The Turks

[TurQ]

I am not into questions or allegations copied and pasted from extremist websites. I wouldnt throw bone to each and every barking dog you know.

I've just answered one question about the 1955 events thats it, other deserve to be ignored. WHy should I spent time to answer those posts that are not even read by the poster but just copied and pasted?

I think bigotry and ill-intentions should be condemned not applauded, bulgarian might have posted some stuff that might sound nice to your ear, doesnt make it worth to answer.

So TurQ - instead of again making excuses - attempting character assasinations - blame the victim - question sources - and so on and so forth - ie your usual (and pretty much exclusive) tactics - why won't you just answer the question posed to you by Bulgarian? Is it really so difficult to utter a critical word about your nation Turkey? My - you wouls think you were a Grey Wolf or something....

[Bulgarian]

TurQ you just love to reply and reply and reply dont you. You cant accept facts or attempt to engage in a serious point that 1.5 million made.


Turkish-Muslim Persecution Of Christians
by J. Grant Swank, Pastor
14 December 2003

Intellectual Conservative, AZ
Dec 15 2003

"Turks tend to place Christians in the same category as Armenian
terrorists."


In response to my post regarding Turkish hostilities against
non-Muslims, the following email arrived. It was speaking to another
email I had received from a Turkish Muslim who defended Turkish
Muslims, saying they practiced a religion of peace. Here is the
anguished email from a Christian:

"Ask him about the Armenian genocide that the Turkish government does
not even recognize in their history books. My grandmother was beaten,
stabbed and left for dead and her whole family killed, all in the name
of Muslims trying to eliminate Armenian Christians. The many trials
and tribulations my grandmother went through included a stay in a
concentration camp before she escaped for safer ground. But as a God
follower, I know God's hand was upon her to birth future generations to
work for His kingdom and I know the devil isn't too happy about that."

Of course, Turkish Muslims have maintained persecution against
Christians; that's why it is very difficult for the Christian witness
to exist in Turkey. Probably the grossest atrocities against Christians
in the preceding century took place in Turkey. Paul Marshall wrote
in THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT that "although Turkey is now a country with
relatively few Christians, this was not always the case. Less than
one hundred years ago, Turkey, or rather its Ottoman predecessor,
was about 30 percent Christian. This situation changed when some two
million ethnic Armenian Christians were massacred between 1905 and
1918, a genocide which the Turkish government still denies. Many of
the remaining Christians fled immediately. Others facing death threats,
systemic harassment, and discrimination, followed them later."

World Evangelism Alliance reports the following: "While Turkey is a
secular state, tensions exist between religious elements that desire
stronger ties to neighboring Muslim states, and others who consider
Europe and secular politics as the way forward. The government's
aggressive promotion of secularism and its move to join the European
Union are causing the tensions to slowly and quietly escalate within
elements of Turkey's 99.64 percent Muslim-majority society.

"In Turkey, religious freedom is a Constitutional right and is upheld
by the government and the judiciary. However, some politicians, many
police and all Islamists are hostile to Christianity, which they see
as European and opposed to all that is essentially and historically
Turkish. They regularly use ambiguous laws to prosecute and harass
the Church. Several cases of harassment against churches are presently
before the courts.

"Those opposed to Christianity often use ambiguous laws as their
means to prosecute, harass and persecute the Church. While the courts
generally dismiss these cases, the court proceedings are costly,
stressful and intimidating. The harassment the Church suffers has
caused multitudes of believers to either flee or emigrate to a
better life.

"The Turkish security police ordered the closure of the New Testament
Church that had been meeting for 40 years in Iskenderun. The reason
given in the directive: 'Your activities will incite religious,
sectarian and dervish-order discrimination; will harm religious and
national feelings; and will create offense in the society.' Although
the church had been meeting in this location for the past 7 years
without any complaints, the directive also alleged that the church's
location had not been approved in the municipal zoning plan. The
church has employed a lawyer to prepare and file their case before
the administrative courts.

"In Diyarbakir, Protestant pastor Ahmet Guvener has been charged
with making illegal changes in the architectural plan of his nearly
completed church building. However, the underlying objection voiced
to the council by the governor of Diyarbakir was over the building's
intended use for worship by Turkish Christians. Pastor Guvener's
next hearing is set for 8 October. These cases are examples of pure
harassment. Other Christian ministries have reported harassment also,
including the deportation of some foreign Christian workers. In
spite of this, there is much interest in the gospel and the Church
is growing."

According to John Mark Ministries: "For the few in Turkey who dare
profess Christ, life can be dangerous. Many believers have been
harassed, threatened, and imprisoned for their faith in Christ.
Evangelizing is difficult because Turks tend to place Christians in
the same category as Armenian terrorists."

So goes the tolerance of Muslims for Christians in Turkey. Muslim
religion is a religion of war against all non-Muslims. It is so
because of the Koran doctrine to wipe out all infidels, hence the
present-day Islamic slaughter of non-Muslims.

