Its noon August 14, 1974 in Assiaone of the capital villages of the province Famagusta. In the narrow streets, hundreds of residents are trapped in their cars. Panicked, they try to flee to the south. The Turkish tanks have surrounded the settlement, as the second “Attila” is in progress. A few hours later the intruders would begin their murderous task. Initially they gather in the central square about 800 Greek Cypriots. Then they proceed to mass executions, torture, rape, looting. Later, in order to eliminate the traces of the crime, they throw 70 corpses into two wells of an adjacent village. Her history Cyprus it is, in a way, written in the wells and Assia holds the sad record for the absolute number of dead and missing in 1974, more than any other place in Cyprus: 118 people, aged from 11 to 89 years. Today, with the wound still unhealed, 23 Asians are still missing.
Eyewitness of 11 years
That day the Yannos Dimitriou and his parents did not have time to leave Asia. Every time he remembers the events, he is overwhelmed by feelings of anger and pain: “We were 26 people hiding in an old house with our souls in our mouths, in case they find us. The moment my mother, trying to hide the sound of my little cousin’s cry – a baby at the time – in a panic held her by the mouth until she passed out. We were all sure that he had drowned her.” Mr. Dimitriou will not forget the agony in the eyes of the men who were being arrested and taken in an unknown direction. “A few days later the village was overwhelmed by the smell of death as at least 20 dead remained unburied for over a week. He hasn’t said to be uprooted from our nostrils since then.”
At 61 today, Yannos Dimitriou has dedicated himself to finding and identifying his disappeared fellow villagers, as well as highlighting the war crimes which the Turks did. 36 years have passed since the events of Assia and until it is proven what exactly happened to the 70 disappeared on August 21. Initially, in 2010, two were identified mass graves in Ornithi villagefour kilometers west of the town. They had been executed in groups. “The exhumation carried out by Missing Persons Investigation Committee (MISC) uncovered a second, equally tough crime, that of organized bone trafficking,” says Mr. Dimitriou, as except for four complete skeletons, for all the rest only pieces or fragments of bones were found. “The organized movements of bones have been proven to have been part of a policy implemented on a large scale and aimed at concealing the evidence of war crimes committed by the Turkish army in Cyprus in 1974,” he adds.
Forgery
In November 2017, the Turkish Cypriot representative to the IEA officially admitted that there was organized bone movementa fact that was confirmed by six witnesses who participated in the macabre process. “Exhumation and movement took place in the mid-1990s and the final disposal destination of the bones was the eastern fringes of the former kennel at occupied village of Dikomos“, points out Mr. Dimitriou, even considering that many of the remaining unexplained cases of missing persons are, almost certainly, part of such organized movements.
Indeed, the authorities of the pseudo-state in collaboration with the Turkey after 2017, they fix successive obstacles in the work of the DEA. The basic argument is more or less the same: no approach to military zones. Now, however, a large percentage of the illegally acquired lands of Cyprus have been declared as such. “The requirement is to give an absolutely precise location of the excavation, so the process becomes cumbersome and time-consuming. At the same time, the Turkish Cypriot representative in the DEA has as his first concern to protect the prestige of the Turkish army. These and many more expose Turkey for its actions in the invasion of 1974”, Mr. Dimitriou.
But why did Assia pay such a heavy blood tax? “The main objective of the Turkish army was to expel all the inhabitants from the villages it had occupied. The ethnic cleansing is not completed without the hellish conditions imposed on Assia and the rest of the neighboring villages by the Turkish army”. He also expresses a complaint on behalf of his fellow citizens Republic of Cyprusas until recently the relatives of those identified received certificates with the cause of death listed as “unknown”. “This, even in cases where there was an obvious hole in the skull. Disrespect for the dead intensified the grief and enraged. It changed in 2021 mainly due to the active promotion of the issue and the mass mobilizations of the relatives of the missing Asians.”
