The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Cyprus:
Name | Date | Location | Deaths | Perpetrators | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jewish massacre of Greeks [1] | 117 CE | mainly Salamis | 240,000 [lower-alpha 1] | Jewish rebels | After the revolt had been fully defeated, laws were created forbidding any Jews to live on the island. |
Massacre in Lefkara | 1570 | Lefkara | 400 | Venetian army | against Cypriots of village [2] [3] |
Massacre in Nicosia [4] | September 9, 1570 | Nicosia | 20,000 [5] | Ottoman army | The city was looted following its fall to Ottomans, the figure is an estimation of deaths. |
9 July Massacre of Greek-Cypriots [6] | July 9, 1821 | Nicosia | 486 | Ottoman army | Hundreds of prominent Greek-Cypriots including Archbishop Kyprianos were executed by the Ottoman Turks during the Massacres of the Greek War of Independence. |
Massacre of Greek-Cypriot unarmed civilians | June 12, 1958 | Kioneli | 8 | Turkish Cypriot Civilians | On June 12, 1958, eight Greek-Cypriots out of an armed group of thirty five were killed by Turkish Cypriot locals, near the village of Geunyeli, after having been ordered to walk back to their village of Kondemenos in suspicion of preparing an attack on the Turkish quarter of Skylloura. [7] Part of Cypriot intercommunal violence |
Monasteri massacre | 1 January 1964 | Mosfiloti | 3 | Turks of Cyprus | Turks attacked a monastery massacring three unarmed Greek monks with shotguns and injuring additional four. [8] |
Limassol massacre | 13 February 1964 | Limassol | 16 | Greek Cypriots | The Greeks and Greek Cypriots used tanks to attack and massacre the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Limassol, killing 16 people while injuring 35. [9] |
Bloody Christmas | 21–31 December 1963 | Nicosia | 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots [10] | Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots | Greek Cypriot irregulars committed a massacre in Omorphita, killing Turkish Cypriot women and children indiscriminately. [11] [12] 25,000 Turkish Cypriots fled and were displaced into enclaves. [13] Thousands of Turkish Cypriot homes were ransacked or destroyed 364 Turkish and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed in total, Around 1,200 Armenian and 500 Greek Cypriots were also displaced as a result. [14] [15] |
Massacre in Famagusta | May 12, 1964 | Famagusta | 17 | Greek Cypriot militia | The event happened as an act of revenge for the killing of 2 Cypriot soldiers and 1 police in city at 11 May. [16] [17] |
Massacre in Akrotiri and Dhekelia | May 13, 1964 | Akrotiri and Dhekelia | 11 | Greek Cypriot police forces and civilians | The event happened as an act of revenge for the killing of 2 Cypriot soldiers and 1 police in Famagusta at 11 May. [18] [16] |
Massacre in Alaminos [19] | July 20, 1974 | Alaminos | 13 or 14 [20] [21] | Greek Cypriot militia | 183 Turkish Cypriots and 350 Greek Cypriots used to live in town before massacre. Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus |
Massacre in Sysklipos [22] | August 3, 1974 | Sysklipos | 14 | Turkish Cypriot militia and Turkish army | 14 Greek Cypriots were killed in a house and buried in a mass grave on August 3, and those who remained at the village disappeared on August 26, they are still missing. Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus |
Maratha, Santalaris and Aloda massacre | August 14, 1974 | Maratha, Santalaris and Aloda | 126 | EOKA B | Almost all Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of the villages were killed and their bodies battered. Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus |
Tochni massacre [23] | August 14, 1974 | Tochni | 84 | EOKA B | EOKA B took 85 hostages from the village of Tochni and the nearby village of Zygi, mainly men and minor boys from the age of 13, to the village of Palodia for execution with automatic guns. One of them managed to escape. [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [23] [29] [17] Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus |
Massacre in Prastio | August 16, 1974 | Prastio, Famagusta | 8 | Turkish army | Execution of eight civilians taken prisoner by Turkish soldiers. Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus. [30] Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus |
Massacres of the people of Asha | August, 1974 | Asha and Sinta | 83-84 | Turkish army | 17-18 men taken as prisoners of war to Sinta and shot there. Other villagers were deported in two buses and shot on the way back from the police headquarters in Nicosia. Total number of missing from the village is given as 83-84. Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus. [31] [32] [33] |
Massacre in Eptakomi [34] | August, 1974 | Eptakomi | 12 | Turkish army and militias | 12 Greek Cypriots found in a mass grave executed with their hands tied. Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus. |
Massacre in Angolemi [35] | August, 1974 | Angolemi | 5 | Greek Cypriot militia | A family of three (father, mother and teenage daughter) and two men killed. Part of Turkish invasion of Cyprus |
The Democratic Rally is a Christian-democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Cyprus led by Annita Demetriou. The party was founded on 4 July 1976 by veteran politician Glafcos Clerides. Clerides served as the president of Cyprus from 1993 until 2003. From 11 March 2023, the leader of the party is Annita Demetriou, who also serves as the president of the House of Representatives from June 2021.
Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks are ethnic Turks originating from Cyprus. Following the Ottoman conquest of the island in 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers were given land once they arrived in Cyprus. Additionally, many of the island's local Christians converted to Islam during the early years of Ottoman rule. Nonetheless, the influx of mainly Muslim settlers to Cyprus continued intermittently until the end of the Ottoman period. Today, while Northern Cyprus is home to a significant part of the Turkish Cypriot population, the majority of Turkish Cypriots live abroad, forming the Turkish Cypriot diaspora. This diaspora came into existence after the Ottoman Empire transferred the control of the island to the British Empire, as many Turkish Cypriots emigrated primarily to Turkey and the United Kingdom for political and economic reasons.
This article covers the civilian casualties and displacements that occurred between 1963 and 1975 – from the outbreak of the intercommunal fighting until the end of displacements following the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974 and progressed in two phases over the following month. Taking place upon a background of intercommunal violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and in response to a Greek junta-sponsored Cypriot coup d'état five days earlier, it led to the Turkish capture and occupation of the northern part of the island.
The Turkish Cypriot diaspora is a term used to refer to the Turkish Cypriot community living outside the island of Cyprus.
Anti-Turkish sentiment, also known as Anti-Turkism, or Turkophobia is hostility, intolerance, or xenophobia against Turkish people, Turkish culture and the Turkish language.
The Greek genocide, which included the Pontic genocide, was the systematic killing of the Christian Ottoman Greek population of Anatolia which was carried out mainly during World War I and its aftermath (1914–1922) on the basis of their religion and ethnicity. It was perpetrated by the government of the Ottoman Empire led by the Three Pashas and by the Government of the Grand National Assembly led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, against the indigenous Greek population of the Empire. The genocide included massacres, forced deportations involving death marches through the Syrian Desert, expulsions, summary executions, and the destruction of Eastern Orthodox cultural, historical, and religious monuments. Several hundred thousand Ottoman Greeks died during this period. Most of the refugees and survivors fled to Greece. Some, especially those in Eastern provinces, took refuge in the neighbouring Russian Empire.
EOKA-B was a Greek Cypriot paramilitary organisation formed in 1971 by General Georgios Grivas ("Digenis"). It followed an ultra right-wing nationalistic ideology and had the ultimate goal of achieving the enosis (union) of Cyprus with Greece. During its short history, the organisation's chief aim was to block any attempt to enforce upon the Cyprus people what the organisation considered to be an unacceptable settlement to the Cyprus issue. In addition, the organisation drafted various plans to overthrow President Makarios. The organisation continued its activities until it officially declared its dissolution and disbanded on 11 February 1978.
The Hellenic Force in Cyprus, commonly known in its abbreviated form as ELDYK or EL.DY.K. is the permanent, regiment-sized Greek military force stationed in the Republic of Cyprus. Its role is to help and support the Cypriot National Guard. Soldiers are selected from the ranks of conscripts doing their military service in the Greek army.