Joseph Grant Swank, Jr., is the Pastor of New Hope Church in Windham,
ME. He is a a graduate of an accredited college (BA) and seminary
(M Div) with graduate work at Harvard Divinity School. Pastor Swank
has been married for 41 years and he has 3 adult children. He is
the author of 5 books and over 2000 articles in various Protestant
and Catholic magazines, journals and newspapers. He writes a weekly
religion column for PORTLAND PRESS HERALD newspaper, Portland ME. His
columns have appeared on IntellectualConservative.com, VIOdaily.com,
AmericanDaily.com, MensNewsDaily.com, BushCountry.org, Chalcedon.com,
ConservativeTruth.com, FreeRepublic.com, WoundedShepherds.com,
among others.

http://www.intellectualconservative.com/article2970.html



Famous observations regarding Turkish men 80+ years ago:
"The turk is so absolutely without a moral sense, so unutterably bestial in his consideration of woman, so unthinkably vile and filthy in his personal habits, and so hopelessly degraded in his relations with his fellow man that the depth of his infamy is past all human credence. The turk is not a human being. I do not call him a beast, because not one of God's dumb creatures could sink so low. The turk is a devil without a tail. And the educated, polished turk--the official who affects a knowledge of the French language and a veneering of Parisian manners--is the most unspeakable fiend of all. In proof that this assertion is based on incontestable truth I challenge denial from any unprejudiced man who has known the turk thoroughly well for a quarter of a century."



William W. Howard
1896
An American Eyewitness to Turk Savagery

[TurQ]

I once again remembered that Turkish saying

TurQ you just love to reply and reply and reply dont you. You cant accept facts or attempt to engage in a serious point that 1.5 million made.



William W. Howard
1896
An American Eyewitness to Turk Savagery



[/LEFT]

[Bulgarian]

SOME OF THE MODERN BARBARISM COMMITTED BY THE TURKISH MILITARY RECENTLY:

The destruction of Liçe by Turkish security forces

Ankara to answer for army's actions
The Guardian
by Owen Bowcott
July 25, 2000

The massacre of seven shepherds - allegedly by Turkish soldiers - in the mountains of northern Iraq is to be investigated by the European court of human rights in Strasbourg. The court's ruling last week that the case is admissible establishes a significant legal precedent: for the first time Ankara will have to answer for the behaviour of its troops during cross-border raids into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels. The decision extends the principle that states are liable for actions beyond their borders.Turkey, eager to advance its application to join the EU and increasingly sensitive about its human-rights record, frequently finds itself before the court for its "anti-terrorist" campaigns against the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Last month the court found it responsible for the murder of a prisoner, Agit Salman, and the torture of a villager, Abdullatif Ilhan, who was beaten by soldiers in the predominantly Kurdish south-east; Ankara was ordered to pay £225,000 in damages and legal expenses. Both cases were taken to Strasbourg by the Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP) in London, which is also supporting the case of the seven shepherds, who died in April 1995.At that time the Turkish army was harrying the PKK in the Kurdish safe-haven established by the allies in northern Iraq after the Gulf war. The PKK used the mountains as a base from
which to attack Turkey.The shepherds saw Turkish helicopters transporting troops up the valley below their village,Azadi, which is just south of the Turkish border. Undeterred, the men set off with their sheep into the hills.After 15 minutes they met a patrol of Turkish soldiers who, according to the claim submitted to the court, started shouting abuse at them and kicking and hitting them. Wives accompanying them were separated and sent back to the village. Other women who approached the detained shepherds were fired at by soldiers.Local Kurdish officials who later asked Turkish officers to release the shepherds were promised that they would be freed, but the shepherds' bodies were found in the hills the next morning.

"The bodies had been shot at several times and were badly mutilated," the court documents record. "Ears, tongues and genitals [were] missing."

The shepherds' widows, who still live in northern Iraq, have been unable to take their case to the Turkish courts.

In its ruling, the human-rights court said: "The Turkish authorities failed to conduct a meaningful investigation . . . The Turkish authorities' reaction in this case must not be seen in isolation; rather, it must be seen in the context of their general reluctance to deal with
allegations of involvement of state agents in unlawful conduct." The Turkish embassy in London declined to comment on the case.

-------
The Turkish army has recently illegally invaded Iraq and bombed Kurdish villages inside the Kurdish safe haven set up by the U.S. and Britian.

ARMENIAN WOMEN PUT UP FOR AUCTION

September 29, 1915

Refugee Tells of the Fate of Those in Turkish Hands

Speaking yesterday, his remarks being based on the authenticated data in his possession, Professor Dutton said he does not believe anything had happened in many centuries so terrible as is the studied and systematized effort on the part of a political coterie in Turkey - the Young Turks, led by Enver Pasha - to exterminate a whole race of people. The whole plan involves the wiping out of the Armenians.

