARMER AGED 51
A HORRIFYING story of atrocities by the Turkish invaders of Cyprus emerged today. It was told by weeping Greek Cypriot villagers rescued by United Nations soldiers.
THEY TOLD of barbaric rape at gunpoint ... and threats of instant execution if they struggled.
THEY TOLD of watching their loved ones tortured and shot.
The villagers are from Trimithi, Karmi and Ayios Georhios, three farming communities west of the holiday town of Kyrenia , directly in the path of the Turkish Army.
Sheltered
They had been trapped since the fighting began two weeks ago and were only evacuated to Nicosia by the UN on Saturday. And today at a Nicosia orphanage they told me their tales – simply and without any prompting.
A 20-year old girl in a pretty yellow and white dress sat under a painting of Jesus tending his flock as she described how she was raped.
She had been visiting her fiance who worked in a hotel near Kyrenia when the Turks attacked. For the first 24 hours she sheltered with other villagers in a stable until they were discovered by Turkish soldiers. She then watched as her fiance and six other men were shot dead in cold blood – only a few minutes after they had been promised that they would not be harmed.
She said: ''After the shooting, a Turkish soldier grabbed me and pulled me into a ditch. I struggled and tried to escape but he pushed me to the ground.
''He tore at my clothes and they were ripped up to my waist. Then he started undressing himself.
Baby
"Another Turkish soldier who was watching us had a nine-month-old baby in his arms and, trying to save myself, I shouted that the baby was mine.
''But they laughed at me and threw the baby to the ground. I was then raped and I fainted soon after.
''When I came to my senses I saw 15 other soldiers standing round watching. The first soldier was taking off my watch and engagement ring. Others were going to rape me - when one of them objected and told them not to be animals.
''I will never forget him for saving me. He was quite unlike the rest - more like an Englishman with blond hair and blue eyes. He spoke to me in English.
''He helped me to my feet and said, 'All is OK now.'
''The others tried to stop him, but he pulled out his gun and pushed his way through and gave me back to the other women.
''When I had recovered, after a few hours, I went to where the bushes had been burned by the shelling and rubbed charcoal over my face and hands, so I would be ugly and they would not do that to me again.''
The girl, too ashamed to reveal her name, added: ''I cannot put into words the horror I feel at what happened to me. I think I would have preferred it it they had shot me.''
Mrs Elena Mateidou, aged 28 was awakened by Turkish soldiers at Trimithi.
She said: ''My husband and father were told to take off all their clothes and they walked us down a dry river bed.
''Then the soldiers separated the women and children and ushered us behind some olive trees. I heard a burst of shooting and knew that they had been killed.
''Later they took us back to the village with our hands tied behind our backs. Two soldiers took me into a room in a deserted house where they raped me.
Bodies
"One of them held a gun to my head while it was happening and said if I struggled he would shoot.
''Afterwards, a soldier took off my wedding ring and wore it himself.''
Mrs Mateidou added: ''I saw another woman being pulled into a bathroom where she too was raped.
''Later I went back to the olive groves and found the bodies of my husband and father along with five other men. My father had been stabbed and my husband shot in the belly.''
Later, United Nations soldiers brought the villagers food. ''The Turks took it away and ate it themselves said Mrs Mateidou.
Another woman who had been an intended rape victim was Miss Phrosa Meitani, aged 32.
She said: ''When I saw what was happening, I ran as quickly as I could. I saw the soldiers pointing guns at me, but I was too frightened to care.
''I hid in the olive groves and tried to get back to where I had been separated from my father.
''I watched from the bushes as they cut off his hands and legs below the knee with a double-edged cutting knife.
''At first he screamed, and beat at them with his fists, but then he became quiet and did not utter a word. Then they shot him in the stomach while I watched.
Farmer Christos Savva Drakos, 51, saw his wife and two sons murdered.
''I was watering my orchard when the bombs started to explode,'' he said.
