Ankara, Turkey. Turkey’s defence ministry released a video on Friday condemning what it described as the “bloody legacy” of the Greek Cypriot paramilitary group Eoka, following the 52nd anniversary of the Greek military junta-backed coup in Cyprus and ahead of the anniversary of the Turkish invasion.
The ministry said it would continue to remind the world of what it called inhumane massacres committed by Eoka against Turkish Cypriots and that it would not allow the events or those it said supported them to be forgotten.
Video content
The video opens with the names of locations where Turkish Cypriots were killed, including Kofinou, Ayios Theodoros, Limassol, Paphos and Larnaca, shown in red alongside imagery. It then states that Turkish villages were attacked.
It features Ismail Bozkurt, who was born in Ayios Theodoros and said he witnessed violence there and in Kofinou. Bozkurt joined the Turkish Cypriot paramilitary group TMT and later served as the north’s culture minister in Dervish Eroglu’s first administration between 1985 and 1986.
Bozkurt described the period as one in which civilians were frequently massacred and referred to people who disappeared after being taken away.
Former Eoka fighter
The video also includes footage from a 2022 television interview with Eoka fighter Neoptolemos Leftis, an associate of George Grivas.
Leftis was accused and acquitted of the 1974 murder of United States ambassador to Cyprus Rodger Davies. In the interview, he said an order had been given to kill 10 Turkish Cypriots for every Greek Cypriot killed, adding that this was why he was later questioned about 68 Turks who had been killed.
TMT testimony
TMT fighter Metin Aybars said Turkish Cypriots were killed daily, including on roads and in fields, and that villages were attacked over a prolonged period.
In its accompanying post, the ministry said the second part of the video included what it described as an admission by a Greek Cypriot fighter concerning massacres of Turkish Cypriots.