Only a day or two ago, added Professor Dutton, a young girl who left Turkey on Aug 18 called here to see him. She told of the fate of the 100 girls who were attending a mission school in Anatolia. These girls, who were of course Armenians, were divided into groups and those that were the best looking in the opinion of the Turkish officers were taken over by those officers. Those considered not quite so good looking were given over to the soldiers, while those still less attractive were put up for sale to the highest bidders.

Several Americans who have been in Turkey for many years have arrived here within the last few days. They all testify to the truthfulness of the reports that have come out of Turkey concerning the treatment of the Armenians, but in every instance they beg that their names be not used for fear that what they have said will find its way back to Turkey and friends or relatives they left behind will be punished by the Turks in retaliation.

Copies of two letters, in which the writers tell of the fate that is being meted out to the Armenians, were given to The Times yesterday by a man in close touch with Armenian conditions.

In one of these letters the writer among other things says:

In Urtab, Tukh, and about twenty other Armenian villages on the lake the entire population was found to have been massacred by the Turks - not a single living soul was found in these villages, which were now given over to howling dogs, while large numbers of corpses have been washed ashore from the lake and the rivers.

These corpses, which were ascertained to be all of males, were terribly mutilated, but nothing was discovered as to the whereabouts of women and children. By sunset of July 20 the Armenians captured the heights of Kerkur. When they reached the summit the town of Bitlis presented to their disappointed gaze a sheet of flames, and they knew that the worst had happened. Some female refugees, who managed to escape the Turkish cordon, have since related the story of fiendish massacres in the town and the wholesale deportation of women and children.

To a well known minister of the Armenian Church there came out of Turkey, by some mysterious underground route, a letter which is described as of "undoubted trustworthiness" Excerpts from their letter follow:

Armenia without the Armenians - such is the plan of the Ottoman Government, which has already begun to install Moslem families in the homes and property of the Armenians. Needless to say, the deported are not allowed by the Government to take any of their belongings with them, and as there is moreover, no means of transport owing to the exigencies of the military, they are forced to cover on foot the two or three months' journey to that corner of the desert region which is destined to be their sepulchre enslaved by Turks.



You will notice that the Turks placed tattoos on their Armenian slaves.

The NAZIS did the same to Jewish slaves during WWII.

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP5.HTM

"From 1900 to 1923, various Turkish regimes killed from 3,500,000 to over 4,300,000 Armenians, Greeks, Nestorians, and other Christians."



Turkey and NAZI Collaboration


The question TurQ is has Turkey really changed since the Armenian genocide (and before)?

[Bulgarian]

Pictures That Will Shock The World

The pictures published here are evidence of a savagery that took place in April 1995 in the district of Hakkari in the Kurdish regions of southeastern Turkey. The perpetrators of this act were Turkish soldiers, members of the Hakkari Mountain Brigadier Command, and the victims are four members of the People's Liberation Army of Kurdistan (ARGK). These photos were featured on the cover of the January 11-17 edition of the London weekly "The European".


The savagery of the Turkish state is not limited to the Kurdish regions of Turkey, however. During its cross-border operation in northern Iraq in March and April of 1995, disregarding international outcry, members of the Turkish armed forces massacred seven shepherds in Dahok in the same manner.

Do not misunderstand this message: This is not simply exterminating the Kurdish people, this is terminating humanity. Halt This Savagery!
















"The barbarism demonstrated by soldiers posing for photographs with the decapitated heads of those recently killed is wholly unacceptable to decent-thinking people across the world."
- Pauline Green, leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament


(I HOPE RUDO SEES THESE PICTURES SO HE CAN UNDERSTAND WHO HE IS DEFENDING)

[Bulgarian]

Why The Surprise?

By Lord Eric Avebury

The publication in "The European" of January 11-17 of photographs showing Turkish soldiers gloating over the bodies and severed heads of Kurdish victims, occasioned loud criticisms from some of the MEPs who voted, less than a month before, to admit Turkey to the European customs union.


Not only was there voluminous evidence of the atrocities which have been committed by the Turkish armed forces in the Kurdish region, over the eleven years of armed struggle, but on many occasions the Turks have escorted parties of journalists to place where they were invited to take pictures of dead bodies, alleged to be those of PKK guerrillas. The bodies are often mutilated, and decapitated is not particularly remarkable. The MEPs should be more concerned with what they do to living.

The war between the Turkish state and the Kurdish armed opposition has claimed the lives of an estimated 20,000 people over the last 11 years. Two and a half million (the actual figure by now is about 5 million Kurds ethnically cleansed) people have been violently uprooted from their homes by the military, to live in the shanty-towns of Diyarbakir, the regional capital, and the poorer quarters of western Turkish cities. Many thousands of civilians have been permanently disabled in the indiscriminate bombardments of their towns and villages. There have been hundreds of unreported Pervomaiskoyes in Kurdistan: three thousand villages, and large areas of bigger towns have been erased from the map.

