This story produced in collaboration with SBS Greek and SBS Turkish
TRANSCRIPT
July 20th, 1974.
A relatively quiet morning in Cyprus suddenly turns to chaos as people are woken by the sounds of military aircraft, shotguns and tanks.
They carry the Turkish banner, with the neighbouring country invading Cyprus in an attempt to annex the small nation, following decades of tensions between Greece and Turkiye.
Chris Koulinos, president of the Pan-Australian Justice for Cyprus Committee, or PASEKA, was on the island at the time of the invasion.
He recalls those moments.
“I was in the army. Actually, on the 20th of July, were supposed to finish my two years in the army and go for studies. And the war happened. Well, first of all, the coup happened, and then the war happened.”
By 'coup' Mr Koulinos refers to the attempt of the Hellenic Armed Forces to free the island from the military dictatorship installed as a caretaker government in Greece and Cyprus in 1963, following the World War II occupation of the two countries by Nazi Germany.
The coup was planned and executed by Greece as a way to oust the imposed leadership and reconnect Cyprus with the rest of Greece.
Turkiye saw the confusion and invaded the island, in a violation of international law, attempting to make it part of its own lands.
Michael Kyriakou, the President of the Cyprus Community of New South Wales, provides further insight.
“The junta, which is the military government in Greece, who tried to overthrow the Republic of Cyprus government. It failed. But it prompted the pretext for the neighbour to send their troops and take 39-or-something per cent of the island.”
The attack caused pain and suffering on both sides.
People were torn from their homes, while thousands more were killed or suffered injuries which they carried for the rest of their lives.
Yalcin Oytam is a Turkish Cypriot who works as a data scientist in Sydney.
He says the true reasons behind the invasion of Cyprus lie in the history books.
“In order to understand what happened to Cyprus, you really need to go back and understand the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the events that took place... The polarisations, the formation of modern Turkey (Turkiye) and modern Greece on ethnic identities. The brutal division. The expulsion of the Greek-Anatolian side of Turkey (Turkiye) and that brutal process.”
Reports say between 4,500 and 6,000 Greek Cypriots died during the invasion, while the Turkish side suffered between 1,500 to 3,800 casualties.
Evripides Mouxouris is a 103 year-old man who was born in the town of Morphou [[mor-foo]] in northern Cyprus.
Mr Mouxouris, who migrated to Australia due to the invasion, remembers the ordeal he went through on that day.
“That night I suffered a lot because the hospital in Nicosia was packed with injured people, there was blood everywhere… And it just so happened that my wife couldn’t go into labour regularly, she needed a Caesarean to give birth. But there was no anaesthetist to help her give birth.”
He goes on to say that he went into a war zone to find a doctor in order to save his wife and unborn child.
“They said to me ‘Evripides, we don’t know what to do. We don’t have an anaesthetist for your wife to have the baby!’ I said to them ‘I’ll go get one from another hospital.’ I grabbed another person and put them in the car. It was dark. We weren’t allowed to turn on the lights. I was going very slowly, and I was getting stopped and they were asking me where I was going. I was telling them ‘Either I find an anaesthetist, or my wife and baby die tonight.’”
After a gruesome war, the fighting ended almost a month later ((18 August 1974)), leaving Cyprus split in two.
The Turkish forces occupied a large part on the north of the island, which remains divided today.
The self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of northern Cyprus declared independence in 1983.
It has not been officially recognised by any nation, including Australia, with the exception of Turkiye.
The leader of the self-proclaimed republic, Ersin Tatar, says discussions to find a solution can continue once his nation's sovereignty has been reaffirmed.
“I want my sovereignty to be reaffirmed. Not recognised. It's already there. You will reaffirm or re-acknowledge my sovereignty so that I will have the opportunity to sit to discuss with you once again the Cyprus problem, with all its aspects. So that we can find a just and sustainable solution to the Cyprus problem.”
Mr Tatar recently made a visit to Australia but did not meet any member of the federal, state or territory governments.
Although this invasion might appear to be a result of opposing religious and ethnic beliefs, testimonies show that might not necessarily be the case.
Mr Mouxouris says he was involved with many Turks in his years growing up in Cyprus.
“With the Turks for example, before these events, we were very friendly with each other. For example, me, in Morphou, I was involved with five or six (Turkish) families. We grew up together, I had a tailor who was there with us as well, he grew up with us and he became part of the industry and the AKEL*.”
Data scientist Yalcin Oytam lived in the same small town that Mr Mouxouris had been born in.
He says the two peoples lived harmoniously beside each other until political interests got in the way.
“I grew up in a house that belonged to Greek Cypriots. I went to schools that belonged to Greek Cypriots. So that entire process politicises you. You either are not aware of it, but once you are aware of it, you cannot but be politicised and infected.”
But the wounds from that day are still fresh.
People have been calling for a solution that will bring the island back together and resolve this long-standing issue.
Years of negotiations have reached a dead end.
Speaking from the United Kingdom, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called for international bodies to intervene and reunify Cyprus.
“July 20th will mark the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus which has resulted in the occupation of a third of the island. It is the last divided European territory and I would hope that this issue would be finally resolved and the discussions between the two communities resume under the auspices of the United Nations, always in line with the Security Council resolutions that define the possible solution to this long-standing problem.”
But, for now, it seems as though people from all across the island-nation will continue to mourn for their losses as the issue remains at a standstill.
*AKEL = Cypriot Progressive Party of Working People
