From: ptg2351@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Panos Tamamidis )
Subject: Re: GREEK INVASION IN CYPRUS 1974..cont..
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 04:12:12 GMT

sera@zuma.UUCP (Serdar Argic) writes:

>It is the  house of Dr. Nihat  Ilhan, a major who  was serving at
>the Cyprus  Turkish Army Contingent. During  the attacks launched
>against the Turks by the Greeks, on 20th December 1963, Dr. Nihat
>Ilhan's  wife and  three  children were  ruthlessly and  brutally
>killed in the  bathroom, where they had tried to  hide, by savage
>Greeks. Dr.  Nihat Ilhan happened to  be on duty that  night, the
>24th   December  1963.   Pictures  reflecting   Greek  atrocities
>committed during and after 1963 are exhibited in this house which
>has been converted into a museum.

>AN EYE-WITNESS ACCOUNT  OF HOW A TURKISH FAMILY  WAS BUTCHERED BY
>GREEK TERRORISTS

>The date  is the 24th of  December, 1963... The onslaught  of the
>Greeks against the Turks, which  started three days ago, has been
>going on  with all its  ferocity; and defenseless women,  old men
>and children are being brutally  killed by Greeks. And now Kumsal
>Area of Nicosia witnesses the  worst example of the Greeks savage
>bloodshed...

>The wife  and the  three infant  children of  Dr. Nihat  Ilhan, a
>major on duty at the camp  of the Cyprus Turkish Army Contingent,
>are  mercilessly and  dastardly  shot dead  while  hiding in  the
>bathroom of their house, by  maddened Greeks who broke into their
>home. A glaring example of Greek barbarism.

>Let us  now listen to the  relating of the said  incident told by
>Mr. Hasan  Yusuf Gudum, an  eye witness, who himself  was wounded
>during the same terrible event.

>"On the night of the 24th  of December, 1963 my wife Feride Hasan
>and I were paying a visit to the family of Major Dr. Nihat Ilhan.
>Our neighbours  Mrs. Ayshe of  Mora, her daughter Ishin  and Mrs.
>Ayshe's  sister Novber  were also  with us.  We were  all sitting
>having supper.  All of  a sudden bullets  from the  Pedieos River
>direction started to riddle the  house, sounding like heavy rain.
>Thinking  that   the  dining-room  where  we   were  sitting  was
>dangerous, we  ran to  the bathroom and  toilet which  we thought
>would be  safer. Altogether we were  nine persons. We all  hid in
>the bathroom  except my wife  who took  refuge in the  toilet. We
>waited in fear. Mrs. Ilhan the wife of Major Doctor, was standing
>in the bath with her three children Murat, Kutsi and Hakan in her
>arms. Suddenly with  a great noise we heard the  front door open.
>Greeks had  come in and were  combing, every corner of  the house
>with  their machine  gun bullets.  During these  moments I  heard
>voices saying, in  Greek, "You want Taksim eh!"  and then bullets
>started flying in the bathroom. Mrs. Ilhan and her three children
>fell into  the bath. They were  shot. At this moment  the Greeks,
>who broke  into the bathroom, emptied  their guns on us  again. I
>heard one of the Major's children moan, then I fainted.

>When I came  to myself 2 or  3 hours later, I saw  Mrs. Ilhan and
>her three children lying dead in the  bath. I and the rest of the
>neighbours in the  bathroom were all seriously  wounded. But what
>had happened to my wife? Then I remembered and immediately ran to
>the  toilet, where,  in  the doorway,  I saw  her  body. She  was
>brutally murdered.

>In the  street admist the  sound of  shots I heard  voices crying
>"Help, help. Is  there no one to save us?"  I became terrified. I
>thought that  if the Greeks came  again and found that  I was not
>dead they would kill  me. So I ran to the  bedroom and hid myself
>under the double-bed.

>An our  passed by. In the  distance I could still  hear shots. My
>mouth was dry,  so I came out  from under the bed  and drank some
>water. Then I put  some sweets in my pocket and  went back to the
>bathroom, which was exactly as I had left in an hour ago. There I
>offered sweets  to Mrs. Ayshe,  her daughter and Mrs.  Novber who
>were all wounded.

>We  waited in  the bathroom  until 5  o'clock in  the morning.  I
>thought morning would never come.  We were all wounded and needed
>to be taken  to hospital. Finally, as we could  walk, Mrs. Novber
>and I, went  out into the street hoping to  find help, and walked
>as far as Koshklu Chiftlik.

>There, we met  some people who took us to  hospital where we were
>operated on. When  I regained my consciousness I  said that there
>were more  wounded in the  house and  they went and  brought Mrs.
>Ayshe and her daughter.

>After staying three  days in the hospital I was  sent by plane to
>Ankara  for  further treatment.  There  I  have had  four  months
>treatment but still I cannot use  my arm. On my return to Cyprus,
>Greeks arrested me at the Airport.

>All  I have  related to  you above  I told  the Greeks  during my
>detention. They then released me."

>ON FOOT INTO CYPRUS'S DEVASTATED TURKISH QUARTER

>We went tonight into the sealed-off Turkish quarter of Nicosia in
>which 200  to 300 people have  been slaughtered in the  last five
>days.

>We  were the  first  Western  reporters there,  and  we saw  some
>terrible sights.

>In the Kumsal quarter at No. 2, Irfan Bey Sokagi, we made our way
>into  a house  whose floors  were  covered with  broken glass.  A
>child's bicycle lay in a corner.

>In the  bathroom, looking  like a group  of waxworks,  were three
>children piled on top of their murdered mother.

>In a room next to it we glimpsed  the body of a woman shot in the
>head.

>This, we  were told, was the  home of a Turkish  Army major whose
>family had been killed by the mob in the first violence.

>Today was five days later, and still they lay there.

>Rene MacCOLL and Daniel McGEACHIE, (From the "DAILY EXPRESS")

>"...I saw in  a bathroom the bodies of a  mother and three infant
>children murdered because their father was a Turkish Officer..."

>Max CLOS, LE FIGARO 25-26 January, 1964

>Serdar Argic

>                     'This war quickly developed into one of extermination. 
>                      We closed the roads and mountain passes that might 
>                      serve as ways of escape for the Tartars [Turks] and 
>                      then proceeded in the work of extermination.'
>                                                       (Ohanus Appressian)