Just as many people in western Europe turned a blind eye to Hitler's preparations for Holocaust in the thirties, the democratic world ignores the evidence of incipient genocide of the Kurds in Turkey today. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, and the Turkish Human Rights Organization have published many damning reports. The US State Department, though committed to friendship with Turkey for geopolitical reasons, cannot avoid being severely critical in the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, published every year. The UN Rapporteur on Torture devotes more space to Turkey than any other country in the world. The Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions and the UN Working Groups on Disappearances and on Arbitrary Detentions all have long and detailed sections on Turkey in their annual reports.

For most of the time, however, the Turkish authorities manage to keep this material out of the western media. There are no foreign journalists based in the emergency region, and Ankara-based journalists who go there very infrequently jeopardize their right to stay in the country if they write too plainly about what they see. Foreign journalists may even run the risk of prosecution under the Anti-Terror Law, as happened to the Reuters correspondent Aliza Marcus.

Turkish journalists who try to cover the dirty war honestly take even higher risks. Some 15 have been murdered by "unidentified gunmen" or killed in custody. Many have been arrested and tortured, and dozens have been given long sentences of imprisonment for writing about Kurdish issues. The Turkish government made some cosmetic amendments to the Anti-Terror Law, under which many freedom of expression cases were brought, in order to deflect opposition to customs union in the European Parliament. But the Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN say this has made little practical difference, and their list of active cases is as long as ever. It was good that "The European" did publish the evidence of Turkish barbarity, and it was useful that Ankara defended itself by pretending that the photographs had been faked. If there was any doubt, let the Turks invite the human rights NGOs, which are denied entry into Turkey, to come and investigate for themselves. Let them lift the ban on Amnesty International and the Parliamentary Human Rights Organization, and let them invite a delegation from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is playing an important role in every other trouble spot in the region, from Bosnia to Latvia and from Chechnya to Tajikistan.

The United Nations, and the OSCE, have built up an array of treaties and declarations which are supposed to protect the rights of individuals and of minorities. The Geneva Conventions, which are even older, prohibit the killing of civilians in situations of internal armed conflict. The Turks repeatedly demonstrate their contempt for their obligations under these treaties, and for the lives and safety of their Kurdish citizens. Isn't it time the world indicted the imitators of Mladic and Karadjic in Kurdistan? January 22, 1996

[Bulgarian]

Caption: 'A dispute arose as to which of the two - a Turk or a goat - smellt the worse. An enquiry was held - (1) The goat was brought in and the President fainted; (2) The Turk was brought in and the goat fainted. The enquiry was closed.



STONE: 'MIDNIGHT EXPRESS WASN'T AGAINST TURKS'

LATEST: Hollywood film-maker OLIVER STONE told the media in Istanbul Tuesday (14DEC04) he never intended to offend Turks in his controversial 1978 film MIDNIGHT EXPRESS.

Stone won an OSCAR for his screenplay adapted from young American BILLY HAYES' memoirs, who was sentenced to 30 years behind bars in Turkey after he was found trying to smuggle hashish out of Istanbul's airport.

Turks accused Stone of exaggerating Hayes' description of life in prison and of writing a racist script featuring all Turkish characters as villains. The film was banned upon release in the European country and was finally shown on TV in the late 1990s.

Stone says, "I never intended it to be against Turkey. It was against injustice... everywhere. "Perhaps some of the zealousness, some of the anger came from being young and trying to make the point too much, too hard.

"It was true that Billy Hayes did get screwed in the Turkish system. He was convicted for relatively nothing to 30 years and he was treated brutally in prison. So this is all documented.






Tourists that visit Turkey fund the genocide of Kurds.


Turkish Fascists: The MHP

From Arm the Spirit. 3 January, 1995
The National Movement Party ("Milliyetci Hareket Partisi", MHP), founded by Alparslan Turkes in the 1960s, can already look back on an active history. This article, however, concerns itself with contemporary information.

The MHP In The 1980s
After the military coup of September 12, 1980, the MHP, like all other parties, was banned. Turkes, who was arrested shortly after the putsch and put on trial, was released from prison for health reasons in April 1985 and sentenced in 1987 to an 11-year prison term, which he did not have to serve on account of an amnesty law which was passed.

In the meantime, the National Workers Party ("Milliyetci Calisma Partisi", MCP) was founded in 1983 as a successor to the MHP. Other former MHP members had already joined the ranks of other parties, such as the Motherland Party (ANAP) of T. Ozal. Turkes became chairman of the MCP after the ban on political activity against certain party functionaries was lifted after a (close) referendum on September 6, 1987. As of 1992, the party has returned to its tradition in both words and deeds and is once again known as the MHP.

Elections
Initially, the MCP/MHP did not have much success in elections. An election alliance with the Islamic fundamentalist Welfare Party (RP) of N. Erbakan (and another small party, the IDP) won close to 17% of the vote in parliamentary elections on October 22, 1991. But the MHP's share of these votes was probably quite small. After the elections, the alliance fell apart, partly since no further long-term cooperation was planned.

During regional elections in March 1994, the MHP won close to 8% of the vote (compared to just over 4% in 1989). The party won the most votes in the following provinces: Kastamonu, Cankiri, Yozgat, Kirsehir, Kars, and Erzincan (in 1989: Kirikkale, Yozgat, Erzincan, and Elazig). There were, therefore, MHP governors in 6 of the country's 76 provinces.

