Actor Olgaç’s remarks lead to storm in Cyprus, Athens
Posted by evdomada on January 27, 2009
Following the televised remarks of a former Turkish army conscript about how he had executed a prisoner of war on Cyprus, Greek Cyprus has urged Turkey to account for some 1,500 people missing since its intervention on the island 35 years ago.
Attila Olgac - Todays Zaman
Later in the day, however, the conscript retracted his statement, saying it was false.
Actor Attila Olgaç told a Turkish television program last week that while serving in the Turkish army during the 1974 intervention he shot at least one prisoner dead on orders from a superior.
“The first person that I killed was a 19-year-old soldier who was taken prisoner,” Olgaç was quoted by Turkish newspapers as saying on the program. “When I aimed my gun at his face, he spat in my face. I shot him in the forehead. He died. Later on, I killed nine more people during clashes,” Olgaç was quoted as saying.
The four-decade-old Cyprus problem erupted after the eastern Mediterranean island was granted independence from Britain in 1960, soon followed by an outbreak of inter-communal clashes in 1963. The island has been ethnically divided between a Greek south and a Turkish north since the Turkish military intervened in 1974 under the terms of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee in response to an Athens-backed coup by supporters of uniting the island with Greece after diplomacy failed to end unrest on the island.
In Greek Cyprus on Friday, government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou described the interview as “shocking” and said it was the first time anyone had made such an admission.
He said Olgaç’s remarks underscore Turkey’s obligation to abide by European Court of Human Rights rulings and cooperate in uncovering the circumstances of the disappearances.
In Greece, Foreign Ministry spokesman George Koumoutsakos said Olgaç’s account was “a stunning testimony and confession,” and he urged Turkey to take action.
“Turkey must cooperate to ensure that all the disappearances that took place during the Turkish invasion are fully investigated,” Koumoutsakos said.
But on Friday, Olgaç said in a statement that his remarks on Thursday’s television program were not true and that he made them up to attract attention to the brutality of war. “My words that ‘I killed 10 people including a prisoner’ referred to a scenario,” Olgaç said in a statement sent to media organizations on Friday. “I want to inform the public that they had nothing to do with the truth.”
Around 1,500 Greek Cypriots and 500 Turkish Cypriots vanished during the invasion and in clashes in the early 1960s. A United Nations-sponsored exhumation and identification program has so far unearthed the remains of 466 people from 230 burial sites on both sides of the divide. To date, the remains of 110 people have been identified and returned to their families.
Relatives of missing Greek Cypriots, however, say the UN program does not go far enough and have a longstanding demand for a formal investigation to account for the fate of the missing.
Source: TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES ANKARA
