{"id":13770,"date":"2009-07-14T13:03:10","date_gmt":"2009-07-14T11:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=13770"},"modified":"2023-04-06T15:08:10","modified_gmt":"2023-04-06T12:08:10","slug":"cyprus-trnc-a-vigil-for-freedom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/07\/14\/cyprus-trnc-a-vigil-for-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"CYPRUS- TRNC A VIGIL FOR FREEDOM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>CALLING ALL  TURKS &amp;FRIENDS OF TURKEY<\/strong><br \/>\nA VIGIL FOR FREEDOM OF TURKISH CYPRIOTS<br \/>\nSunday, July  19, 2009 \/ 6:00pm to Monday, July 20, 2009 \/ 12:00pm<br \/>\n<strong> <\/strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/37\/Coat_of_arms_of_the_Turkish_Republic_of_Northern_Cyprus.svg\/125px-Coat_of_arms_of_the_Turkish_Republic_of_Northern_Cyprus.svg.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"125\" height=\"132\" \/><br \/>\n<strong>IN FRONT OF  THE TURKISH EMBASSY, DC<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong><em>2525 Massachusetts<\/em><\/strong> Avenue, <strong><em>N.W.<\/em><\/strong>, Washington, D.C 20008<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Please contact us at 202.483.9090 or 240.888.2860 and let us know  you are coming.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is happening to our Uygur brothers  and sisters to day, has happened for years to Cypriot Turks and still  happening.<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>A look at the history of Cyprus, shows that it\u00a0 was never  a Greek island.<br \/>\n1571-1878 Ottomans ruled, Turkish and Greek Cypriots lived in  peace.<br \/>\n1878 Britain took over the provisional administration.<br \/>\n1914 Britain  annexed Cyprus.Terrorist acts by Greeks started<\/p>\n<p>Statrting 1955,\u00a0 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.<br \/>\nEOKA&#8217;s aim, supported both  the extremist Greek Cypriots and Greece was to annihilate the Turkish Cypriots  and achieve union (Enosis) with Greece.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Turkey and the Turkish  Cypriots resisted.<\/strong><br \/>\n1960 Republic of Cyprus was established based on the  equality and partnership of the Turkish\u00a0 and Greek Cypriots, with Turkey, Greece  and Britain as guarantors.<br \/>\nAfter 1960, the terrorist acts and ethnic  cleansing by the Greek Cypriots, and EOKA continued and became  worse.<\/p>\n<p>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 &#8220;veritable siege&#8221;. 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.<br \/>\nMore  than 100 Turkish Cypriot villages were destroyed, hundreds of Cypriot Turks were  murdered, wounded, taken hostages. Many went missing.<br \/>\nGreeks sent secretly  20,000 troops to the island with the aim of eventual take over of the island to  realize Enosis, annexation to Greece.<br \/>\n<strong>The world, especially Western  Powers looked the other way.<\/p>\n<p><\/strong>July 15,1974 there was a coup in Cyprus,  a terrorist group took over the island&#8217;s government.<br \/>\nOf the guarantor  nations, Greece itself was instigating the coup, Britain refused to get  involved.<br \/>\nJuly 20, 1974, Turkey had no choice but to intervene militarily and  started the Peace Operation in Cyprus.<\/p>\n<p>Around that time, US Ambassador to  Cyprus, Rodger Davies and his aide were assassinated by Greek EOKA terrorists,  one of the many\u00a0 Greek terrorist acts against US and Turkish diplomats over the  years.<\/p>\n<p>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.<br \/>\nTwo communities  live in peace, each separate with its own independent government and  administration.<br \/>\nIn 1983 Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was  established.<br \/>\nIn 2004 the Turkish Cypriots overwhelmingly voted for the Annan  plan (unification of the island) and the Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly rejected  it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>However an unprecedented injustice against the Cypriot Turks  continues to this day.<br \/>\n<\/strong>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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also since 1974 a most unfair and damaging embargo has  been applied to Turkish Cyprus, with the objective to choke the Turkish Cypriots  economically.<br \/>\nTo this day the embargo continues with its absurd and cruel  rules.<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nIn 1974 The Washington Post reported that\u00a0 &#8220;the Greek Cypriots  wanted to be left alone to kill Turkish Cypriots, and the Turkish Republic put\u00a0  a stop to that&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0 Peace Operation led by the Turkish Armed Forces in 1974, is  taught throughout American law school human rights classes\u00a0 as one of few  military operations in the world that have resulted in increased human rights  and democracy.<br \/>\n&#8212;<br \/>\nOya  Bain<br \/>\noyabain@gmail.com<\/p>\n<p>Attachment(s)<br \/>\n1  of 1 File(s)<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/us.i1.yimg.com\/us.yimg.com\/i\/yg\/img\/doc\/doc16x16.gif\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" \/><br \/>\nVigil_TurkishCypriots-II.doc<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CALLING ALL TURKS &amp;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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":70300,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,211],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus","category-cyprus-trnc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}