Tuesday marks 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 which 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.
Meanwhile, 900 Turkish Cypriots started at 8am being bused to the Tylliria area from the north through the Limnitis crossing, to participate in annual celebrations of the bombardment, viewed as a victory, and to honour the fallen, in the enclaved Turkish village of Kokkina.
Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar is also expected to arrive to the event by helicopter as well as other officials arriving by land and sea.
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