Anti-Kurdish Hatred
A significant portion of the MHP's election propaganda, and most of its public activity in general, is dedicated to spreading anti-Kurdish hatred. At the parliamentary political level, the MHP plays an important role in formulating nationalist state propaganda, which has been directed against the Kurdish people more and more since the 1980s, particulary through creating a fiendish image of the PKK.

For example, in 1992, Turkes stated that the "separatists", in other words the PKK, were been trained in camps located in Greek-controlled southern Cyprus. (This connecting of "old" enemies with contemporary themes is a favorite activity of Turkes. He thereby draws the Greeks into the matter, too. For a while, Turkish newspapers spread rumors that PKK members were primarily Armenians.)

That same year, Turkes stated publically once again that the Kurds had descended from the Turkish "race".

"Every vote for the MHP is a blow against the PKK", Turkes said, during an election rally before the regional elections in March 1994, as he made the Grey Wolves hand-sign with his hands. (MHP members sometimes operate under the name "xxxkurt", which means Grey Wolves. - trans.)

The Great Turkish Empire: Turan
Another significant pillar of the MHP's ideology is the foolish dream of creating the Turan, the Great Turkish Empire. Thus, they pay close attention to developments in the countries of the former Soviet Union where so-called Turkish peoples live, namely Azerbaidjan, Turkmenistan, Kazachstan, Uzbekistan, and Kirgistan. The "Basbug" (a word which roughly means leader, in this case Turkes - trans.) is not an unknown figure in those lands.

Appearances
More important than election results in the MHP's influence on state institutions, and this influence is not insignificant. But the MHP's election success in March 1994 has made the party more bold. According to reports from people who recently visited Turkey, MHP fascists are now appearing publically more than they ever have in the past; they even put Grey Wolves symbols on their cars. Attacks on leftists and unfavored student associations at various universities have not only been carried out by Islamic fundamentalists over the past few years, but also by Grey Wolves as well.

(Source: Inisiyatif #5)

"Grey Wolves" Gather In Germany
On November 26, 1994, more than 10,000 members (organizers put the number as high as 30,000) of the Turkish ultra-nationalist organization MHP (National Movement Party) gathered in the German town of Sindelfingen to hear speeches by their leader, Alparslan Turkes. Turkish fascists from all across Germany, as well as from Austria and The Netherlands, attended the event. Turkish prime minister Ciller sent her greetings to the event via telephone, thus clearly illustrasting the level of close cooperation which exists between the Turkish government and the Turkish far-right.

The MHP, also known by the name "xxxkurt" (Grey Wolves), stands for racist, fascist terror. Human rights experts in Turkey make the organization responsible for more than 4,000 murders, primarily of Kurds, Turkish leftists, and progressive journalists and union leaders. Its most deadly action was an attack on the May Day rally in Istanbul in 1977 which left 35 people dead and more than 200 wounded. Today, the Turkish army and special forces actively recruit MHP members to fight in special commando units in Turkey's dirty war against the Kurdish national liberation struggle.

[Bulgarian]

Torturing Cypriot History
Hostile Environment of Yesteryear Still Remembered

by Matthew J. Stowell

As an American with no Cypriot or Greek ancestry, I understand how Cyprus' complex and, to most Americans, obscure past can make many easy prey to the disinformation fed our press by the Turkish government.

A common propaganda bite used by the Turkish state to legitimize its 1974 invasion of Cyprus is that "The Greek Cypriots then unleashed a campaign of extermination and eviction that killed or wounded thousands and drove a frightening percentage of Turkish Cypriots into besieged enclaves.." (Insight Magazine, "Fences Might Be the Right Thing for Multiethnic Nation of Cyprus", Ahmet Erdengiz, Feb. 7).


This claim has been refuted by findings of impartial sources such as the UN Secretary General's report No. S/5950, para. 142 which confirms that as a result of the brief but turbulent period of hostilities between Greek and Turkish-Cypriot extremists from December 21, 1963 to June 8, 1964, a total of 43 Greek Cypriots and 232 Turkish Cypriots are missing and presumed dead. Clearly, this was no "campaign of extermination".

Moreover, these deaths were a direct result of Britain's documented policy of arming Turkish separatists and encouraging Greco-Turkish conflict to facilitate its control over Cyprus.

While extremists of both communities are to blame for intercommunal violence, fueled by British attempts to prevent this overwhelmingly Greek island-nation from achieving its self-determination, history is clear that Turkish extremists initiated the cycle of violence that claimed victims on both sides.

