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Communal Violence and the Massacre at Geunyeli
Village
The
Outbreak of Communal Strife, 1958 The violence between Greek Cypriots
and Turkish Cypriots had been sporadic and to some extent unsystematical
until 1958. EOKA was targeting a few village leaders, and some leftists
and policemen who were Turkish Cypriots were also murdered. But inter-communal
violence as an intentional ploy did not really begin until June 1958. Below
is British journalist Nancy Crawshaw's rendition of it, from her book,
The Cyprus Revolt.
On
the night of 7 June shortly after 10 p.m. a bomb explosion outside the
Turkish Press Office in Nicosia set off the worst outbreak of racial strife
which the island had seen since British rule. The explosion served as a
time signal and an excuse for Turkish rioters to invade the Greek sector
of the old town. The Greeks sounded the alarm by pealing the church bells;
in the violent clashes which took place, two Greeks were killed and much
Greek property was ransacked or destroyed by fire. Shortly before midnight
the troops were called out to assist the police to restore order and to
man the 'Mason-Dixon' Line, the rough boundary separating the Greek and
Turkish sectors. The Old City was placed under curfew but the fighting
went on until 3 a.m. The original explosion did little material damage.
And circumstantial evidence strongly pointed to the fact that the bomb
was of Turkish origin. This, however, did not deter Turkey from making
a formal protest to Britain the next day alleging that the Cyprus administration
had failed to give the Turkish minority adequate protection.
The crisis
reached a climax on 12 June when eight Greeks were massacred in a cornfield
near the Turkish village of Geunyeli. Communal feeling had been running
high in the neighbouring villages. The day before the massacre Police Sergeant
Gill, who was responsible for the area, found Greek and Turkish villagers
at Skylloura standing around armed with sticks and stones. The Turks were
greatly alarmed, fearing an imminent attack by the Greeks. Close to the
village, on the road to Philia, the sergeant found nearly two hundred Greeks
crouching in the dried-up bed of a stream. The men, who mostly came from
Philia, carried clubs, knives and pitchforks amongst other weapons. About
fifty of them were able to escape before the arrival of a military patrol
which enabled the police sergeant to arrest and disarm the remainder. The
offenders were later released.
Several hours later, in the small hours
of the morning, Sergeant Gill returned to Skylloura where two Turks informed
him that the Greeks were about to attack the Turkish community at Aghios
Vasilios. As he approached the village he saw two buses turn round and
make off in the direction of Mammari. The patrol which pursued them eventually
rounded up five vehicles carrying a total of 250 Greeks. The men were disarmed
and made to walk back to Mammari. On the afternoon of 12 June Turks reported
to Sergeant Gill at Yerolakkos Police Station that their community at Skylloura
had been attacked by Greeks. Sergeant Gill found that the report was a
false alarm but that Greek and Turkish villagers faced each other with
sticks in hostile confrontation from their respective sectors. The Turkish
mukhtar feared an attack from Philia or Kondemenos.
Meanwhile a troop of
the Royal Horse Guards had arrived with two armoured scout cars and taken
over control of the village. And Sergeant Gill left to investigate the
situation in the direction of Kondemenos. A short distance outside Skylloura
Sergeant Gill found thirty-five armed Greeks entrenched in a dried-up river
bed, and lined up in formation in a concealed position close to the Turkish
quarter. The mood of the Greeks was aggressive and the sergeant did not
accept their explanation that they were there solely to protect Greek workers
returning home to Kondemenos. With the help of a passing RAF officer, he
arrested them. The Royal Horse Guards escorted the prisoners to Yerolakkos
Police Station where Gill intended to charge them under the Offensive Weapons
(Prohibition) Law, 1955. While he was talking to Assistant Superintendent
Trusler, who had come to Yerolakkos from Nicosia, a hostile crowd began
to gather, and it was decided to take the prisoners to Nicosia Central
Police Station. In the meantime the Central Police Station had become the
centre of commotion as the result of serious rioting by Turkish men and
women nearby.
