Tylliria marks 59 years since Turkish bombings (updated)

Tuesday marked 59 years since the bombing of Tylliria in 1964 when, from August 7 to 9, Turkish air forces dropped napalm bombs on villages in the area.

“It is a sad day, which awakens the memories of the destruction of the region because it was the beginning of the sufferings [which] to this day continue to plague the region,” Kato Pyrgos community leader Nicos Kleanthous told the Cyprus News Agency.

Kleanthous added that August 8 is a day to remember and honour the resistance heroes who died defending their region and all the residents who kept their land free.

“The bombings of Tylliria which burned down the entire area at the time with dozens of dead, both local residents and national guard soldiers, are the beginning of the problem and [since] then we have the continued depression of the area which has [been left to] the mercy of time and decay,” the community leader said.

“Tylliria paid a heavy price to keep the region intact and free from Turkish expansion,” he added.

The community leader went on to decry the state’s 60-year-long “indifference” to regional isolation and reiterated a longstanding concern of the residents that, should the current situation continue, its communities will face extinction.

“Unfortunately, Tylliria continues to fight for survival alone [and residents are] fighting tooth and nail to hold on to the land of their fathers. If the region does not [gain access] to special measures [and incentives] that will give new life […] it is doomed,” the community leader said.

Residents have long felt their region is in limbo, trapped and cut off from the rest of the island, in part because the Turkish Cypriot Kokkina enclave prevents the road from connecting residents more directly to Paphos and Nicosia.

Kleanthous made a point of this, doubling down on his demands for a crossing point to be opened in the area.

“Unfortunately, we have made it to 2023 and while crossing points have been opened across Cyprus – mostly to benefit the Turkish Cypriots and the Turkish side – the road at Kokkina remains closed, keeping the area enclaved.”

However, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar had previously ruled out the idea, saying it is not possible to open a crossing point there as it is “a sacred area” and functions as a military base.

Meanwhile, 900 Turkish Cypriots were bused into the area from 8am on Tuesday from the north through the Limnitis crossing, to participate in annual celebrations of the bombardment, viewed as a victory and known as the ‘Glorious Erenkoy resistance’, and to honour the fallen, in the enclaved village of Kokkina.

Tatar arrived in the village by helicopter, while other officials arrived by land and sea.

Making a speech at the ceremony, Tatar said the Turkish Cypriot people had almost been wiped out prior to that day and described it as “a morale boost to everyone”.

Once again referencing earlier comments made by former Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, he said “our answer to those who say ‘the politics of a two-state solution is empty words’, is the price paid, the martyrs, the cruel genocides we have been through. They are plans of mass extermination, and it is our people who are valiant, resistant, and willing to die”.

He had already made a speech at another event to mark the anniversary on Monday, saying “the Glorious Erenkoy resistance, which is considered the most important cornerstone of the Turkish Cypriot people’s struggle for existence, amounts to epic heroism on the part of hundreds of patriotic Turkish Cypriot university students and the people of the region, who left their education in the spring of their lives and joined the defence of the homeland.

“Hundreds of freedom fighters protecting the only point of connection between the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey by repelling attacks initiated by the fascist terrorist organisation Eoka … effectively exercised Turkey’s right of intervention provided by the Treaty of guarantee,” he said.