

And the 'Turkish Karabag' is next. As for 'Cyprus', In 1974, Turkiye 
stepped into Cyprus to preserve the lives of the Turkish population 
there. This is nothing but a simple historical fact. Unfortunately, 
the intervention was too late at least for some of the victims. Mass 
graves containing numerous bodies of women and children already showed 
what fate had been planned for a peaceful minority.

The problems in Cyprus have their origin in decades of 
oppression of the Turkish population by the Greek Cypriot 
officials and their violation of the co-founder status of 
the Turks set out in the constitution. The coup d'etat 
engineered by Greece in 1974 to execute a final solution 
to the Turkish problem was the savage blow that invoked 
Turkiye's intervention. Turkiye intervened reluctantly and 
only as a last resort after exhausting all other avenues 
consulting with Britain and Greece as the other two signatories 
to the treaty to protect the integrity of Cyprus. There simply 
was not any expansionist motivation in the Turkish action at 
all. This is in dramatic contrast to the Greek motivation which 
was openly expansionist, stated as 'Enosis,' union with Greece. 
Since the creation of independent Cyprus in 1960, the Turkish 
population, although smaller, legally had status as the co-founder
of the republic with the Greek population.

The Greek Cypriots, with the support of 'Enosis'-minded
Greeks in the mainland, have consistently ignored that
status and portrayed the Island as a Greek island with
a minority population of Turks. The Turks of Cyprus are
not a minority in a Greek Republic and they found the
only way they could show that was to assert their 
autonomy in a separate republic.

Turkiye is not satisfied with the status quo. She would
rather not be involved with the island. But, given the
dismal record of brutal Greek oppression of the Turkish
population in Cyprus, she simply cannot leave the fate
of the island's Turks in the hands of the Greeks until
the Turkish side is satisfied with whatever accord
the two communities finally reach to guarantee that
history will not repeat itself to rob Turkish Cypriots
of their rights, liberties and their very lives.


  Source: 'Cyprus: The Tale Of An Island,' A. H. Rizvi, p. 42

  21-12-1963 Throughout Cyprus
  "Following the Greek Cypriot premeditated onslaught of 21 December,
   1963, the Turkish Sectors all over Cyprus were completely besieged
   by Greeks; all telephonic, telegraphic and postal communications
   between these sectors were cut off and the Turkish Cypriot
   Community's contact with each other and with the outside world
   was thus prevented."

  21-12-63 -- 31-12-63 Turkish Quarter of Nicosia and suburbs
  "Greek Cypriot armed elements broke into hundreds of Turkish
   homes and fired at the unarmed occupants with automatic
   weapons killing at random many Turks, including women, children
   and elderly persons (51 Turks were killed and 82 wounded). They
   also carried away as hostages more than 700 Turks, including
   women and children, whom they forced to walk bare-footed and
   in night-dresses across rough fields and river beds."

   21-12-63 -- 12-12-64 Throughout Cyprus
   "The Greek Cypriot Administration deprived Turkish Cypriots 
   including Ministers, MPs, and Turkish members of the Public
   services of the republic, of their right to freedom of movement."

   In his report No. S/6102 of 12 December, 1964 to the Security
   Council, the UN Secretary-General stated in this respect the
   following:

  "Restrictions on the free movement of civilians have been one of
   the major features of the situation in Cyprus since the early
   stages of the disturbances, these restrictions have inflicted
   considerable hardship on the population, especially the Turkish
   Cypriot Community, and have kept tension high."

   25-9-1964 -- 31-3-1968 Throughout Cyprus
  
      "Supply of petrol was completely denied to the Turkish sections."

   Makarios Addresses UN Security Council On 19 July 1974
   After being Ousted by the Greek Junta Coup

   "In the beginning I wish to express my sincere thanks to all the
   members of the Security Council for the great interest they have
   shown in the critical situation which has been created in Cyprus
   after the coup organized by the military regime in Greece and
   carried out by the Greek army officers who were serving in the
   National Guard and were commanding it.

   [..]

   13-3-1975 On the road travelling to the South to the freedom of
             the North

   "A Turkish woman was seriously wounded and her four-month old
   baby was riddled with bullets from an automatic weapon fired by
   a Greek Cypriot mobile patrol which had ambushed the car in which
   the mother and her baby were travelling to the Turkish region.
   The baby died in her mother's arms.

   This wanton murder of a four-month-old baby, which shocked foreign
   observers as much as the Turkish Community, was not committed by
   irresponsible persons, but by members of the Greek Cypriot security
   forces. According to the mother's statement the Greek police patrol
   had chased their car and deliberately fired upon it."

Serdar Argic