ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
By Marcus A. Templar
Turkey’s refusal to submit flight plans for its military airplanes is consistent with its doctrine of preemptive strike when the time is ripe. Turkey’s doctrine developed from the fact that not only it went unpunished for a number of rogue actions that it perpetrated against Greek interests especially after it joined NATO, but it was additionally rewarded for the same by consecutive Greek, Cypriot, also NATO governments.
The issue of Cyprus in the early 1950’s started as a matter between the UK and Greece. Turkey was nowhere to be seen. Somehow Greece accepted London’s pressure and Turkey was brought into the equation. For that Greek docile behavior the Hellenism of the island has suffered and keeps suffering. Turks still call the Greek Cypriots Rum instead of Greeks as if they were part of the Ottoman Rum Millet within the Turkish Empire.
The pogroms on September 1955 and 1964 not only went unanswered, but Greek governments are silent when Turkey encourages and implements further violations of the Treaty of Lausanne. In addition Turkey’s politicians demand reciprocity. Perhaps Greece should oblige them by deporting an equal percent of Muslims of Thrace and the Dodecanese.
The invasion of Turkey on Cyprus not only went unanswered, but it was additionally rewarded by the behavior of two Greek American public relations firms whose infighting produced the Turkey 10 vs. Greece 7 ratio in the mid 1970’s. Turkey was also rewarded for its rogue conduct by that mere fact that governments of Free Cyprus with the “assistance” of all Greek governments negotiated and negotiate the terms of Cyprus’ own occupation rendering the resolutions of the UNSC invalid. It is as if the government of General De Gaulle aiming at the legitimization of Hitler’s occupation of Vichy France, negotiated the terms of occupation that would determine the degree of a literal enslavement of the people of south France. I wonder if all those who negotiate the de facto occupation of Cyprus by Turkey are going to live under the same conditions that they try so hard to impose on others.
Turkey has been rewarded for its immorality by the EU, which has not only allowed the occupation of its own territory, but in addition it has accepted to negotiate Turkey’s candidacy. NATO has rewarded Turkey by accepting Turkey’s attack against an independent country under the rationale that the lives and welfare of its compatriots were in danger. At that time, although NATO was a strictly defensive organization, it accepted Turkey’s rationale of the “Peace” operation as a benevolent action.
Recently, NATO has rejected Russia’s identical rationale and hypocritically vies to punish Russia’s “illegal” annexation of Crimea, as if the northern part of Cyprus is not annexed hiding behind lexical semantics on what constitutes an annexed territory. Moreover, Turkey is in violation of the Geneva Convention IV, Article 49, sixth paragraph, which provides: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies”, and yet as far as NATO is concerned, all is well!
One more point one must consider is the difference on the casualty lists of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. During the Turkish invasion, but also later, besides the results of the conflict (killed in action, missing in action, wounded, and prisoners of war), the human rights of a good number of unfortunate Greek Cypriots were violated by being subjected to torture, extra-judicial killings, illegal arrests and detentions, arbitrary taxations, property crimes, forced labor, trafficking, forced displacement and rape. The forced labor of civilians and POWs alike along with human trafficking took place on Turkish soil after the captured individuals were transported to the mainland.
The above does not include the ineffectiveness of the Turkish military considering that Turkey lost 19 fighter planes against no air force and 2 ships against no navy. The actual personnel casualties of both sides is unknown to me. What is known is that the ratio of the invasion 1 to 4 could easily be raised to 1 to 6 if one considers that the Turkish military was heavily armed facing a lightly armed opponent, the Cypriot National Guard.
In military tactics for a successful invasion, the normal ratio of an invading force is four against one of the defenders. Rarely an attacking force would reach the point six against one of the defending opponent unless the attacker is unsure of his own military capabilities against the specific opponent. Also, it should be noted that the Turkish invading forces were stuck in the areas of Kyrenia and Morphou for about a couple of weeks and occupied the areas they are holding at present only after the UNSC had declared ceasefire [1]. The above facts should have raised some eyebrows in NATO.
To those who conveniently suggest that “we are all brothers” or we should forgive and forget, they had better visit their nearest Holocaust Museum or the 9/11 Memorial in New York City.
[1]. In point of fact the Turkish invading forces by the evening of the 22nd of July, 1974, when the cease-fire took effect, had control of a beach-head in Kyrenia and the city of Kyrenia, as well as a narrow corridor, linking the beach-head to the northern part of Nicosia and outlying villages, inhabited by Turkish Cypriots, where Turkish Army paratroopers had landed from the day of the invasion. The cease-fire was the means by which Turkey was able to amass a total of 40,000 soldiers with heavy war materiel (hundreds of tanks and heavy artillery), day-by-day expanding unopposed 10 times (from 20 km2, to 200 km2) the area under occupation, while mutually agreed-upon preparations were under way for negotiation in Geneva. The blackmail by Turkey at those negotiations (accept a division of Cyprus or we will impose it by military conquest) was rejected by the governments of Cyprus and Greece, and on August 14, 1974, Turkey launched the Attila II operation, placing under occupation 38% of the island of Cyprus. In the course of one month the Turkish Armed forces by invading Cyprus caused about five thousands of deaths, ca. 1,500 persons still missing, over 200,000 Greek Cypriots as refugees in their own land, plus inestimable loss of property. Six months later, and despite several resolutions by the UN Security Council, calling for the withdrawal of the invading Turkish Army, with the collusion of Britain, Turkey got by force all Turkish Cypriots living in areas outside her control to seek refuge in the British Bases in Cyprus and settled them into left-behind properties by Greek Cypriots. In addition, Turkey has added some 200,000-300,000 illegal settlers from Turkey, i.e. practised neo-colonization, an activity explicidly prohibited, by the UN Charter.
References:
Laurence Stern, The Wrong Horse. Quadrangle books, New York, 1977.
Christopher Hitchens, The trial of Henry Kissinger, Verso Books, New York, 2001.
Photo by Associated Press