Frank and Joan's news for 21 April 2009 in Northern Cyprus

Frank and Joan's Adventures in Northern Cyprus

Our adventures in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus continue....

An interesting article appeared in The Telegraph recently which should be read by all those who still believe that history started here in 1974 when the Turkish army intervened to save the life of the Turkish Cypriots who resided here:-

THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIERS BURIED IN NO MAN'S LAND
Fifty years ago, terrorists on Cyprus killed nearly 400 British soldiers.

In an all but forgotten graveyard in the UN-patrolled no man's land which divides Cyprus, a small group of ageing British veterans will gather today to remember 371 servicemen whose sacrifice remains unrecognised 50 years after they fell.
Wayne's Keep Military Cemetery, near Nicosia, is the last resting place of the soldiers, sailors and airmen murdered by Greek-Cypriot terrorists during four years of bloodshed which ended in April 1959. The vast majority of those killed were young men carrying out National Service, some of the last British conscripts to lose their lives in service of their country.
Yet to date, no memorial has been built to honour them, and with Wayne's Keep virtually inaccessible to the general public, their families and comrades feel a deep frustration at being unable to pay their respects.
This year, with the help of Telegraph readers, they intend to right that wrong by raising £

200,000 for a permanent memorial on Cyprus, which will bear the names of every man who died at the hands of the Greek Cypriot guerrilla organisation EOKA.
"There is a feeling that the memory of these men is already fading into history, because when people think of Cyprus they think of its turbulent political history in recent times, but they forget that British servicemen died in large numbers beforehand.
"The political situation is still very sensitive, we realise that, but our aim is to remove this from politics. It is simply about commemorating lives lost."
The Cyprus Emergency, as it was then known, consisted of a series of murderous attacks on servicemen in what was then a British colony by members of EOKA (the Greek acronym for National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), starting in April 1955.
General Sir John Waters, who served in Cyprus with the Gloucestershire Regiment and later Commander in Chief, UK Land Forces, said: "Fundamentally, it was similar to Northern Ireland, because the tactics they were using included sniper attacks, roadside bombs and barbed wire strung across roads at neck height. I was blown up by a remote-controlled bomb, together with another officer and four soldiers, but we were extremely lucky as none of us were killed."
The deaths of Cornet Charles Stephen Fox-Strangways, of the Royal Horse Guards, and Trooper John Proctor on July 8, 1958, summed up the brutality of EOKA; they were off duty and collecting groceries from a shop in Famagusta when gunmen entered and repeatedly shot both men in the back. They were both just 20 years old.
It was a precursor to regular street ambushes in cities such as Nicosia, where the central avenue became known as the murder mile because of the number of lives claimed by assassins.
Sir Henry Beverley said: "It got worse and worse as time went on. There was rioting going on almost round the clock and it was our job to try to stop it. Just before Christmas in 1955, I was on duty during a riot when my troop sergeant, John Routledge, was hit by a home-made grenade lobbed from the crowd. He lived for a few hours but very sadly he died."
The terrorist attacks finally stopped in April 1959, a year before the island was granted independence after an agreement between the UK, Greece and Turkey. Fighting between the Greeks and Turks in 1974 led to the division which still exists.

There is a collection being made to build a memorial to those who died. Interestingly the Greek Cypriots will not allow this memorial to be erected either in Wayne's Keep or on their side of the island.