"Bloody Christmas" When the Greeks massacred thousands of Turkish Muslims in Cyprus
Today marks the 58th anniversary of the bloody massacre that went down in history as "Bloody Christmas", perpetrated by the fighters of the Greek Cypriot terrorist organization (EOKA) against the island's civilian population of the Muslim Turkish community.
On December 21, 1963, the fighters of the Greek Cypriot terrorist organization (EOKA) committed a bloody massacre against Turkish Muslims on the island of Cyprus, which history recorded as "Bloody Christmas". While 364 people were killed in the attacks, 103 Turkish villages were completely evacuated.
After the failure of diplomatic efforts to resolve the Cyprus crisis for a decade, Ankara launched a military operation on the island on July 20, 1974, which it called the “Cyprus Peace Process,” after the island witnessed a military coup led by Nicos Sampson against Cypriot President Makarios, and after a while. From the targeting of the armed groups of the Roman islanders of the Turks.
Although its fighters committed a bloody metaphor against Turkish civilians in the last quarter of the last century, many Cypriot politicians still praise the EOKA terrorist organization. At the beginning of last April, Nicos Anastasiades, the leader of the Greek Cypriot administration in southern Cyprus, praised EOKA. Terrorist racism and its fighters.
The road to the massacre
The island of Cyprus was Ottoman territory for more than three centuries after it entered the umbrella of Ottoman rule in 1571, until everything changed when the Russians defeated the Ottomans in the War of 93 (1877-1878). And the desire of both to obtain the support of England, the Ottoman Empire signed the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, according to which England was given the right to administer the island, which remained its ownership of the Ottomans, but with the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, which fought alongside Germany against England and its allies in World War I, England announced its annexation Al Jazeera on November 5, 1914.
The 1950s witnessed the planting of the seeds of the "Cypriot peace process" that Turkey implemented later in 1974 when Ankara sensed Athens' serious attempts to annex Cyprus, which Turkey confronted at the time by taking measures to establish a two-communal state on the island. In 1959, the establishment of the state of Cyprus, to be governed jointly by the Turkish and Greek peoples, was accepted under the guarantee of Turkey, Greece and England.
With the founding of the state of Cyprus, the hoped for peace never came. Because the politicians of the south never gave up their goal of union with Greece, it was not long before they began to organize and take action on this path. The attacks on the island's Turks started from the South Cypriot Organization (EOKA), which was founded under the leadership of Makarios, who was elected the first president of the Republic of Cyprus. December 1963 witnessed the bloodiest attack, so brutal that it went down in history as "Bloody Christmas", with hundreds of Turks massacred in one night.
"Bloody Christmas"
On December 21, 1963, the Greek gangs, led by the EOKA terrorist organization, began implementing a plan called "Akritas" that aimed to completely evict the island of Cyprus from the Turks, either through killing or forced displacement.
The first attacks of the Greeks left 92 Turks dead and 146 wounded in Nicosia alone. Militants of the terrorist organization EOKA carried out the first major massacre against Turkish Cypriots in the village of Ayvasıl in Nicosia on December 23, 1963. 21 Turkish Cypriots captured from this village were killed and buried alive in a mass grave after their hands were tied.
The death toll of the Turkish martyrs after the attacks stopped in 1964 amounted to about 364, while 103 Turkish villages were completely destroyed, prompting the displacement of their entire population, numbering more than 25 thousand Turkish Cypriots. Also, Turkish Cypriot mosques, shrines and other places of worship were not spared from desecration during that period.
Cyprus peace process
Following the escalation of attacks against the island's Turks, Ismet Inonu's government obtained permission from the Turkish Parliament to intervene militarily, but the threatening letter sent by US President Lyndon Johnson to Ismet Inonu on 5 June 1964 prevented military intervention.
With Turkey abandoning the military operation on the island, EOKA's activities became more daring and bloody. Since 1967, the pressure on the Turks has gradually increased, as the massacres started again, followed by the forced migration of the island’s Turks, which resulted in the Turks of Cyprus being crammed into an area of less than 3% of the total area of the island, in addition to the efforts to annex the island to Greek lands after the coup d’état supported by the government The Greek junta on the island. This was the straw that broke the camel's back for Turkey.
In response to the Greek attempts to annex the island and the resulting genocide of the Turkish Cypriots, Turkey launched the Cyprus peace process at 06:05 am on July 20, 1974. While the campaign ended on July 22 of the same year with a ceasefire, The Turkish army launched a second campaign on August 14, 1974, which succeeded in achieving its goals. The current borders of Cyprus were formally drawn, and the establishment of the federal Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was announced on February 13, 1975, which turned into the Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC). As of November 15, 1983.