Shooting
''With the rest of the village we tried to run away through the groves and river beds but the Turks caught us and we surrendered.
''They searched us but no one had a gun.
''The the shooting started. It was one by one to start with and I heard my 16-year-old boy Georgios saying in a calm voice 'Daddy, they have shot me.'
''I pulled him down and we fell behind a rock, He died there in my arms. ''An officer had been attracted by the shooting and he ran up to see what was going on.
''He was furious with his men and ordered them to stop.
''My wife and my other boy Nicos, who was only 13, were dead.
''My friend's wife was terribly badly injured and she told the officer: 'Why should I live without my husband? Shoot me'.
''The officer shrugged his shoulders and walked off and a soldier shot her in the head.''
Face
If the Turkish authorities deny these allegations I will remember the drawn face of that old man cowering in a corner, his body racked with tears.
This elderly man was no actor, or a man ordered to lie for political propaganda.
He was a poor man who had lost everything he ever possessed or loved in the world.
Hotel manager Vassalious Efthimiou was the only survivor in a party of men seized by the Turks.
He said: ''They separated the men from the women and shot the 12 men.
''Those killed ranged from a 12-year-old boy to an old man in his 90's.''
His brother-in-law was shot dead while holding Efthimiou's four year-old daughter, Estella, in his arms.
Bullet
Today, Estella showed where a bullet had hit her thigh.
Efthimiou saved his own life by snatching his other daughter, Charian, aged two, and running.
He said:''I ran until my legs would carry me no longer, and I fell.
''I managed to make my way back later to a village where all the women were trembling with fear and shock.
''I handed my daughter to my wife and said I must save myself.
''I hid in a deep well in my sister's farm for seven days and nights, sitting on a little bar with my feet in the water.
''When I could not take any more I came up.''
Efthimiou and his 37-year-old wife, Helen, run the Mermaid Hotel at Six Mile Beach , Kyrenia, a popular hotel with British tourists.
PRESIDENT Glafkkos Clerides of Cyprus flew into Athens today and accused Turkish troops of mass murders and rape.
Denial
He also claimed about 20,000 Greeks had been forced out of their homes around Kyrenia.
THE TURKS issued a denial.
A spokesman said: ''The Turkish military authorities deny reports of killings and any other atrocities by Turkish troops in any area under Turkish occupation.''
THE SUN SAYS Shame on them
AS THE POLITICIANS vie to take credit for bringing a ''ceasefire'' to Cyprus , reports of appalling atrocities are filtering through from that tragic island. For, while the peace talks went on, Turkish soldiers were killing and terrorising innocent civilians. The behaviour of these troops will shock the world. As they are in Cyprus in the name of Turkey , that nation must immediately take action against the animals that wear its uniform...''
Our country was barbarically invaded in July 1974 by Turkey . Turkey ruthlessly murdered well over 5,000 in the process, mostly unarmed civilians, women, men, children and old people, uprooted by the use of force 200,000 Greek Cypriots making them refugees in their own country, imported well over 160,000 Turkish Anatolian settlers to fill in the vacuum left with the persecution of the 200,000 Greek Cypriots, 1,619 are still missing presumed murdered, and ever since TURKEY holds on to the 37% of the island with the might of her 43,000 strong Turkish army. In our occupied area we have well over 500 Christian churches and cemeteries that have been desecrated by the Turks and turned into stables, toilets, mosques, coffee shops and night clubs ( I hope you are not also planning to be entertained in one of them!).
We are shocked and dismayed to hear of your move to go and celebrate your birthday with your children and husband in our land under Turkish invasion and occupation. You are going to celebrate your birthday at our stolen land and properties when we are not allowed to return and enjoy our properties and land.
However, the most shocking in your case is that you are allowing yourself to be used by aggressors, human rights violators and rapists to satisfy their political ends for recognition of their pseudo entity that nobody else recognises except the aggressor itself, Turkey . Furthermore it is forbidden to be recognised by two Security Council Resolutions (United Nations). Will this not have an adverse impact on your personality and your biography?
