Thread by @VanaT66

#Cyprus #Κύπρος🇨🇾
1⃣MYTHS circulate by Turks about certain incidents that took place during the 1956-1958 & 1962-1964 intercommunal strife. The FACTS (mainly from Turkish sources & British archives) show that Turks were not victims of Greek violence but the protagonists
Thread🧵

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Myth-A❌: On June 7, 1958, Greek Cypriots threw a bomb at the Information Bureau of the Turkish Consulate.
Fact-A✅: A Turkish Cypriot were responsible for the bomb in order to provoke riots against the Greek Cypriots.

3⃣ On the night of the 7th June 1958, there was an explosion at the Information Bureau of the Turkish Consulate. A crowd of Turkish Cypriot youths had already gathered there, and they were swearing vengeance against the Greeks.

4⃣The Turkish Cypriots burned and looted Greek shops and homes. Soon EOKA counter-attacked and the violence spread around the island. Greek & Turkish families moved with their possessions into separate areas. Partition was fast becoming a reality.

5⃣Rauf Denktash, Turkish Cypriot leader: "Later on, a friend of mine, whose name will still be kept a secret, was to confess to me that that he had put this bomb in the doorway for creating an atmosphere of tension so that people would know that the Turkish Cypriots mattered".

6⃣Excerpt from UK TV program, Britain's Grim Legacy, in which Rauf Denktash admits that Turks initiated the intercommunal violence between Greeks and Turks on the island in the 1950s.

7⃣ Source for "Myth A", the events of 1956-1958, and the lasting effects throughout the years of Turkish Cypriot Violence Against the Greek Cypriots.
hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2013/08/politi…

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Myth-B❌: The Greek Cypriots bombed mosques in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Fact-B✅: The Turkish military bombed mosques in Nicosia and put the blame on the Greeks.

9⃣ Sabri Yirmibeşoğlu, aTurkish ex-general (interview, Habertürk, 2010): The Turkish military had bombed mosques in Cyprus and put the blame on the Greeks. Such sabotages are portrayed as if the enemy did for raising the resistance of the people.
haberturk.com/gundem/haber/5…

🔟Yıldıray Oğur, columnist in daily Taraf: the operation the ex-general refers to is probably the bombings of the Bayraktar and Ömeriye mosques in Nicosia on the night of March 24, 1962.

1⃣1⃣ The incident, naturally, inflamed Cypriot Turks, who organized demonstrations against the Greeks of the island, who they thought were responsible. (Their “resistance,” in other words, was “raised.”)
mustafaakyol.org/index.php/blog…

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Food for thought

Turkish journalist and author, Mustafa Akyol: If they have bombed places to “raise resistance” against “enemies without,” have they also used similar techniques against “enemies within? ... some episodes in our recent history are indeed too suspicious.

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MYTH-C: On December 24, 1963 Greek Cypriots brutally murdered the three young children and wife of Turkish major Nihat Ilhan in the bathtub of their house.
FACT-C: The father murdered the members of his family.

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An enlightening thread on MYTH-C by @GabrielaRwmanou who challenges the Turkish narrative for this atrocious crime.

https://twitter.com/GabrielaRwmanou/status/1418870185256267776?s=20