Turkish Cypriot looting in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus
John Akritas
April 16, 2009
There are two basic lies which Cyprus' communist president Dimitris Christofias and his party AKEL continually repeat regarding Cyprus. One is that the Turkish invasion was the culmination of Greek Cypriots' chauvinistic nationalist insistence on 'enosis' – union of Cyprus with Greece; and, secondly, that ordinary Turkish Cypriots had no real role in Turkey's rape of the island deprived as they were, according to AKEL, by their own chauvinist leaders and Greek fanaticism, of their true desire which was to live harmoniously with Greek Cypriots.
Now, of course, enosis was never a chauvinist or extremist demand but a historically legitimate and democratic prerogative (Greeks are 80 percent of the Cyprus population) aimed at liberating the island from 800 years of foreign control and it cannot be considered the moral equivalent of the Turkish demand for 'taksim' – partition – which was predicated on the physical and cultural elimination of Greek Cypriots.
On the second AKEL assertion, which depicts Turkish Cypriots as simple-minded political virgins who were innocent bystanders in the Cyprus tragedy, not only does this ignore the fact that the Turkish Cypriots had developed a Turkish nationalist consciousness but that this had occurred and existed independently and not as a reaction to Greek demands for enosis.
The facts also show that Turkish Cypriots were significantly culpable in the rape of Cyprus, and I've written several posts on the widespread Turkish Cypriot involvement in the atrocities that characterised the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. See here:
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/01/those-who-want-to-rape-daughters-of.html
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/03/missing-from-strongylos.html
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/02/palekythro-massacre.html
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/03/palekythro-massacre-more-victims-are.html
More evidence of Turkish Cypriot war crimes comes from the statements below from two Turkish Cypriot academics that reveal the systematic looting that took place in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion and the ethnic cleansing of northern Cyprus. Resentment, envy and covetousness tell us a great deal about post-Ottoman Turkish nationalism and the Turkish Cypriot character and mentality.
Here's how Niyazi Kizilyurek describes the frenzy of Turkish Cypriot looting:
"The majority of the Turkish Cypriots welcomed the Turkish intervention [sic] in Cyprus with excitement which turned into real holiday joy when they got to share the property left behind by the Greek Cypriots.
"Suddenly, luxurious buildings, houses, factories, hotels became the property of Turkish Cypriots. It all happened so suddenly. The cheerful childlike Turkish Cypriots were dipping their hand into a goody bag as they took over or ransacked the beautiful Greek Cypriot houses.
"Men gathered in the village squares telling each other about the prettiness of their new houses, showing their Greek Cypriot clothes on their backs and talking about who got how much pillage.
"Women were visiting each other´s houses and checking out who got what. Children were playing with their new toys in their new clothes on the streets."
And according to Vamik Volkan:
"Before the Turkish Cypriot [occupation regime] could bring the situation under control, people looted Greek Cypriot houses, factories, and villages… It was said that the erstwhile employers of a middle-aged Turkish woman who had been a maidservant were paying social calls on her in view of her overnight prosperity, based on her vast store of loot."
Volkan says that the looting was so widespread and systematic that a new word was created for it, 'buluntu', meaning 'something found'.
"At social events, there was considerable chatter about the 'found things' in the house of one or another of the group. As the old moral strictures on the individual and on society were shaken, people felt that they had the right to own the 'found things' and even stole such 'found' items from one another…
"The general preoccupation with buluntu was still evident when I visited northern Cyprus six months after the war, but it ended soon thereafter, perhaps because of steps taken by the [occupation regime] or, possibly, because there was nothing more to be 'found'.
"Such preoccupation with material things had psychological usefulness, I believe, inasmuch as it permitted a group that had for a long time nursed a severe narcissistic hurt to acquire narcissistic supplies in some abundance without guilt."
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/
Now, of course, enosis was never a chauvinist or extremist demand but a historically legitimate and democratic prerogative (Greeks are 80 percent of the Cyprus population) aimed at liberating the island from 800 years of foreign control and it cannot be considered the moral equivalent of the Turkish demand for 'taksim' – partition – which was predicated on the physical and cultural elimination of Greek Cypriots.
On the second AKEL assertion, which depicts Turkish Cypriots as simple-minded political virgins who were innocent bystanders in the Cyprus tragedy, not only does this ignore the fact that the Turkish Cypriots had developed a Turkish nationalist consciousness but that this had occurred and existed independently and not as a reaction to Greek demands for enosis.
The facts also show that Turkish Cypriots were significantly culpable in the rape of Cyprus, and I've written several posts on the widespread Turkish Cypriot involvement in the atrocities that characterised the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. See here:
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/01/those-who-want-to-rape-daughters-of.html
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/03/missing-from-strongylos.html
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/02/palekythro-massacre.html
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/2009/03/palekythro-massacre-more-victims-are.html
More evidence of Turkish Cypriot war crimes comes from the statements below from two Turkish Cypriot academics that reveal the systematic looting that took place in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion and the ethnic cleansing of northern Cyprus. Resentment, envy and covetousness tell us a great deal about post-Ottoman Turkish nationalism and the Turkish Cypriot character and mentality.
Here's how Niyazi Kizilyurek describes the frenzy of Turkish Cypriot looting:
"The majority of the Turkish Cypriots welcomed the Turkish intervention [sic] in Cyprus with excitement which turned into real holiday joy when they got to share the property left behind by the Greek Cypriots.
"Suddenly, luxurious buildings, houses, factories, hotels became the property of Turkish Cypriots. It all happened so suddenly. The cheerful childlike Turkish Cypriots were dipping their hand into a goody bag as they took over or ransacked the beautiful Greek Cypriot houses.
"Men gathered in the village squares telling each other about the prettiness of their new houses, showing their Greek Cypriot clothes on their backs and talking about who got how much pillage.
"Women were visiting each other´s houses and checking out who got what. Children were playing with their new toys in their new clothes on the streets."
And according to Vamik Volkan:
"Before the Turkish Cypriot [occupation regime] could bring the situation under control, people looted Greek Cypriot houses, factories, and villages… It was said that the erstwhile employers of a middle-aged Turkish woman who had been a maidservant were paying social calls on her in view of her overnight prosperity, based on her vast store of loot."
Volkan says that the looting was so widespread and systematic that a new word was created for it, 'buluntu', meaning 'something found'.
"At social events, there was considerable chatter about the 'found things' in the house of one or another of the group. As the old moral strictures on the individual and on society were shaken, people felt that they had the right to own the 'found things' and even stole such 'found' items from one another…
"The general preoccupation with buluntu was still evident when I visited northern Cyprus six months after the war, but it ended soon thereafter, perhaps because of steps taken by the [occupation regime] or, possibly, because there was nothing more to be 'found'.
"Such preoccupation with material things had psychological usefulness, I believe, inasmuch as it permitted a group that had for a long time nursed a severe narcissistic hurt to acquire narcissistic supplies in some abundance without guilt."
http://hellenicantidote.blogspot.com/
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