CALLING ALL TURKS &FRIENDS OF TURKEY
A VIGIL FOR FREEDOM OF TURKISH CYPRIOTS
Sunday, July 19, 2009 / 6:00pm to Monday, July 20, 2009 / 12:00pm
IN FRONT OF THE TURKISH EMBASSY, DC
2525 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C 20008
Assembly of Turkish American Associations (ATAA) is leading a VIGIL to respond to the extremist Cyprus Action Network of America (CANA). We will always be grateful to the Turkish Armed Forces for the Cyprus Peace Operation of July 20, 1974 which stopped the savage ethnic cleansing of the Turkish Cypriots by Greek Eoka guerrillas.
Please contact us at 202.483.9090 or 240.888.2860 and let us know you are coming.
What is happening to our Uygur brothers and sisters to day, has happened for years to Cypriot Turks and still happening.
A look at the history of Cyprus, shows that it was never a Greek island.
1571-1878 Ottomans ruled, Turkish and Greek Cypriots lived in peace.
1878 Britain took over the provisional administration.
1914 Britain annexed Cyprus.Terrorist acts by Greeks started
Statrting 1955, the Cypriot Turks were subjected to increased repression, cruelties, intimidation by the terrorist organization EOKA. From 1955 to 1958 Turkish Cypriots were driven from the mixed villages, their houses were burnt.
EOKA’s aim, supported both the extremist Greek Cypriots and Greece was to annihilate the Turkish Cypriots and achieve union (Enosis) with Greece.
Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots resisted.
1960 Republic of Cyprus was established based on the equality and partnership of the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, with Turkey, Greece and Britain as guarantors.
After 1960, the terrorist acts and ethnic cleansing by the Greek Cypriots, and EOKA continued and became worse.
Nearly 30,000 Turkish Cypriots were forced from their homes and became refugees in enclaves which corresponded to 3% of the territory of Cyprus, whereas the Turkish Cypriot community previously inhabited on nearly 30% of the island. The refugees lived according to a UN statement in “veritable siege”. All necessities as well as utilities had to be brought in through the Greek Cypriot lines. The Greek Cypriots placed embargoes, control points and other restrictions on the enclaves which largely cut them off from the outside world. The UN moved in to supply a lifeline to the people in the enclaves.
More than 100 Turkish Cypriot villages were destroyed, hundreds of Cypriot Turks were murdered, wounded, taken hostages. Many went missing.
Greeks sent secretly 20,000 troops to the island with the aim of eventual take over of the island to realize Enosis, annexation to Greece.
The world, especially Western Powers looked the other way.
July 15,1974 there was a coup in Cyprus, a terrorist group took over the island’s government.
Of the guarantor nations, Greece itself was instigating the coup, Britain refused to get involved.
July 20, 1974, Turkey had no choice but to intervene militarily and started the Peace Operation in Cyprus.
Around that time, US Ambassador to Cyprus, Rodger Davies and his aide were assassinated by Greek EOKA terrorists, one of the many Greek terrorist acts against US and Turkish diplomats over the years.
Since July 20, 1974 when the Turkish Armed Forces took over the Northern part of Cyprus and brought order to the island, there were no deaths, terrorist acts, coercion or ethnic cleansing in the island.
Two communities live in peace, each separate with its own independent government and administration.
In 1983 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was established.
In 2004 the Turkish Cypriots overwhelmingly voted for the Annan plan (unification of the island) and the Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected it.
However an unprecedented injustice against the Cypriot Turks continues to this day.
In 1990 Greek part of Cyprus applied for membership in the European Union(EU). After intense lobbying and extreme propaganda, Greek part of Cyprus was accepted to EU in 1997, an unlawful, illegitimate, and unwise act by the EU making a federal settlement in the island impossible.
Also since 1974 a most unfair and damaging embargo has been applied to Turkish Cyprus, with the objective to choke the Turkish Cypriots economically.
To this day the embargo continues with its absurd and cruel rules.
In 1974 The Washington Post reported that “the Greek Cypriots wanted to be left alone to kill Turkish Cypriots, and the Turkish Republic put a stop to that”
The Peace Operation led by the Turkish Armed Forces in 1974, is taught throughout American law school human rights classes as one of few military operations in the world that have resulted in increased human rights and democracy.
—
Oya Bain
[email protected]
Attachment(s)
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Vigil_TurkishCypriots-II.doc
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