By Mehmet Kemal Firik
LEFKOSA, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (AA) - With the arrival of the Turkish soldiers in Cyprus in 1974, the Turkish Cypriots were able to see their future, a professor said.
On July 20, 1974, Türkiye intervened militarily to stop the violence, embargo and killing of Turks living in the northern part of Cyprus.
Evaluating the situation on the island before Turkish intervention, Professor Ata Atun, a faculty member at the Rauf Denktas University in Northern Cyprus, compared the past suffering of Turkish Cypriots to current events in Gaza.
The Turkish Cypriots lived under constant threat before the 1974 operation, with even baby food embargoed, he told Anadolu.
Atun argued that without the intervention, the Turkish population on the island would have faced complete annihilation.
Underlining the systematic violence from 1963 to 1974, Atun said he identified six mass graves, some in Greek-administered areas.
"The mass killings caused a trauma to the Turkish Cypriots that would last for years. With the arrival of the Turkish soldiers in Cyprus, we held on to life and were able to see our future," he added.
Hakki Muftuzade, a Turkish member of the Cyprus Committee on Missing Persons, highlighted ongoing efforts to identify remains in mass graves.
He said that nearly 20 Turkish mass graves have been located so far. Pointing out that 99.7% of the missing Turks in Cyprus are civilians, Muftuzade reported that they sometimes reach the remains of more people in mass graves than the number determined.
Ahmet Asir, the president of the Murataga Atlilar Sandallar Martyrs Memorial Association, said that in the massacre that started immediately after the Cyprus Peace Operation on July 20, 1974, Greeks killed 40 of his relatives – including his mother, brothers, sisters, grandmother and aunts – and buried them.
“The UN soldiers did nothing. The Swedish soldiers who were serving here at that time did not respond to the request and the Greeks massacred our people who stayed in the villages here. As a result of what happened here, Türkiye had to carry out the second phase of the Cyprus Peace Operation," he said.
He expressed gratitude to Türkiye and its soldiers for restoring peace in Northern Cyprus and preventing further atrocities.
- Escalation of events on island
Violence in Cyprus intensified following the attacks on Turkish Cypriots in 1958 by EOKA.
EOKA was established in 1955 to pursue Enosis, the unification of Cyprus island with Greece and turning it into a completely Hellenic island.
In 1963, the Akritas Plan was devised by President and Archbishop Makarios III with the backing of the Greek military. The plan aimed to expel Turks from the island and dissolve the bicommunal structure of Cyprus.
The "Bloody Christmas" events of 1963 marked a severe escalation in violence against Turkish Cypriots. Dozens were killed in areas such as Kumsal, Ayvasil, and Kucuk Kaymakli and their bodies were buried in mass graves.
In 1964, Greek forces escalated their campaign to create a Hellenic Cyprus by targeting Limassol, Famagusta, Agrotur, and Dikelya. These attacks continued until 1974, resulting in numerous massacres and the interment of victims in mass graves across the island.
At the beginning of the Cyprus Peace Operation on July 20, 1974, massacres were carried out by soldiers and policemen affiliated with EOKA and the "Republic of Cyprus" in Alaminyo, Limassol, Murataga-Sandallar, Atlilar, Taskent, and Taspinar.
- Mass killings, graves
According to the Martyrs' Families and Disabled Veterans Association, 200 of the 1,038 civilians killed between 1958 and 1974 were children aged 0-10.
Additionally, 124 women were killed during this period. The violence displaced 25,000 to 30,000 Turkish Cypriots, particularly after escalated violence in early 1974, which included arson, kidnappings, rapes, and hostage-taking.
By July 20, 1974, Turkish Cypriots were confined to small enclaves, comprising 3% of the island, where the Turkish Resistance Organization (TMT) struggled to maintain security.
The fate of many Turkish Cypriots remains unresolved. Nearly 200 Turkish Cypriot civilians vanished during the massacres. The Cyprus Committee on Missing Persons reports that of 492 missing Turkish Cypriots, 295 have been identified and the remains of some of them were returned to their families.
The search for the remains of the remaining 197 Turks continues.
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded in 1983.
The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
*Writing by Yasin Gungor in Istanbul