Searching through the internet we find that you are praised for “giving to a Children's Charity "Children’s Health Fund’s Operation Assist" helping Hurricane Katrina victims, and for helping an Amnesty International charity about the killings of Mexican women in Chiapas , Mexico . http://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/93-jennifer-lopez Lopez teamed up with Amnesty International to launch a bilingual website aimed at raising awareness about Mexican femicide after learning that 350 young women have been killed in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua since 1993…”.
Celebrating with the rapists?
Well, is it not double standards from your part after having teamed up with Amnesty International to raise awareness about Mexican femicide for the killing of 350 young women to honour with your presence and that of your young children the rapists and murderers of our women and children during July and August 1974?
According to official statistics of the Republic of Cyprus well over 800 women and young girls including even grandmothers, were barbarically raped and murdered in front of their families. Horrific narration of those crimes of the century by the Turks were published in unprecedented detail in the British newspaper The Sun on 5 August 1974 and two years later were officially confirmed and condemned by the Council of Europe. Turkey was found guilty as charged!...
During July and August 1974 such were the rapes of our women and young girls that the Government of Cyprus had to ask for medical help from the British hospitals in the British bases on the island. The British law had to be modified so that the doctors in the British bases could operate and execute abortions without being sued.
I am a Greek Cypriot refugee from occupied Cyprus and I cannot return to my home and property. My parents died refugees never being able to return to their ancestral homes. How would you feel in our position? How do you think people around the world will view your stance of honouring the rapists of our sisters, mothers and grandmothers when you are promoting awareness for the murders of 350 young Mexican women? How will that add to your charitable work you think?
The Turks go to a great length to secure support from people like you in order to promote their political ambitions and objectives. Does your charitable work and status permit you to give credibility to Turkish rapists, thieves, invaders, occupiers of our stolen properties?
Here below please read some of those horrific atrocities of rape and murder inflicted on our people, our women and children as published in The Sun on 5 August 1974 first page, with the characteristic titled “ BARBARIANS” and in sub-title “The Sun says SHAME ON THEM”.
Please do not allow yourself to be used by the Turks. Search your conscience and do not give us reason to say “SHAME ON YOU TOO”.
Please take a few moments and read the report that follows written by Journalist Iain Walker who covered the Turkish invasion and took first hand evidence of the Turkish atrocities.
On 23 January 1977 the British newspaper “The Sunday Times” having secured a copy of a secret Council of Europe Report which found Turkey guilty of violating seven articles of the European convention on Human Rights, published a first page massive indictment of Ankara government for the murders, rapes and looting by the Turkish army in Cyprus, during and after the 1974 Turkish invasion. With an “Insight Exclusive” titled “ Turk atrocities: What secret Report reveals” and to the fury of the Turkish government, the newspaper published extracts of that report referring to testimonies by the victims themselves, the rapes of Greek Cypriot young girls, mothers and grandmothers, reaching a number well over 800…
All these evidence together with analytical detail of our cultural and religious destruction in the occupied area of Cyprus , where you are planning to celebrate your birthday with your children and husband, were published in numerous articles, starting with the “Guardian”in London in 1976. Another devastating for the Turks report was written by Michelle A.Vu in “The Christian Post”, on 29 April 2008, titled “The last church standing in occupied Cyprus”. Also the Orthodox Church of Cyprus has sued Turkey for the religious destruction of our Christian churches and the case is awaiting hearing in the European Court of Human Rights. (All these are documented in full and with original sources in the book published in the Republic of Cyprus in 2009 titled “Bloody Truth”. A bilingual book (Greek and English) to enlighten people on the plight of our nation and our people for justice and freedom. We are sending you the link to read this book in English in a pdf form.