In June of 1958, a bomb explosion outside the information office of the Turkish Consulate-- later shown to have been planted by Turkish extremists (the "TMT")--set off the first intercommunal clashes on Cyprus. As noted by British author Christopher Hitchens in his highly acclaimed work on Cyprus, Hostage to History, the self-proclaimed president of Cyprus' occupation regime, Rauf Denktash, admitted in a 1984 interview that it was a Turkish Cypriot friend who planted the bomb. As a result, "Turkish Cypriots promptly burned out a neighboring district of Greek shops and homes, in what was to be the first Greek-Turkish physical confrontation on the island. A curfew was imposed, and Greek guerrillas [were] blamed [by British authorities] for the bomb as they were for everything else."

Next the British released from jail eight Greek Cypriot EOKA fighters, forcing them to walk through the Turkish village of Guenyeli, where they were quickly set upon and murdered. Thus began two months of violence by extremists on both sides, killing 56 Greeks and 53 Turks. Tellingly, the British arrested 2,000 Greeks, but only 60 Turks.

In addition to the hostile environment that was created by combatants on both sides, there was a second factor that led to the polarization of both communities: with a view toward partition, the Turks withdrew from predominantly Greek areas and evicted Greeks from areas where Turks were in the majority. In a single week over 600 families, two-thirds of them Greek, left their homes, and many Turks who left Greek areas did so under intense pressure from Turkish separatists.

Turkish Cypriots who favored compromise or a close relationship between the two ethnic communities were targets of TMT violence. Turks caught smoking Greek cigarettes or visiting Greek shops were beaten, and Turkish gangs forced some Turkish Cypriots to resign from Greek Cypriot trade unions. In Limassol, a Turkish Cypriot owner of a restaurant popular with Greeks was threatened and later murdered by the TMT. Two progressive-thinking, London-educated Turkish barristers who spoke against partition were killed outright by these same Turkish gangs.

Turkish extremists forced several thousand Turkish peasants to abandon their farms and animals and move into an overcrowded Turkish enclave in Nicosia. "Thus the aim of partition, camouflaged by Turkish propaganda as 'federation,' was relentlessly pursued regardless of loss of human life and the human misery created. However, this so-called 'first phase' of the invasion of Cyprus by Turkey only partly succeeded, since well over half of its brethren refused to obey instructions to abandon their homes for the predetermined enclaves" (The Making of Modern Cyprus, Panteli). On December 23, 1963, Turkish gangs also moved through the Armenian quarter of Nicosia and forced the inhabitants at gunpoint to leave their houses, shops, church, school and clubs to make room for more Turks.

This forced population transfer continues in occupied Cyprus today. Since 1974, Turkey has relocated over 125,000 mainland Turks to northern Cyprus. In this clearly illegal, Soviet-style effort to alter the demographics of northern Cyprus, one which the UN has condemned, Turkey has displaced not only the few remaining Greek Cypriots but also Turkish Cypriots, who are often treated as second-class citizens and denied the rights and privileges of the alien settlers from Turkey.

As a result, a diminishing number of Cyprus' indigenous Turks remain. Turkey has made it easy for them to obtain visas to emigrate, and they have left en masse, mostly for Britain and Turkey as well as other Mideast countries; some have even escaped through the Green Line and returned to the Greek south.

Apologists for Turkey's invasion disingenuously omit the imperative fact that it is the Greek Cypriot community that bore the overwhelming brunt of violence on Cyprus. As a result of Turkey's 1974 invasion, fittingly codenamed "Operation Attila", Turkish troops perpetrated more than 6,000 killings, widespread rape, torture, the systematic obliteration of cultural property including the destruction of churches, and the ethnic cleansing of 200,000 Greek Cypriots--making them refugees in their own country and bringing twenty-six years of heartbreak for the families of more than 1,500 missing persons.

Placing Turkey's invasion of neighboring Cyprus in a contemporary context, four times as many Greek Cypriots were killed by Turkish troops as Albanians were killed in Kosovo prior to NATO's intervention--and in one-sixth the time frame. Yet Serbia was bombed back to the Stone Age, while Turkey's occupation of Cyprus continues to enjoy tacit US support.

In numerous applications to the European Human Rights Commission, Turkey was found guilty of widespread violations of human rights in Cyprus. Although the European Court of Human Rights has ordered the Turkish government to compensate Greek Cypriot Titina Loizidou for the loss of her property seized during its invasion, Turkey remains the only member of the 40-nation Council of Europe to refuse compliance with a compensation order from its human rights court -- a breach that could lead to Turkey's expulsion from the Council.

The 1963 constitution forced on the Cypriots by the British in a take-it-or-leave-it standoff--with the alternative being partition--was known as "the most rigid, inflexible, and probably the most complicated in the world" (S.A. DeSmith, The New Commonwealth and Its Constituents). The president, a Greek Cypriot, and the vice president, a Turkish Cypriot, could each veto legislation. Despite comprising only 18% of the population, Turkish Cypriots were granted three of the ten seats in the Council of Ministers and thirty percent of the deputy positions in the House of Representatives. A Turkish Cypriot was to be made minister of defense, foreign affairs and finance. Turkish Cypriots were allotted 30% of the civil service jobs and 40% of the command positions in the Army. Any change to the constitution required a two-thirds majority of representatives from both communities. Even the most rudimentary of governmental functions became impracticable--for example the Turkish Cypriot leadership's voting against income and other taxes had placed the government in danger of bankruptcy. In short, the government was hog-tied; Cyprus' very undoing was written into its own constitution.