On reaching the outskirts of Nicosia, the army officer in
charge of the convoy with the prisoners received a message ordering him
not to bring the prisoners into the town. The convoy returned to Geunyeli.
The Greeks were eventually released at a place to the north of the Turkish
village and, having been disarmed, ordered to walk across country to their
own village of Kondemenos. A troop of the Royal Horse Guards escorted them
for about 400 yards away from the main road and withdrew after the last
Greek had disappeared over the horizon. The army then took steps to maintain
security in the immediate vicinity of Geunyeli. A few minutes after the
Greeks were out of sight, army watchers saw smoke and flames coming from
the crest of the hill. It was assumed at first that the Greeks had set
fire to Turkish crops. And an angry crowd of Turks armed with primitive
weapons began to swarm out of Geunyeli. Lieutenant Baring of the Royal
Horse Guards overtook the crowd, having ordered the Grenadiers to follow
him and set up a road block to hold back the Turks. Baring went ahead to
investigate the fire. On the way he arrested two Turks, a motor cyclist
and his passenger. He then came upon the mutilated body of a Greek. A group
of men came towards him; some of them were wounded.
The thirty-five Greeks
had run into a Turkish ambush. Four were killed on the spot and four died
later of their injuries. The remainder owed their survival to the arrival
of Baring in the armoured car. The massacre was quickly followed up by
a flood of Greek allegations that the security forces had deliberately
exposed the prisoners to Turkish attack. Considerable disquiet also prevailed
in British circles. The Cyprus Mail, noted for its moderation in criticising
the Government, demanded an explanation for the fact that the thirty-five
Greeks had been dumped near a Turkish village.
On 16 June the Governor
appointed a Commission of inquiry and entrusted the task to the Chief Justice,
Sir Paget Bourke, who decided in the public interest to hold the inquiry
in private. His decision had been influenced by several considerations:
the risk that public proceedings might accelerate the high degree of tension
already prevailing in the island, with the possibility of further disturbances
and loss of life; the probability that witnesses, in danger of reprisals,
would be afraid to speak the truth, thereby defeating the object of the
inquiry.
The inquiry opened at the end of June and lasted eight days. The
Governor expressed his intention to publish its findings in due course.
During the hearing thirty-seven witnesses, representing the security forces,
the Turks and the Greek survivors, gave evidence before the Commission.
The inquiry threw light on the events which had led to the abandonment
of the Greek prisoners near Geunyeli. The primary concern of the police
and army officers in Nicosia on the day of the massacre had been to stop
the convoy with the prisoners from driving into the centre of the Turkish
disturbances which were taking place outside the Central Police Station.
Assistant Superintendent Trusler, the police officer in charge of Nicosia
Rural Sub-Division, had given specific instructions that the convoy was
to be stopped and the Greeks taken to Aghios Dhometios Police Station.
But the message never reached the convoy. Instead Major Redgrave of the
Royal Horse Guards, who was controlling the convoy by radio, understood
that his orders were to send the Greeks back to the country and let them
walk home. According to army witnesses the prisoners were diverted to Geunyeli
because the road to this village was the first turning into the country
in relation to the position of the convoy at the time of the message; a
diversion via Geunyeli was the right direction for their own homes to the
north of Skylloura; once clear of Geunyeli, which was under military surveillance,
no other sources of trouble were to be expected on their route; since the
Royal Horse Guards had taken over the security of the rural area no incidents
had occurred apart from a minor stone-throwing attack by Greeks; the Royal
Horse Guards were on patrol in the district and all was quiet.
The choice
for the exact site for the release of the prisoners had been left to the
discretion of the officers on the spot. The Commissioner questioned the
legality and the propriety of sending prisoners home on foot without an
escort. Two senior police witnesses also regarded the practice as an irregularity.