The Greek Cypriot people do not accept surrendering their land and half of their country to Turkey in order for her to legitimise her crimes. Therefore Turkey is trying with many dubious ways, just like your case, to gather support for her pseudo-entity which no other country recognises apart from her.
I hope you can change your mind and do not give in to Turkish ruthless political promotion.
Yours sincerely,
Fanoulla Argyrou
Journalist/Researcher/Author
London29.6.2010
05 August 1974
Source: The Sun
Author: Iain Walker
Comment: The following article appeared in The Sun of London on 5 August 1974
BARBARIANS
The writer documents some of the brutal atrocities committed by the Turkish military in its illegal invasion of Cyprus in 1974.
''Sun reporter Iain Walker sends a shock report from Cyprus on the Turkish invaders
BARBARIANS
NICOSIA , SUNDAY
'My fiance and six men were shot dead. The Turkish soldiers laughed at me and then I was raped.
GREEK CYPRIOT GIRL AGED 20
'The Turkish soldiers cut off my father's hands and legs. Then they shot him while I watched.
GREEK CYPRIOT WOMAN AGED 32
'They shot the men. My friend's wife said 'Why should I live without my husband?' A soldier shot her in the head.
GREEK CYPRIOT FARMER AGED 51
A HORRIFYING story of atrocities by the Turkish invaders of Cyprus emerged today. It was told by weeping Greek Cypriot villagers rescued by United Nations soldiers.
THEY TOLD of barbaric rape at gunpoint ... and threats of instant execution if they struggled.
THEY TOLD of watching their loved ones tortured and shot.
The villagers are from Trimithi, Karmi and Ayios Georhios, three farming communities west of the holiday town of Kyrenia , directly in the path of the Turkish Army.
Sheltered
They had been trapped since the fighting began two weeks ago and were only evacuated to Nicosia by the UN on Saturday. And today at a Nicosia orphanage they told me their tales – simply and without any prompting.
A 20-year old girl in a pretty yellow and white dress sat under a painting of Jesus tending his flock as she described how she was raped.
She had been visiting her fiance who worked in a hotel near Kyrenia when the Turks attacked. For the first 24 hours she sheltered with other villagers in a stable until they were discovered by Turkish soldiers. She then watched as her fiance and six other men were shot dead in cold blood – only a few minutes after they had been promised that they would not be harmed.
She said: ''After the shooting, a Turkish soldier grabbed me and pulled me into a ditch. I struggled and tried to escape but he pushed me to the ground.
''He tore at my clothes and they were ripped up to my waist. Then he started undressing himself.
Baby
"Another Turkish soldier who was watching us had a nine-month-old baby in his arms and, trying to save myself, I shouted that the baby was mine.
''But they laughed at me and threw the baby to the ground. I was then raped and I fainted soon after.
''When I came to my senses I saw 15 other soldiers standing round watching. The first soldier was taking off my watch and engagement ring. Others were going to rape me - when one of them objected and told them not to be animals.
''I will never forget him for saving me. He was quite unlike the rest - more like an Englishman with blond hair and blue eyes. He spoke to me in English.
''He helped me to my feet and said, 'All is OK now.'
''The others tried to stop him, but he pulled out his gun and pushed his way through and gave me back to the other women.
''When I had recovered, after a few hours, I went to where the bushes had been burned by the shelling and rubbed charcoal over my face and hands, so I would be ugly and they would not do that to me again.''
The girl, too ashamed to reveal her name, added: ''I cannot put into words the horror I feel at what happened to me. I think I would have preferred it it they had shot me.''
Mrs Elena Mateidou, aged 28 was awakened by Turkish soldiers at Trimithi.
She said: ''My husband and father were told to take off all their clothes and they walked us down a dry river bed.
''Then the soldiers separated the women and children and ushered us behind some olive trees. I heard a burst of shooting and knew that they had been killed.
''Later they took us back to the village with our hands tied behind our backs. Two soldiers took me into a room in a deserted house where they raped me.
