A commemoration ceremony was held Tuesday in London for victims on the 58th anniversary of the "Bloody Christmas," which was committed by Greek Cypriot EOKA terrorists, also called "Black Christmas" by Turkish Cypriots.
The horrors of the deadly, systematic attacks on Turkish Cypriots by members of the EOKA live on in people's memories 58 years after they led to the deaths of hundreds and displaced thousands from their ancestral homes.
The events leading up to the "Bloody Christmas" started in 1955 with the foundation of EOKA, led by Georgios Grivas, a veteran officer of World War I and World War II as well as a staunch opponent of communists and Turks.
Active in Cyprus, then ruled by the United Kingdom, EOKA targeted not only British soldiers and civil servants but also Turkish and Greek Cypriots who opposed its extreme ideology and its goal of a union with Greece.
Turkish Cypriots gathered in front of the office of the U.K. High Commissioner to the Greek Cypriot administration in London on Tuesday evening, lit candles and exhibited the photographs of those who lost their lives during EOKA's attacks.
Ayşe Osman, head of the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (CTCA) in the U.K., said the "Bloody Christmas" is a source of "great pain" for Turkish Cypriots.
The bodies of some of those who died in the attacks have still not been found, she noted.
Azize Solmaz, a relative of Cahit Lütfüoğlu, who was killed during the attacks in January 1964, said his body has yet to be located.
"He took the risk to buy something to eat for his family and left the village, but he never came back," she said.
During EOKA's terror campaign of the 1963 Christmas season, 374 Turkish Cypriots were killed, 109 Turkish villages were forced to evacuate, over 2,500 Turkish houses were severely damaged or demolished, and between 25,000 and 30,000 Turkish Cypriots became refugees, according to a U.N. report released on Sep. 10, 1964.
While Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration support a federation on Cyprus, Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) insist on a two-state solution that reflects the realities on the island.
The island has been divided since 1964 when ethnic attacks forced the Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece's annexation led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded in 1983.
The Greek Cypriot administration, backed by Greece, became a member of the European Union in 2004, despite most Greek Cypriots rejecting a U.N. settlement plan in a referendum that year, which had envisaged a reunited Cyprus joining the EU.