[MGSA-L] Invasion anniversary: a day of grim remembrance

[June Samaras]

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Cyprus Invasion anniversary: a day of grim remembrance

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/turkish-invasion/invasion-anniversary-day-grim-remembrance/20120721

By Jacqueline Agathocleous Published on July 21, 2012

The Republic of Cyprus yesterday remembered those who fell during the
1974 Turkish invasion, as air raid sirens sounded across the island at
5.30 in the morning to mark its 38th anniversary.

The official memorial service was held at Panagia Faneromeni Church in
Nicosia, under Archbishop Chrysostomos.

President Demetris Christofias, the Greek and Cypriot House speakers,
ministers, military chiefs, the police leadership and party leaders
were among those who attended.

Speaking during the service, former Education Minister Ouranios
Ioannides said 38 years after the betrayal of the coup and barbaric
invasion, Greek Cypriots continued to refuse to accept the
consequences of the invasion, fighting for it to be reversed.

“This day of historic remembrance and mourning must be used to serve
unity and not become an opportunity to regurgitate divisive passions
of the past, which led us to the invasion and occupation,” said
Ioannides.

He said Greek Cypriots should unite and fight as one for a better
tomorrow and a free country.

“Today is a day of recollection and reflection,” said Ioannides,
calling on the international community to exercise pressure on Ankara
to change its stance, which he said was leading negotiations for a
solution to a dead end.

“We don’t have delusions and we won’t stand for fake dilemmas,” he
added. “We are ready for a solution but prepared to wait. And we will
wait until we find a solution that combines a correct foreign policy,
defensive shield and current circumstances.”

After the speech, wreaths were placed for those who fell during the invasion.

A memorial service was also held in Athens yesterday, in memory of the
Greek soldiers who were killed in the invasion.

In a speech on Thursday night, President Christofias said people who
didn’t take into account history, were condemned to making the same
mistakes and as a country, we don’t have any more margins.

He said standing up for the historical truth was a precondition to
achieve vindication for the people.

“Vindication can only happen with the end of the Turkish occupation
and settling, and the reunification of the state and its people,” said
Christofias. He referred to the Cyprus problem, the stance of Turkey
and Ankara’s effort to impose partition.

“If there is partition in Cyprus, this will be a victory of our
country’s enemies,” said Christofias.

Main opposition DISY leader and presidential candidate Nicos
Anastasiades was in Ireland discussing the economy yesterday, when he
commented on the anniversary.

“I am saddened by the fact that on the ill-fated day of the invasion,
I am far from our country,” said Anastasiades.

He said collective action was demanded to deal with the “Turkish
intransigence” and find a solution that represents the concerns, but
also the expectations, of the Greek Cypriots.

EDEK leader and House Speaker Yiannakis Omirou called on the Turkish
Cypriot to return the ghost town of Famagusta to its legal residents,
which would consist “a first significant step in creating a positive
climate to feed efforts to achieve a final solution”.

Just across the Green Line, just metres away, there was a different
sense of feeling in the air. Turkish Cypriots’ take on the July 20
anniversary is on the opposite side of the spectrum.

Referring to the day as the “Peace Operation”, hundreds of Turkish
Cypriots gathered to celebrate and hear the addresses of many a public
figure.

Even members of the foreign press were invited to attend “the celebrations”.

Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu said that while Cypriots
continued to dream of returning to a pre-1974 period, there would
never be settlement to the Cyprus problem.

He said Greek Cypriots should “use common sense” and work towards
finding a solution.

He added that his community was running out of patience and that steps
to take their place in the world would be “taken as needed”.

Referring to the 20th of July as a “milestone” for the Turkish Cypriot
people, Eroglu said that if there was no “peace operation”, they would
not have their state today.

Referring to the pre-1974 era as “dark days”, Eroglu called on the
United Nations to inform the Turkish Cypriot people on the real
reasons why negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem had been
interrupted.

“With revelation of the reality, peace can be constructed on the
island,” he said, before criticising the EU for “not keeping its
promises and punishing the Turkish Cypriots” and relaying the north’s
“outrage” at this.



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June Samaras
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