Other assertions by the Turkish government, that "President Makarios craved union with Greece and the subjugation of Turkish Cypriots . and proposed amendments to the constitution to achieve these objectives" (Insight Magazine, Feb. 7), are patently false. By the time this ill-conceived marriage of a government and its unworkable constitution was imposed on Cyprus, Makarios was opposed to union with Greece. He sought complete independence for Cyprus and a unified sovereign state that protected the rights of all Cypriots, both Greek and Turkish.

It was precisely because Makarios opposed union with Greece that Greek extremists shelled the presidential palace and twice attempted to assassinate him. The amendments he proposed to the constitution were designed to make the government (which has been described by legal experts as "the first in the world to be denied majority rule by its own constitution") somewhat workable and to reflect a closer approximation of the true ratio of Greeks to Turks in Cyprus. Makarios submitted these proposals to the Vice President, a Turkish Cypriot, who did not respond. Instead, the Turkish government, reflecting its dominant role in separatist efforts, answered for him: Turkey rejected the proposals out of hand and forbade the Turkish Cypriots from even discussing them. Shortly thereafter, the Turkish Cypriots abandoned the government completely.

Turkey's 1974 assault on Cyprus is commonly referred to by many in the media as a "landing", a "dispatch of troops" or as anything other than what it was: a brutal invasion. Turkey also misleadingly argues that the invasion was authorized by the Treaty of Guarantee. The Treaty of Guarantee provided that one of the guarantor powers (England, Greece or Turkey) could intervene in an emergency but only in order to restore the country to its original (unified) state, and certainly not to partition, ethnically cleanse or occupy it. And under the U.S.-Turkey Agreement of July 1947, American consent was required for the use of military force by Turkey because virtually all of Turkey's military equipment, weapons, tanks and fighter jets, was supplied by the U.S. This consent was never given. On the very day of the invasion, July 20, 1974, the United Nations Security Council condemned Turkey for its aggression, demanding that Turkey withdraw all troops and allow the displaced Greek Cypriots to return to their confiscated homes.

There have been at least three further UN resolutions since 1974 demanding the same, but Turkey has ignored them all. This is why the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," the TRNC, is not recognized by any country in the world except for Turkey and has no legitimate international standing.

The continuing insistence on partition by Turkey, using the protection of the Turkish-Cypriot community as a pretext, is merely part of Turkey's long-held expansionist plans for the island. According to Professor John L. Scherer, in Blocking the Sun: The Cyprus Conflict, "Since the 1950s, [Turkey's] plan had been to turn northern Cyprus into a Turkish-run province. Ankara needed an excuse to intervene, and that was provided by George Grivas and EOKA fighters. If there had been no EOKA, however, the Turks and Turkish Cypriots would have found another pretext. They would have planted their own bombs in Turkish-Cypriot areas and blamed the Greek Cypriots in order to justify the Turkish invasion."

Attempts are also made to minimize the 80% Greek majority's cultural and historical claim to the island through assertions like: "Turkish and Greek Cypriots occupied the island for centuries under a succession of sovereigns before the Republic of Cyprus was established in 1960" (Insight Magazine, Feb. 7).

Because of its geo-strategic position in the Mediterranean and the bounty of its natural resources, Cyprus has been invaded and intermittently ruled over by many: Phoenicians, Assyrians, Persians, Romans, English, Lusignans, Genoese, Marmelukes, Venetians, Ottomans, and again the English. The Ottomans invaded in 1571 and controlled Cyprus for three hundred years (its longest period of cultural stagnation), but through all of its decidedly civilized history it has remained a Greek nation in language, architecture, art, music, culture and spirit.

As noted by Christopher Hitchens in Hostage to History, "the complexity and variety of Cypriot history cannot efface, any more than could its numerous owners and rulers, one striking fact. The island has been, since the Bronze Age, unmistakably Greek." Out of 7,000 years of history, the Turks have been in Cyprus a mere 300 years. Based on this and an 18% minority, Turkey's military establishment, with a seemingly truncated memory, believes that Cyprus should be part of Turkey.

Most troubling for the future of Cyprus is the apartheid-like creed, parroted by some journalists covering the issue, that Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots will never be able to live in harmony (although they did so for three hundred years), therefore let's maintain the Attila Line that has been imposed on both communities by the Turkish military and forget about finding a solution. It is no accident that this is identical to the argument used by Turkish extremists in the 1950s to promote the idea of partition-one separate state for Turkish Cypriots, another for Greeks.

It is this very separatist objective-engineered by Turkey's ruling military establishment to achieve its goal of taksim, or the partition of Cyprus (and further exacerbated by Britain, America and the Greek junta's disastrous intrigues in Cyprus)-that initiated the cycle of violence by extremists of both communities in 1963 after centuries of peaceful coexistence.