The army officers, however, clearly accepted it as a salutary measure in
dealing with excitable trouble-makers and as a practical alternative on
the occasions when the police were not able to take the offenders into
custody. It had the effect of tiring them so that they gave no more trouble
the same day. The officers giving evidence were agreed that it would have
been unreasonable to send the Greeks back the way they had come; that it
would have involved a loss of face for the security forces and would not
have led to any improvement in the attitude of the offenders who would,
if anything, have been liable to cause more trouble once they realised
that nothing was to be done about them.
The Greek survivors described how,
in their haste to get home, they had run up the slope, leaving behind the
field of crops which later went up in flames. As they descended the slope
on the other side they saw two motor cyclists and a pillion rider coming
along the village road from Geunyeli. The motor cyclists opened fire and
two of the Greeks were wounded. When the Greeks tried to go back they suddenly
found themselves surrounded by a large group of Turks armed with axes,
pieces of wood and knives. The Greeks scattered in the attempt to escape.
And those who tried to go back the way that they had come saw that the
crops were alight. Much of the evidence produced at the inquiry was conflicting,
and in several respects the Commissioner's findings were inconclusive.
They nevertheless threw some light on the events which had led to the release
of the Greeks north of Geunyeli. The Commissioner was satisfied that the
arrest of the Greek party outside Skylloura on 12 June was lawful and that
they were there either to launch an attack on the Turkish quarter or else
go to the assistance of their compatriots in the event of renewed communal
clashes.
The Commissioner stressed the difficulties prevailing in the operations
room at the Central Police Station at the time. Herein might lie some explanation
as to why Superintendent Trusler's specific instructions were not conveyed
to Sergeant Gill who was in charge of the prisoners. A blunder had occurred
causing some confusion but he was unable to say to what extent if any it
was due to the lack of liaison between the police and military. The report
was critical of the fact that no message was sent to inform the operations
room that the convoy was proceeding to Geunyeli. Had this been done, the
Commissioner commented, the senior police officers concerned would have
been informed and, in the light of their evidence, would have intervened
to prevent the diversion. The Commissioner completely rejected the submission
that the security forces had shown a reckless indifference to the fate
of the Greeks. He was fully satisfied that all concerned with their release
had acted with the utmost good faith; that they had appreciated that some
trouble might be expected in the vicinity of Geunyeli and had taken steps
to secure the area. It was the view of the officers in charge on the ground
that, once clear of Geunyeli, no other source of trouble lay on the route.
In this assessment, however, the Turkish hamlet of Kanii appeared to have
been overlooked. The Commissioner rejected allegations that Sergeant Gill
had issued ominous threats to the Greeks at the start of their walk and
that two Turkish members of the security forces on duty that day had engineered
or assisted the ambush. The report failed to establish with any degree
of certainty the place from which the attackers came and to solve the mystery
of the two motor cyclists. It was clear that the ambush was planned by
Turks who had surmised from earlier events at Geunyeli that the Greeks
were about to be sent across the fields. The Commissioner did not accept
the evidence of survivors who testified that the Turks in the fields were
joined by others who came by trucks and cars from Geunyeli. It was possible
that the Greeks after their ordeal were confused in their recollection.
The Grenadiers, for instance, had left the village in vehicles, described
as trucks at the hearing. If the assailants came from Geunyeli this would
have meant that either the vigil kept by the security forces was defective
or that a route hidden to the security forces led to the site of the ambush.
But the dirt track from Geunyeli was visible from the convoy's position.
It was possible that the Turks went to their positions before Baring arrived
and that they were reinforced from Kanii.
The report paid a tribute to
the 'magnificent work' carried out in the Nicosia District countryside
and to the prompt action taken by Lieutenant Baring which had averted a
worse tragedy. Eight Turks were eventually tried for murder in connection
with the Geunyeli incident. But all were acquitted for want of sufficient
evidence. The Greek Cypriots, in their highly emotional state, were quick
to suggest that even British justice which had long stood the test of conditions
in Cyprus was now corrupt, despite the fact that Greek terrorists had time
and again been acquitted for the same reasons.
Nancy Crawshaw from her book The
Cyprus Revolt |