Bodies
"One of them held a gun to my head while it was happening and said if I struggled he would shoot.
''Afterwards, a soldier took off my wedding ring and wore it himself.''
Mrs Mateidou added: ''I saw another woman being pulled into a bathroom where she too was raped.
''Later I went back to the olive groves and found the bodies of my husband and father along with five other men. My father had been stabbed and my husband shot in the belly.''
Later, United Nations soldiers brought the villagers food. ''The Turks took it away and ate it themselves said Mrs Mateidou.
Another woman who had been an intended rape victim was Miss Phrosa Meitani, aged 32.
She said: ''When I saw what was happening, I ran as quickly as I could. I saw the soldiers pointing guns at me, but I was too frightened to care.
''I hid in the olive groves and tried to get back to where I had been separated from my father.
''I watched from the bushes as they cut off his hands and legs below the knee with a double-edged cutting knife.
''At first he screamed, and beat at them with his fists, but then he became quiet and did not utter a word. Then they shot him in the stomach while I watched.
Farmer Christos Savva Drakos, 51, saw his wife and two sons murdered.
''I was watering my orchard when the bombs started to explode,'' he said.
Shooting
''With the rest of the village we tried to run away through the groves and river beds but the Turks caught us and we surrendered.
''They searched us but no one had a gun.
''The the shooting started. It was one by one to start with and I heard my 16-year-old boy Georgios saying in a calm voice 'Daddy, they have shot me.'
''I pulled him down and we fell behind a rock, He died there in my arms. ''An officer had been attracted by the shooting and he ran up to see what was going on.
''He was furious with his men and ordered them to stop.
''My wife and my other boy Nicos, who was only 13, were dead.
''My friend's wife was terribly badly injured and she told the officer: 'Why should I live without my husband? Shoot me'.
''The officer shrugged his shoulders and walked off and a soldier shot her in the head.''
Face
If the Turkish authorities deny these allegations I will remember the drawn face of that old man cowering in a corner, his body racked with tears.
This elderly man was no actor, or a man ordered to lie for political propaganda.
He was a poor man who had lost everything he ever possessed or loved in the world.
Hotel manager Vassalious Efthimiou was the only survivor in a party of men seized by the Turks.
He said: ''They separated the men from the women and shot the 12 men.
''Those killed ranged from a 12-year-old boy to an old man in his 90's.''
His brother-in-law was shot dead while holding Efthimiou's four year-old daughter, Estella, in his arms.
Bullet
Today, Estella showed where a bullet had hit her thigh.
Efthimiou saved his own life by snatching his other daughter, Charian, aged two, and running.
He said:''I ran until my legs would carry me no longer, and I fell.
''I managed to make my way back later to a village where all the women were trembling with fear and shock.
''I handed my daughter to my wife and said I must save myself.
''I hid in a deep well in my sister's farm for seven days and nights, sitting on a little bar with my feet in the water.
''When I could not take any more I came up.''
Efthimiou and his 37-year-old wife, Helen, run the Mermaid Hotel at Six Mile Beach , Kyrenia, a popular hotel with British tourists.
PRESIDENT Glafkkos Clerides of Cyprus flew into Athens today and accused Turkish troops of mass murders and rape.
Denial
He also claimed about 20,000 Greeks had been forced out of their homes around Kyrenia.
THE TURKS issued a denial.
A spokesman said: ''The Turkish military authorities deny reports of killings and any other atrocities by Turkish troops in any area under Turkish occupation.''
THE SUN SAYS Shame on them
AS THE POLITICIANS vie to take credit for bringing a ''ceasefire'' to Cyprus , reports of appalling atrocities are filtering through from that tragic island. For, while the peace talks went on, Turkish soldiers were killing and terrorising innocent civilians. The behaviour of these troops will shock the world. As they are in Cyprus in the name of Turkey , that nation must immediately take action against the animals that wear its uniform...''
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