Turkish mobs have been attacking UN Peacekeepers who have tried to prevent the Turks from building a road from Turkish Cyprus (now called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus) through a buffer zone and right up to the border with Cyprus, where a mixed Turk-Greek village is located. But before getting to that, some background information is necessary.
In 1974, after a coup in Cyprus brought a military junta to power, the Turkish government used that change in Nicosia as an excuse to invade Cyprus to “protect” Turkish Cypriots. The Turkish army seized all of northern Cyprus, constituting one-third of the island. As a result of the Turkish military invasion and occupation of northern Cyprus, 162,000 Greek Cypriots fled their homes in that area, becoming refugees in their own country. And ever since, the occupying forces have impeded the return of refugees to their homes and property. By the end of 1975, the vast majority of Turkish Cypriots who had been living in areas controlled by the government in Nicosia were also forced to leave their homes and move, owing to Turkey’s coercive policy, to the northern third of Cyprus. In accordance with Turkey’s stated goal of partition and national segregation on the island, on November 15, 1983, the Turkish occupying regime unilaterally declared the so-called “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” an act which was condemned by the international community; no country save Turkey has recognized this puppet regime controlled by Ankara, a pseudo-nation built on the northern one-third of Cyprus.
Though 162,000 Greek Cypriots did move out of northern Cyprus, 20,000 Greek Cypriots and Maronites initially chose not to leave their homes, despite the Turkish occupation. But under steady Turkish pressure, those who remained were gradually forced to abandon the area. The number of Greek Cypriots and Maronites currently living in the area that the Turks named the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has by now plummeted to 300 persons. This dramatic decrease in the number of Greek Cypriots in the territory seized by the Turks is striking, considering that based on the agreement reached in Vienna on August 2, 1975, the Turkish side had committed itself to providing the Greeks in this “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” with “every help to lead a normal life, including facilities for education and the practice of their religion, as well as medical care by their doctors of preference and freedom of movement in the North.” In breaching this agreement, on a practical level, the Turkish side subjected the remaining Greeks to constant harassment, restrictions on movement, denial of access to adequate medical care, denial of adequate facilities for education, especially beyond elementary education, restrictions on the right to use their property and the free exercise of their religious rights. It was, thus, a deliberate policy of encouraging the Greeks to leave the territory and to flee south to settle among fellow Greeks in the Republic of Cyprus, or in some cases, to settle on the Greek mainland.
At the same time, Turkey has implemented a systematic policy of settlement of the occupied part of Cyprus since 1974 with the mass transfer of more than 160,000 Turks from Turkey, in order to change the demographic profile and alter the population balance on the island. This policy, together with driving the Greek Cypriot inhabitants out of northern Cyprus, the destruction of the Greek cultural heritage, from antiquity to the twentieth century, and the illegal change of geographical place names in the occupied part of Cyprus, aimed at the elimination of much of the evidence of the centuries-old Greek and Christian presence, and eventually led to the “Turkification” of the region. This policy has changed the balance of power and the social fabric in the occupied part of Cyprus, to ensure that the Turkish Cypriot leadership conformed to the policies of the Turkish government. With the continued migration of Turks from Turkey itself to the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” the total number of Turkish soldiers and settlers from the Turkish mainland is now greater than the number of Turkish Cypriots.
Under Erdogan, Turkey has continued to encourage more Turkish civilians from the mainland to settle in the TRNC, and has sent more Turkish soldiers to bases in Northern Cyprus. The Turks have just started to build a road from Northern Cyprus that will cut right through the buffer zone now patrolled by British peacekeepers, and lead to a mixed Turkish-Greek town that sits right on the border, just inside the Republic of Cyprus. British peacekeepers who recently tried to stop the Turkish bulldozers in the buffer zone were met with violence by Turkish Cypriots. More on the Turkish attacks on British soldiers can be found here: “Footage reveals brutal brawl after British peacekeepers were attacked by Turkish Cypriots who had bulldozed UN vehicles out of the way during unauthorised construction work on the divided island,” by Rachael Bunyan and David Averre, Daily Mail, August 24, 2023:
Shocking video footage shows British peacekeepers being beaten and shoved in a brutal brawl by Turkish Cypriots who had bulldozed UN vehicles out of the way during unauthorised construction work in ethnically-divided Cyprus.
Dramatic video shows the British soldiers being punched in the head, kicked to the ground and shoved by the mob of Turkish Cypriots in a violent scene.
As the peacekeepers tried to move backwards with their hands raised in an effort to protect themselves, they were met with blows to their heads and bodies. The attack left three British soldiers needing medical attention in hospital, one for a broken nose.
The attack occurred on Friday when peacekeepers parked cars and linked arms to prevent Turkish Cypriot crews from building an unauthorised road through a UN-managed buffer zone in eastern Cyprus, which runs for 120 miles.
Greek Cypriots perceive the road construction, which would link the mixed Greek Cypriot-Turkish Cypriot village of Pyla with the village of Arsos in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot North, as a move with a military purpose at a sensitive spot along the buffer zone.
