A harrowing testimony alleging a massacre of Greek Cypriots in 1963 has come to light. The Allegations of mass beheadings in Cyprus prompt fresh investigation as tan eye witness claims that around 80 Greek Cypriots were beheaded and their bodies thrown into a well.
The information was published on Wednesday (31/12) by the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Avrupa, edited by Şener Levent. The report, titled “Around 80 Greek Cypriots were beheaded and thrown into a well”, cites statements by Turkish Cypriot businessman and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Yeni Bakış, Yusuf Kısa. Kısa said the testimony was given by a man known as “the Old Man”.
According to Kısa, the man — born in 1942 and who passed away nearly ten years ago — had lived in London. He had previously spoken to Kısa about a massacre of Greek Cypriots carried out in 1963, but had asked that the matter not be made public while he was still alive.
Kısa said he first met the man in London. After 2003, when Kısa moved permanently to Cyprus, he continued to meet him in the occupied areas. The man reportedly told him that in 1963 he had witnessed with his own eyes the beheading of approximately 80 Greek Cypriots, whose bodies were then thrown into a well. He further claimed that the atrocity had been committed by his own uncle and expressed the wish that the account be made public only after his death.
“He left this issue to me as a legacy, and the time has come to reveal it. He told me to write about it in the newspaper after his death, to say everything and to indicate the location of the well. By making this statement today, I want to honour that request,” Kısa said.
CMP: Information will be investigated – 44–45 Greek Cypriots missing from 1963–64
Commenting on the report, Leonidas Pantelidis, the Greek Cypriot representative on the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), said there are 44–45 Greek Cypriots listed as missing from the 1963–64 period, of whom 20 have already been located. He added that the Committee would do everything necessary to investigate the information now in the public domain.
Pantelidis explained that of the 44–45 missing Greek Cypriots from that period, 16 were found and identified at Hamit Mandres, while four were located at the site of the tekke in occupied Nicosia, with their identification still pending.
He said the CMP would seek to contact Yusuf Kısa in order to examine the information he claims to possess, particularly whether he is able to indicate the location of the alleged mass grave in a well. However, Pantelidis noted that burials in wells were not a common practice during the 1963–64 period.