The last wedding
On July 14, 1974, a few hours before the coup by Ioannidis against Makariosin Asia they were celebrating her wedding Lettuce cup. She herself was happy, but also stressed. Her father had just built a new house for the newlyweds. “I felt that I would not enjoy this house,” he says to “K”. The first invasion found her husband, brother and cousins soldiers in the National Guard. Exactly one month later it was time for her to leave the place of her birth.
First the aerial bombardment began. “Everyone was crying and shaking with fear. As soon as the planes stopped we ran out of our house. Someone from Obscurity (s.s.: the neighboring village), who is currently missing, informed that the tanks were heading towards Assia. We shouted at relatives and neighbors to leave. We got into the car and my father, who was in shock, instead of driving forward, went in reverse. People were screaming, cars were crashing into each other. We quickly realized that my two brothers were not with us.”
After passing through the English bases they reached the village Woodblock print where they were accommodated for some time. “After a few days we found my little brother who managed to leave the village with another family, while my older brother remained stranded in Assia until the end of August,” he recounts. For dozens of families, the traumatic process of finding relatives and friends is just beginning. “We were hoping that everyone would be somewhere and we would find them. Unfortunately, however, we are still waiting without hearing from them.”
What remains deeply etched in her memory today? Pain, anticipation, nostalgia. “I remember the beautiful and carefree teenage years we spent in Assia. We keep in touch with our fellow villagers and hope that our place will be freed, as well as all the occupied. I want to go back there again. The war days were the worst of my life. We left with the clothes we were wearing. Our lives and souls have been left behind.” Maybe finding the rest of the missing people would work as a pain reliever. “We sincerely hope that their bones will be found so that we can give them a proper burial, like heroes,” Maroulla tells us.
Cold executions
THE Harry and the Stavroula Fragkopoulou-David they are brothers Their father is missing – he was in his 70s. The children were then 14 and 7 years old respectively. “From the moment my father, who was holding my hand, was arrested by the Turkish troops in the village square and until today, I am possessed by frustration and anger at the sacrifice of our own people. We lost our homes, dozens of innocent lives were lost, the lives of our mothers and ours, all for nothing,” Stavroula tells us. Fifty years later, he has no hope. “What has been achieved in the issue of the missing is through the pressure exerted by the relatives and the “once upon a time” children of the missing. We have no choice but to be an annoying presence and push for everyone’s fate to be ascertained.”
Annoyingly present
“What has been achieved in the issue of the missing is through the pressure exerted by the relatives and the “once upon a time” children of the missing. We have no other choice but to be annoyingly present and push for the verification of everyone’s fate”, says Stavroula Fragkopoulou-David, whose father is still missing.
Haris became an eyewitness of the execution of a neighbor of his Kostis Siskos. “They arrested him and his wife in front of our eyes, but they took them in the opposite direction. After the wife moved away, Kostis Siskos was taken about thirty meters above the house in question, stood in front of a wall and was executed in cold blood.”
Her father Maria Leontiou-Georgiou he also disappeared on August 21. She herself was 5 years old at the time, but she remembers the violent behavior of the Turks from the first moment they set foot in Assia: “In the square, they separated the men from the women and children and after tying their hands, crammed them into trucks and took them to an unknown direction. That was the most shocking moment of the war for me, to be separated from my father forever.” He has already learned to live with the loss. “We are fighting with all our strength to find all the missing, to bury them as they deserve and for us, finally, our souls to be redeemed.”
The exhibition
The Foundation of the Hellenic Parliament for Parliamentaryism and Democracy and the Cypriot House of Representatives co-organize the exhibition “Cyprus, 1974. Memory is the only homeland of the people” at the former public Tobacco Factory, Lenorman 218 – open Monday – Saturday.
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Central photo. : “We left with the clothes we were wearing. Our lives and souls have been left behind,” says Maroulla Kouppa, who got married in Assia a month before the Turkish invasion. Joy was followed by prolonged mourning. Today, only finding the last missing people could act as a pain reliever. “We sincerely hope that their bones are found so that we can give them a proper funeral, as heroes.”
