The European Commission of Human Rights documented in formal findings that Turkish military forces systematically commit...

The European Commission of Human Rights documented in formal findings that Turkish military forces systematically committed mass killings and rape against Cypriot civilians during the 1974 invasion, 52 years ago this year. The report stands as one of the most damning official records of wartime atrocities in modern European history. According to the Commission's findings, Turkish soldiers killed unarmed civilians across occupied Cyprus with no distinction made for age or condition. Victims included children as young as six months old, elderly people up to 90, and individuals who were paralyzed, blind, or mentally disabled. Eyewitnesses described men in civilian clothes being separated from women and shot in front of their families, with some still holding children when the bullets hit. Three of those children were wounded. In the village of Voni, Turkish soldiers arrived and within a day had gathered girls into a house and raped them. The Commission recorded allegations from the Cypriot government of mass and repeated rape of women aged 12 to 71, in some cases so severe that victims suffered hemorrhages or permanent psychological breakdown. Enforced prostitution was practiced in some areas. One witness reported seeing at least 25 young girls held together as prostitutes across several towns. A 17-year-old schoolgirl who resisted was killed. A mentally disabled girl raped by 20 soldiers was thrown from a second-floor window and left paralyzed. A woman from Voni was raped by four men on three separate occasions and became pregnant. Hundreds of women who were assaulted became pregnant. Special legislation had to be passed in Cyprus to allow abortions, with procedures carried out at private clinics, Nicosia General Hospital, and at British Base hospitals in Dhekelia and Akrotiri. The Church of Cyprus gave tacit consent to the legal amendment. The scale was recorded in medical testimony compiled in the book "The Other War of the Doctors in 1974" by Chrysanthos Chrysanthou. These events are documented, not alleged. The European Commission of Human Rights put them on the record. #Cyprus #1974Invasion #NeverForget