Honor and glory to the children of the Cypriot people who resisted the invading Turkish army of Attila

 

 

AKEL declaration on the 49th anniversary of the Turkish invasion

20 July 2023, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

This year marks almost half a century of the ongoing crime of Turkey’s invasion and occupation against our homeland and people. The Turkish invasion of 20 July 1974 was the pre-agreed continuation of the fascist coup of 15 July, which had already been executed by the Greek Junta and EOKA B. The Turkish army of Attila, with the backing of NATO, invaded our island and spread death and destruction, committing atrocities and war crimes, rape, imprisonment and cultural destruction. It led to the bloodshed of our people with the Turkish army occupying 37% of Cypriot territory and uprooting tens of thousands of Cypriots from their homes as refuges in order to complete the enforced separation of the two communities that began in 1963.

None of the excuses put forward by Turkey’s propaganda and its apologists across the world for the invasion are valid. Neither the first, nor the second phase of the 1974 Turkish invasion have any basis in international law or in the Treaty of Guarantee which did not give the guarantor powers the right to intervene militarily as this is directly contrary to the Charter of the United Nations.

The Turkish Attila army did not restore the constitutional order, since that was never its objective. Besides, the constitutional order that was overthrown by the coup d’état had been restored initially, with the removal of the puppet traitor Sampson and definitively, with the return of Makarios to Cyprus and the Presidency in December 1974, but Turkey has remained for almost 50 years an occupying power on our island. Nor has Turkey’s pretext of supposedly “protecting the Turkish Cypriots” ever been fulfilled, given that since the colonisation [of the occupied areas], the militarisation and economic and political control exercised by Turkey in the occupied part of the island is leading to the disappearance of the Turkish Cypriots as a community.

On the occasion of the 49th anniversary of the invasion and in the face of the new fait accompli being imposed by the occupying power Turkey on the ground, as well as the Erdogan-Tatar demand for the partition of Cyprus, AKEL addresses a message of unity and struggle ro the people in the anti-occupation struggle being waged.

AKEL will not tire of warning that both the status quo and any partition – confederation solutions will condemn our people to a new cycle of lethal dangers and permanent tension.

The only guarantee for a future of peace and security for all Cypriots can only be a solution to the Cyprus problem that ends the occupation, foreign intervention and guarantor rights and reunites our homeland and people with the solution of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality. This is precisely why we insist on the need for a resumption of the negotiations from where they were interrupted in 2017 at Crans Montana, on the basis of the Guterres Framework and the entire negotiating acquis (body of work agreed so far at the negotiation procedure).

With the promise that we shall struggle for reunification and freedom, AKEL pays eternal tribute to all the children of the Cypriot people who bravely resisted the hordes of the invading Turkish army in that unequal and betrayed battle. We honor the Greek soldiers who, unlike the traitorous Greek junta officers, fought to defend Cyprus.

At the same time, AKEL assures that we will continue to stand together and beside the victims of 1974, the relatives of the missing persons, the disabled of the war, the women victims who were raped, the refugees and the enclaved people in the occupied areas.