The Akritas plan, was an inside document of the Greek Cypriot secret organisation of EOK that was authored in 1963 and was revealed to the public in 1966. It entailed the weakening of the Turkish Cypriots in the government of Cyprus and then uniting (enosis) Cyprus with Greece. According to Turkish Cypriots, the plan was a "blueprint to genocide", but Greek Cypriots claimed that it was rather a “defensive plan”.
Tochni is a village located in the Larnaca District of Cyprus, about halfway between the cities of Larnaca and Limassol. Prior to 1974, Tochni had a mixed Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot population. In August 1974, 85 Turkish Cypriot inhabitants of this village and of neighboring villages were massacred by Greek Cypriot terrorists. Later that month, the remaining Turkish residents of Tochni were evacuated using coaches and UN military vehicles. The evacuation was carried out by 7 Sqn RCT then serving with the UN at camp UNFICYP Nicosia.
Asha, also transliterated Assia, is a village in the Famagusta District of Cyprus, located 6 km northwest of Vatili. It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus.
Cypriot literature covers literature from Cyprus found mainly in Greek, Turkish, English and/or other languages, including French. The modern Cypriot Greek dialect belongs to the Southeastern group of Modern Greek dialects.
Maratha, Santalaris and Aloda massacre refers to a massacre of Turkish Cypriots by EOKA B; a Greek Cypriot paramilitary group. On 14 August 1974, after the start of Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the villages of Maratha, Santalaris and Aloda, 89 people from Maratha and Santalaris, and a further 37 people from the village of Aloda were killed. In total, 126 people were killed. The massacre occurred on the same day before the second Turkish invasion, concurring with other massacres.
Bloody Christmas is a term used mainly, but not exclusively, in Turkish Cypriot and Turkish historiography, referring to the resumption of intercommunal violence between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots during the Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, on the night of 20–21 December 1963 and the subsequent period of island-wide violence amounting to civil war. The death toll for the entire conflict between December and August amounts to 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots; of these, 136 Turkish Cypriots and 30 Greek Cypriots were killed in the initial period between 21 December and 1 January. Approximately 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 104 villages, amounting to a quarter of the Turkish Cypriot population, fled their villages and were displaced into enclaves. Thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses left behind were ransacked or completely destroyed. Around 1,200 Armenian Cypriots and 500 Greek Cypriots were also displaced. This initial episode of violence lasted until 31 December and was somewhat subdued with the start of peace talks at the London Conference, but outbursts of violence continued thereafter. The violence precipitated the end of Turkish Cypriot representation in the Republic of Cyprus.
Yeni Düzen or Yenidüzen is a daily newspaper published in Northern Cyprus. Its current editor in chief is Cenk Mutluyakalı. As of July 2014, it consisted of 24 pages and its daily circulation was 4700.
Sevgül Uludağ ; born October 15, 1958) is a Turkish Cypriot journalist, as well as a peace and gender activist. Born in Nicosia in 1958, Uludağ worked in a bank, and later as a proofreader, before she became a journalist in 1980. Working as an investigative reporter, she has been instrumental in uncovering information on thousands of missing Cypriots. In addition, she has also written a number of books. She is a 2008 Courage in Journalism Award laureate, the first Cypriot winner of this award. She co-founded two NGOs, Hands Across the Divide, and the Women's Research Centre in Nicosia. The activist and journalist was nominated for the Nobel Peace prize in 2019 for her work on missing people and refugees on the island of Cyprus.
Tochni massacre refers to the killing of 84 Turkish Cypriots from the village of Tochni, Larnaca, Cyprus by Greek Cypriot members of EOKA B during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in the Summer of 1974.
The trade of the Turkish community had considerably declined during the period, due to the existing situation, and unemployment reached a very high level as approximately 25,000 Turkish Cypriots had become refugees.