⚠️ RAISED UNDER APARTHEID
“PEACE AND FREEDOM DAY” is the glorification of war and the celebration of collective punishment.
JULY 2024, KYRENIA: It is July 20 on the northern coast of Turkish-occupied Cyprus, celebrated by the north’s Turkish inhabitants as “Peace and Freedom Day.” In reality, this date marks the start of Turkey’s 1974 invasion of the island’s northern 37 percent, part of a CIA-orchestrated plan that began with a “failed” Greek coup five days earlier.
THE REVISIONIST PLAYBOOK of the Turkish extremists turned “invasion” into “intervention” and “Peace Operation.” They employ this obfuscatory language on the world stage to present the Turkish State as the compassionate savior of Cyprus’ marginalized Turks.
THE TURKISH INVASION of 1974 — a two-pronged operation in July and August of that year which was preplanned as a rapid response to Greece’s “attempted junta” — saw the slaughter and ethnic cleansing of Greek Cypriots and the forced upheaval of their Turkish compatriots. It saw rape and cold-blooded executions by Turkey’s invading soldiers, including of children; the elderly; the infirm; and other innocents.
BRUTALIZED GREEK CYPRIOTS took revenge on their innocent compatriots: They slaughtered entire Turkish Cypriot families, an entire class of Turkish Cypriot schoolchildren and other innocents — while the invasion unfolded.
THE MURDEROUS CYCLE continued: Brutalized Turkish Cypriots slaughtered entire Greek Cypriot families and other innocents.
THE INSTALLMENT by Turkey’s Government ensued of an impoverished, undocumented and — in certain cases — criminal Turkish mainland population in the homes and properties of the north’s Greek Cypriot refugees. Throughout the coast-adjacent north, NATO-aligned Turkish military bases were constructed on fields and agricultural land; in woodland; and over graves and the bodies of the murdered.
GREEK ORTHODOX cemeteries and graveyards throughout the occupied areas were destroyed: Graves were smashed to pieces; their contents looted; and the remains of their inhabitants left permanently exposed. Not a cross remains unbroken to this day. Churches were looted, burned and reappropriated as icon museums, animal shelters and mosques.
THE STRICT APARTHEID imposed on pain of death by Turkey’s invading forces — and by the Turkish Military Occupation that followed — effectively continues long after the opening of the checkpoints in April 2003. This apartheid has destroyed Cyprus and its people. It has fed the rabid Greek nationalism of decades past, adding to its ranks.
“PEACE AND FREEDOM DAY” is the glorification of war and the celebration of collective punishment. It is propaganda at its most insidious. It takes advantage of a misinformed, compromised and basically good populace. The goal of this propaganda is to divide so as to steal and to retain what was stolen.
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#OneCyprus
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