320 Greek Cypriot POWs bayoneted to death

The Cypriot daily Phileleftheros reported today another massacre of Greek Cypriots carried out during the Turkish invasion of the island in 1974. The newspaper quotes an article that appeared in the Turkish Cypriot daily, Afrika, in which a Turkish Cypriot eyewitness recalls that up to 320 Greek Cypriot POWs were bayoneted to death by Turkish soldiers at the end of August 1974.

The massacre occurred when eight buses, each containing 40 Greek Cypriot POWs, were driven to the shores of Kyrenia in preparation for transfer to prisoner camps in Turkey. At the same time as the POW buses arrived, Turkish soldiers were disembarking from ships as part of the Turkish invasion force. On discovering who the POWs were, Phileleftheros reports, the Turkish soldiers attacked the Greek Cypriot prisoners with bayonets and slaughtered them all on the beach.

According to a Turkish Cypriot eyewitness, who admitted he was petrified by the rage and ferocity of the Turkish soldiers, from the blood of the murdered POWs the sea became red.

The Turkish Cypriot eyewitness believes that the victims of the massacre were buried in a spot near the Mare Monte Hotel in Kyrenia.

* The video clip above is the RIK News report on the story, with my English subtitles.