PAPADOPOULOS DREW UP A PLAN TO ANNHILIATE TURKISH CYPRIOTS BETWEEN 1963-64
In its
headline "Shocking Revelation About Tassos - He Planned To Annihilate
Civilian Turkish Cypriots Between 1963-64 - We Had 75 Minutes To
Exterminate The Turkish Cypriots and We Had The Plans and Opportunity To
Do This", yesterday (27 April) the Greek Cypriot daily 'Alithia' reported
that in his latest book entitled "First Partition: 1963-64 Cyprus"
Makarios Drusiotis could disrupt today's political situation and Turkish
and Greek Cypriot relations and even Tassos Papadopoulos and the communist
AKEL party supporters.
The daily
said the book in question highlighting that during the 1963-64 period
today's Greek Cypriot Leader and AKEL partner Tassos Papadopoulos was
involved in the drawing up of a plan to annihilate civilian Turkish
Cypriots and publishing the telegraph that included six underlined lines
of this plan, said Makarios Drusiotis' book included historical documents
that proved that today's leader and AKEL partner Tassos Papdopoulos was
involved in the annihilation plan of civilian Turkish Cypriots but, the
plan couldn't be implemented because of the it's rejection by the then
Commander of the Greek Cypriot National Guard.
In his book,
which has just been put on sale, Drusiotis refers to a message sent by
Papdopoulos to the Americans in August 1964 in which he said, "the Greek
Cypriots planned to sort out its internal problems". In his message
Papdopoulos, who at the time was the Minister for Labour and the Vice
Chairman of the Akritas Organization, had stated that: "If the Turkish
fleet enters within 12 sea miles of our borders we will count this as
being the start of the invasion. According to our calculations and with
the aim of defending ourselves this gives us 75 minutes in which to
exterminate the Turkish Cypriots. We have the plan and opportunity to do
this".
Referring to
documents obtained from the USA National Archives of Research
Administration, the author stated that Papadopoulos' threat to annihilate
the Turkish Cypriots later became a Council of Ministers decision and
according to General Karayannis this decision had been conveyed to him by
Minister Yorgacis, who had requested him to identify two Turkish Cypriot
villages to be destroyed following the end of the deadline given to him.
In his book the author also included documents that stated that Karayannis
rejected to take on the responsibility "for killing defenceless people".
The daily
reported that Drusiotis also wrote that the situation in the internal
front was not good, the people were very demoralized and that when the
proposals to amend the (1960) Constitution were being prepared, in the
event of a Turkish 'invasion' civilian Turkish Cypriots would be used as
human shields and that this had been the Greek Cypriot leadership's plan
since 1963. The author also wrote that the threat of massacring the
Turkish Cypriots always came onto the agenda whenever there was the threat
of an (Turkish) 'invasion'.
The United
Nations Association of Northern Cyprus condemned the United Kingdom's
embargoes on TRNC tourism.
In a press
statement issued by the Association on 27 April 2005, London Transport's,
the body that is attached to London Municipality, decision to ban Northern
Cyprus tourism advertisements on London transportation vehicles was
condemned by international organizations, such as human rights
associations, EU parliamentarians, members of the House of Lords and
Commons, London Municipality, the British Tourism Ministry and the Labour
party.
The full
text of the Press statement is as follows:
"The
Transport of London’s (TFL) decision to ban Northern Cyprus tourism
advertisements on London public transportation vehicles, based on the
argument that 200 thousand Greek Cypriots living in London might find it
‘insulting’, is unacceptable. The implementation of such a decision is in
fact a discriminatory act against Turkish Cypriots who have a right to
advertise and enjoy viewing advertisements of their country.
The
results of the 24 April 2004 referenda are well known to all of us.
Needless to say, the Turkish Cypriots, who expressed willingness for a
comprehensive settlement by an overwhelming 65% of votes, were denied EU
membership and continue to be subjected to illegal restrictions and
embargoes, but the Greek Cypriot side, which rejected a power-sharing
arrangement with the Turkish Cypriots by a 76% of votes joined the EU on 1
May 2004 at no cost continue to enjoy the benefits of the title of the
“Republic of Cyprus”, which they usurped through force of arms in December
1963.
The Greek
Cypriot administration continuously uses the oppression card in its hand
as the ‘sole legal government’ on the island, denying the Turkish Cypriots
any opportunity to engage in political, economic, social and sporting
contacts with the rest of the world, with the ultimate aim of bringing
about their political, economic, social and cultural collapse. The illegal
embargoes imposed on the Turkish Cypriot people are clearly in blatant
violation of the UN Charter and in contravention of the relevant
international human rights instruments and cannot be justified by mere
political explanations.
Following
the referenda the UN, many international bodies and prominent figures
including leaders expressed their pleasure on the Turkish Cypriots’
affirmative vote and called for an end to the unjust isolation of the
Turkish Cypriots which has been imposed upon them for over four decades.
Although a
year has passed, there have been no concrete developments regarding the
easing of the isolations and the Turkish Cypriots have been left to their
own devices as none of the promises made by the international community
have so far been kept.
The time has
come for the international community to take measures to redress this
unjust situation. The decision to ban tourism advertisements runs contrary
to announced intentions of the British government stating that the
isolations should be lifted and that the British government is working to
accomplish this by having direct flights or passing legislation in the
European Union bodies to ease trade both within and outside Cyprus.
The Turkish
Cypriot people only ask for their decades old unfair punishment to come to
an end. We expect that the Turkish Cypriot people expect that the
international community, and in this case particularly the British
Government responds to the call of the UN Secretary General lifting the
restrictions imposed on the Turkish Cypriots also promoting relations in
all fields and in particular direct transport, trade, tourism, culture,
information, investment and sports contact".
