1974: Mourning on one side, celebrations on the other
Source: in-cyprus.com
Fifty years have passed since the fateful day of July 20, 1974, when Turkey – exploiting the coup that took place five days earlier – invaded Cyprus. Under the pretext of restoring order on the island, Turkey put into action a premeditated crime aimed at forcibly dividing the island. The crime of July 20 would be completed on August 15, 1974, with the occupation of one-third of the island.
July 20 is a day of mourning for Greek Cypriots and Greeks, a day of grief for the homeland that was lost and remains under Turkish occupation for five decades.
It is also a day of remembrance for the thousands of refugees who were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homes. A day of memorial for the fallen and a day of prayer for the missing.
On the other side of the barbed wire, in the occupied areas, the celebrations began yesterday to mark the Turkish invasion of the island. The main protagonists of these events are the Turkish leadership, led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Ersin Tatar, the leader of the Turkish Cypriots.
The Turkish armed forces, as during the invasion, play a prominent role in these festive events. A parade in occupied Nicosia and a strong presence of the Turkish naval forces off the coast of Kyrenia.
President Christodoulides, in a statement to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA), stressed that “only a lasting and viable solution to the Cyprus problem will restore the fundamental freedoms and human rights of all of the legitimate inhabitants of Cyprus.” At the same time, he emphasised that “despite the difficulties and problems, the challenges, the disappointments, we are doing whatever is possible to create the conditions for the resumption of talks and the finding of a solution that will end the occupation.”
President Christodoulides also underlined that “fifty years later, the responsibilities of those who committed the invasion and maintain the occupation, as well as of those who allow the continuation of the division of Cyprus by force, remain unbearable,” and noted that “the fiftieth anniversary of the black anniversaries of the treacherous coup and the barbaric Turkish invasion calls for collective national reflection.”
In the occupied areas, Ersin Tatar said that “the Turkish Cypriots have reached today with great pain, but we are not yet where we want to be because the other side, with its mentality, cannot accept this.”
July 20, 1974, was the most important date for the Turkish Cypriots, he added, noting that on July 15, 1974, as well as on December 21, 1963, action was taken to eliminate the Turkish Cypriots.
He also reminded that the then Turkish Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, had visited Britain (before the invasion) and warned them.
Erdogan and Mitsotakis in Cyprus today
On the anniversary of the Turkish invasion of 1974, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis are in Cyprus. The former will celebrate the invasion anniversary with Tatar, while the latter will speak in the evening at an event at the Presidential Palace.
The presence of Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Nicosia today is of particular significance as it is the first time a Greek prime minister has attended events condemning the Turkish invasion.
The Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Gerapetritis, who will accompany the Greek prime minister to Nicosia, stated in an article (in the newspaper “To Manifesto”) that “the perpetuation of the current status quo, as well as the creation of two states in Cyprus, are not acceptable solutions to the Cyprus problem, neither for Greece nor for Europe.”
*Whatever remained of the National Guard unit after a strike by the Turkish Air Force (photo from Military Images).
The original article: belongs to in-cyprus.com .