While Turkey has refused to allow Greek Cypriot refugees to return to their homes in the occupied north, the Cypriot Government has kept Turkish-Cypriot homes in trust for them in the hope that they will one day return when Cyprus is united.

Situated in the UN-controlled buffer-zone, Pyla serves as an example of what can be achieved when the divisive effect of Turkey's occupation regime is removed. It is one of the few villages on the island where Greek and Turkish Cypriots still live together peacefully as they had done for centuries.

A recent mobilization by Turkish Cypriots to find a blood donor for a 6-year-old Greek Cypriot boy with leukemia further underscores the speciousness of the myth, propagated for the very purpose of keeping Cyprus divided, that both communities are somehow inherently incapable of living together.

Another disinformation bite promoted by the Turkish government and its spindoctors here is that the Turkish-occupied part of the island functions as a democracy.

As confirmed by the State Department's most recent Human Rights Report and by independent human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, Turkey is among the worst human rights violators on earth, where torture and extra-judicial killings remain a part of its political landscape. For the fifth consecutive year the Turkish state has led the world in imprisoned journalists ahead of China and Syria, and has recently admitted to using death squads to kill as many as 14,000 people since the 1980's.

As the TRNC is in reality a puppet administration that answers directly to the Turkish state, the same authoritarian repression that afflicts Turkey also pervades occupied Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots critical of Denktash's occupation regime have asked that their identities be kept confidential, as one economics professor did, for example, when interviewed by the BBC "the fact that she didn't want to be identified was significant", BBC News.

The assassination of prominent Turkish Cypriot journalist Kutlu Adali in 1996 is instructive--his assassination is widely attributed to extremists working on behalf of the Turkish state. According to Professor Claire Palley, a British constitutional law expert, Adali was murdered six days after the European Human Rights Commission declared Cyprus' application against Turkey admissible and "after it became obvious he would have been a witness" in the case. Adali's writings had been extensively quoted in the application, and Palley stated that Adali "proved Turkey's colonisation of Cyprus . . . [and its] compelling Turkish Cypriots to emigrate"

Anyone who wants to believe that the TRNC is a democracy will soon be disappointed upon visiting occupied Cyprus, and taking note of the square-helmeted, goose-stepping soldiers wielding machine guns on every corner. Cross the Green Line in Nicosia into the Turkish sector and try to photograph any building or videotape any street scene and you will soon find yourself camera-less, in jail, or both.

That apologists of the occupation regime are under the misperception that this is how a democracy should function is indeed part of the problem. And, much like the situation with the former Berlin Wall, now there are Turkish Cypriots from the north escaping to the south to return to their old neighborhoods among the Greeks; their homes, as guaranteed by Cypriot law, still waiting for them.

As was recently reported by Gregory Copley of The International Strategic Studies Association in Washington DC, "[t]he Turkish Cypriots' standard of living has declined compared with that of their Greek Cypriot neighbors since 1974. Turkish Cypriots, with 37 percent of the land and the best agricultural and tourist areas of the island, earn only 30 percent of the average wage of the Greek Cypriots."

European Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek protested that the Turkish Cypriot community was being "victimized" and withheld from "a better and more prosperous future" as a result of Turkey's insistence on an occupied and divided Cyprus.

An increasing number of Turkish Cypriots have realized that the future of a prosperous Cyprus is a united one without Turkish troops. Rejecting the hard-line partitionist stand of the occupation regime, in October 1999 an influential bloc of 23 Turkish-Cypriot trade unions and professional organizations appealed directly to visiting U.S. envoy Alfred Moses to work for the reunification of war-divided Cyprus on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions that call for a unified Cyprus and a withdrawal of occupation troops.

The TRNC's occupation regime has trapped Turkish Cypriots in a political and economic black hole, all the while importing Turks from the depths of Anatolia to wrest control from Cyprus' native Turkish population. As a result, as many as half of all Turkish-Cypriots have fled their own homeland in search of greater economic and political freedom elsewhere.

In conclusion, it should be emphasized that there were extremists on both sides of the Cyprus conflict, while power-brokering by colonial-minded Britain and interventionist violence by junta-era Greece clearly added fuel to the Cypriot powder keg. But insiders know that it was Turkish designs for partition that ultimately caused the breakdown in government and the terrible tragedy of 1974, the repercussions of which all indigenous Cypriots, both Greek and Turk, are still suffering today.

Cyprus is Berlin all over again, with one difference. Rather than taking the side of civilian-controlled governments, pluralistic societies, and democratic values, our own government has instead decided to ratify invasion, occupation, and transnational aggression in order to sustain an alliance of increasingly questionable value.

A shorter version of this article was published in the form of a letter to the editor of Insight Magazine.

http://www.ahmp.org/

[Bulgarian]

Turkish army murder protester in Cyprus for no reason.

[Bulgarian]

The other people with metal poles are xxxkurt racist fanatic Turks moved to Cyprus by Turkey (the moving of setlers is considered a war crime by the UN)