Those Greeks are right to suspect that the road being built has a military purpose: it will be built to bear the weight of Turkish tanks and other armored vehicles, should there be future hostilities, taking them directly into Greek Cyprus at a point along the border where there are still some Turkish Cypriots likely to support their fellow Turks.
The road, once completed, will provide a direct link between a Turkish village, Arsos, in Northern Cyprus to at a village, Pyla, populated by both Greek and Turkish Cypriots, in the Republic of Cyprus. Such a road would make it easier for Turkish forces to move south to conquer more of Cyprus, should Erdogan find an excuse to do so — say, if Greek Cypriot fishermen were found operating in the territorial waters of Turkey or the TRNC, or if Greek Cypriots were charged with “mistreating” the few Turkish Cypriots who remained inside Cyprus.
The road would scythe through the zone, which aims to prevent conflict between Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the south where the internationally-recognised government is based.
Further shocking footage showed how Turkish Cypriots – some of whom were allegedly military or police officers in plain clothes – used bulldozers, diggers, and tractors to smash and drag UN vehicles away from the planned route.
Will the British government demand an apology from the Turks, and insist that those who took part in the unprovoked beating of its soldiers, who were acting properly as peacekeepers protecting the buffer zone, be punished, and furthermore, demand that the government of Turkey, which was behind the violence, compensate those who were injured, and pay for any British-owned vehicles its soldiers destroyed?
Will the United Nations demand an apology from the Turks, and insist that all those who took part in the unprovoked beating of its peacekeepers be punished? Furthermore, will the UN demand that the government of Turkey compensate the U.N. for the vehicles Turkish soldiers destroyed and, finally, will Ankara now withdraw all the Turks, whether citizens of Turkey or of the puppet regime called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, from the buffer zone?
Here’s my guess as to the answers: No, and No. And here’s my question: Why?
ChrisFromCincinnati says
Great Article. Thanks for providing that background. I was 14 in 1974. I think most people don’t know the story of Cyprus. Nixon’s Kissinger negotiated that deal which gave a part of Cyprus to Turkey. My family is Greek Christian Refugees from Smyrna (now Izmir)… Those that weren’t beheaded made it to S Africa and Ellis Island (my grand parents).
When we went back to Athens in 1976, I remember the bumper stickers that showed Cyprus with an American Flag over it… And the red stripes were BLOOD dripping due to our interference.
In some neighborhoods (I’m guessing now that had Cypriote refugees) people heard “Americans were visiting” and they would run up and yell and spit on us…
The Greeks knew that Kissinger bargained away their lands…
It strikes me, as a family survivor of the Great Christian Genocide in what’s now Turkey, that nothing ever really changes. It’s still one goal.
While the West is silly and thinks we can all live together, Erdogan and his ilk want nothing to do with peaceful coexistence. And they know they can lie to Non-Muslims and make deals that they have no intention of keeping.
The UN is weak. And the British Leaders will be afraid to defend themselves…
But I hope they blow up the Turkish Road and push back. I doubt it.
Shalom says
Great post.
GreekEmpress says
This is just the next step for Erdogan to invade the rest of Cyprus. My cousin is still in Limassol and I worry about her safety.
I’ve been saying this will happen for a while now.
PS—There is no Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It’s an occupation by Turkish squatters.
GreekEmpress says
PS— Great post my Greek brother-
࿗Infidel࿘ says
We need to completely change our relationship w/ Turkey: they are NOT an ally!
Mary A. says
Thank you!
Martin Fidal says
I was castigated for saying exactly that some 30 years ago ! they are muslims and should NEVER be treated as friends !
born saturday says
a clarification, that the UN zone was is and remains greek territory that has been granted permision to the peacekeepers to patrol in order to avoid incidents….
as for the fishermen, check the agean under treacherous dictatorial leadership…. the turkish fish boats fish all the way to peloponese. in the border of the agean islands with turkey and around the turkish coastguard annoys and threatens greek fishermen, even within greek waters….
born saturday says
a few words about cyprus recent news… in the village of chloraka in the greek part of the island the greeks started a demonstration against the islamisation of the are that has become a ghetto in which abuse and assaults are daily by the muslim invaders…. the greek inhabitants gathered in the centre of the village while muslim invaders went up the roofs of the buildings from where they threw stones at the greek… minutes after the rest of the muslim invaders that are the majority in the area picked sticks and clubs and attacked the greek inhabitants….eventually the police got involved and they arrested four greek inhabitants of the village… no muslim was arrested…. the area is plagued by muslim invader majority and the local greek inhabitants have reached beyond their patience…
born saturday says
https://www.pronews.gr/kypros/ekatontades-paranomoi-allodapoi-ekanan-epithesi-se-ellinokyprious-me-ropala-kai-maxairia-stin-pafo/
GreekEmpress says
Echfaristo poli born saturday for the article. I hadn’t seen this one.
born saturday says
more from cyprus there is chaos going on in chlorakas village near pafos with immigrants forming patrols by which they threaten the greeks they will go into their houses and murder them…. with knifes and clubs….