“I am ashamed to be Turkish Cypriot”: Former MEP apologizes for the murders of Isaak and Solomos

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the events in Deryneia, Niazi Kiziljurek describes what he experienced and denounces the collaboration of the Turkish state, the parastate and nationalist organizations

Takeaways…

Turkish Cypriot academic Niazi Kiziljurek refers to the murders of Tasos Isaak and Solomos Solomos in the Deryneia no-go zone in August 1996.

Tasos Isaak was beaten to death by members of the Grey Wolves, while Solomos Solomos was fatally shot three days later during demonstrations.

Kiziljurek denounces the collaboration between the Turkish state and nationalist organizations, claiming that the perpetrators received political cover from the then leadership.

The European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey in 2008, but none of the wanted persons have been brought to justice to date.

The murder of Solomos Solomos by members of the Grey Wolves and Tasos Isaak by fire from the Turkish side in the Famagusta buffer zone in August 1996, is referred to in a post by Turkish Cypriot academic and former AKEL MEP Niazi Kiziljurek.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the events in Deryneia, Kızılıyorek published a text in which he describes what he experienced and denounces the collaboration of the Turkish state, the parastate and nationalist organizations. He closes his intervention with a reference to Tasos Isaak’s daughter, who was born a few weeks after her father’s murder.

“I believe that it is the duty of all of us to apologize, at least to the orphaned girl who came into the world with the name Anastasia,” he says.

“I was ashamed”

Niazi Kızılıyorek was in a television studio in Nicosia on August 11, 1996, when the images of the beating of 24-year-old Tasos Isaak in the Deryneia no-go zone were broadcast live.

Isaac had run to help another protester when he was caught in the barbed wire. He was surrounded by members of the Grey Wolves and occupation forces, who beat him to death with clubs, stones and metal objects.

The Turkish Cypriot academic describes the embarrassment and anger that the images caused in the television studio, saying that he left in a state of collapse. “I was ashamed to be a Turkish Cypriot,” he writes, explaining that his shame came from the fact that the brutality was presented as an act carried out in the name of the Turkish Cypriot community.

Three days later, on August 14, 26-year-old Solomos Solomou was shot when he tried to take down the Turkish flag from a flagpole of an occupation force post. The murder was recorded by television cameras and the images were broadcast around the world.

Grey Wolves and the Occupying Regime

In his text, Niazi Kızılıyorek claims that members of the Grey Wolves had been transferred from Turkey to occupied Cyprus to confront the Greek Cypriot demonstrators.

He also states that Turkish Cypriot journalists had been warned by the occupying regime that they could not record or photograph everything they saw that day. According to him, the journalists were informed that their names had been recorded.

Kızılıyorek describes hundreds of nationalists moving near the ceasefire line holding clubs, hunting rifles and flags with the three crescents of the Grey Wolves.

He is particularly critical of the then Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He reports that after the assassination of Tasos Isaak, he welcomed members of the Grey Wolves to the so-called “presidential palace”, who called him “Basbug”, meaning leader, and offered them lemonade.

The Turkish Cypriot academic also attributes responsibility to the then Prime Minister of Turkey Tansu Çıler, who had rushed to the occupied territories and had declared that “the hands that stretch out to the flag will break”. According to Kızılıyürek, that statement provided political cover to the perpetrators.

Anastasia who did not know her father

Tasos Isaak’s wife was pregnant when he was assassinated. Their daughter was born a few weeks later and was named Anastasia, after her father. Her sponsor was the then Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, Theodoros Pangalos.

Haris Alexiou performed for Anastasia the “Swallow’s Song”, with lyrics by Michalis Christodoulides, which was associated with the memory of Tasos Isaak and the daughter he never got to know.

In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights condemned Turkey for violating the right to life in the Isaak and Solomos cases. Thirty years after the murders, none of the wanted men have been brought to trial, while the arrest warrants remain unexecuted.

This is Niazi Kizilgurek’s post

“The summer when Tasos and Solomos were murdered, I felt great shame!

That summer, first Kutlu Antali was murdered. Then, the horrific acts of violence that followed one another made the hot, yellow August of 1996 go down in history as a pitch-black month.

That August, Greek Cypriot motorcyclists in the Deryneia area managed to escape from the UN soldiers and entered the buffer zone. They began to advance towards the soldiers, police officers and “fully armed civilians” who were facing them.

After they got close enough, they started to run backwards, but got tangled in the barbed wire. Men with clubs running behind they were beating Greek Cypriots to death.

It was a horrific image.

A young man, who had become entangled in the barbed wire and could not escape, was being lynched with clubs.

The television stations broadcast this scene of savagery live.

Three days later, the funeral of Tasos Isaak took place. The funeral, which took place in deep silence and black sadness, was to end with a terrifying scene.

Solomos Solomou, a relative of Tasos, after the funeral joined a group that moved north and reached the northern edge of the buffer zone.

With a cigarette in his mouth, he began to climb the mast where the Turkish flag was flying.

The television stations broadcast again alive.

Suddenly, Solomos slid down from the pole he had climbed and collapsed to the ground. The young man had fallen dead from gunfire from the north, like a bird being shot in a hunt.

That summer they poured salt on the wounds of the Greek Cypriots.

The “death ritual” in Deryneia had been organized by the official authorities. Violent “nationalist” groups had been brought to the island as a measure against the Greek Cypriot demonstrators. The journalists who gathered on August 11 in front of the Turkish Cypriot Information Office had been warned in advance: “This is a special day. Today you cannot write down everything you see or photograph everything you see. Don’t forget that we have all your names on record.”

The journalists would understand exactly what these words meant when were arriving at the scene of the incidents. A journalist, seeing people wandering along the ceasefire line holding flags with three crescents, clubs and hunting rifles, asked:

-“What’s going on, are we hunting?”

-“Today all kinds of hunting are allowed,” he got in response.

Worst of all, Denktash, after the brutal murder of Tasu Isaak-, hosted those who were tired of the “hunting” in his presidential palace, offered them lemonade to cool off and, amid slogans of “Basbug Denktash” (“Chief Denktash”), boldly declared to the press: “We will not give you our land!”

That summer, as a human being, my conscience was hurting and as a Turkish Cypriot I felt ashamed.

Because the murderers acted in the name of all Turkish Cypriots.

I know very well that in this country there is no culture of apology. However, when Tasos Isaak was killed, his daughter was still in her mother’s womb. I believe that it is the duty of all of us to apologize – at least to the orphaned girl who came into the world with the name Anastasia.”