Haunting memories

Did any Greek Cypriot official or civilian (forget Turkish Cypriots) face court for the crimes committed against humanity? If, for example, anyone from 40-day-old newborns to 93-year-old grandpas were massacred indiscriminately and the population of three villages with the exception of a shepherd were killed or buried alive, can such a crime escape justice for almost fifty years?

Did you hear the names of the Maratha (Murata?a), Santalaris (Sandallar) and Aloda (Atl?lar) villages or ever hear of what happened to the 126 people living in those three settlements just few kilometers away from Famagusta and very close to the famous Saint Barnabas Monastery? After the first Turkish intervention on July 20, the EOKA-B terrorist gang gathered all the men of the village and sent them to prison in Limassol. Thus, the women, kids and elderly Turkish Cypriot population of the villages were totally defenseless.

According to Turkish Cypriot journalist Sevgül Uluda? who examined what indeed happened there and collected many testimonies, Greek Cypriot EOKA-B gang members indiscriminately raped women, young girls and even boys from July 20 until Aug. 14 and when news of the second Turkish intervention came, they decided to not leave behind any witnesses. Thus on 14 August 1974, just hours after the start of the second Turkish intervention in 1974, Greek Cypriot villagers from nearby villages - particularly from the Peristeronopigi (Alaniçi) village attacked their Turkish neighbors in those three Turkish villages. They gathered 89 people from Maratha and Santalaris in a field and 37 people of Aloda in another field - that is, the entire Turkish population present at the time -- and brutally tortured and buried some of them still alive in two mass graves. Forensic...