Η Σφαγή στο Παλαίκυθρο

Above is a report from Saturday's RIK news (my subtitles) on the funeral of Sotira Georgiou, 28, and her two children Mary, 7, and Yiannakis, eight months, murdered in the village of Palekythro during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Some 18 Greeks were slaughtered in Palekythro and the remains of 11 of the dead were recently discovered in an olive grove in the occupied village and identified using DNA matching.

The RIK report suggests that it was the Turkish 'Attilas' (i.e. invaders) who were responsible for the Palekythro murders; but this is not accurate. The truth is that the murderers were three Turkish Cypriot teenagers from the neighbouring Turkish village of Epiho, who took advantage of the second Turkish invasion of 14 August 1974 to descend on Palekythro first to steal livestock and farming machinery from Greek villagers before returning the next day to round up the elderly and the women and children – who had stayed behind, assured by their Turkish Cypriot co-villagers that they wouldn't allow any harm to come to them – where they were systematically massacred, the elderly first, followed by the women and children.

The clip below is from Michalis Cacoyiannis' film, Attila '74, Rape of Cyprus, which provides more details on the Palekythro murders, with two of the four survivors, Petrakis and Costakis Souppouris, recalling the massacre of their family and their own escape.



Πηγή:hellenicantidote - http://www.cyprusactionnetwork.org/