Turkish Cypriots hold ceremony in London for victims of 'Bloody Christmas'

By Zuhal Demirci

LONDON (AA) - A commemoration ceremony was held Tuesday in London on the 58th anniversary of "Bloody Christmas," also called Black Christmas by Turkish Cypriots.

The horrors of the deadly, systematic attacks on Turkish Cypriots by members of the extremist Greek Cypriot nationalist terrorist group 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 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 UK, EOKA targeted not only British soldiers and civil servants but also Turkish and Greek Cypriots who opposed its extreme ideology and its goal of union with Greece.

Turkish Cypriots gathered in front of the office of the UK High Commissioner to Greek Cyprus in London on Tuesday evening, lit candles and exhibited the photographs of those who lost their lives during EOKA's attacks.

Ayse Osman, head of the Council of Turkish Cypriot Associations (CTCA) in the UK, said 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 Lutfuoglu, who was killed during the attacks in January 1964, said his body is 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.