Turkish Cypriot academic and former AKEL MEP Niyazi Kizilyurek has referred in a post to the killing of Solomos Solomou by members of the Grey Wolves and the killing of Tasos Isaak by gunfire from the Turkish side in the buffer zone in the Famagusta area in August 1996.

Marking 30 years since the events in Deryneia, Kizilyurek published a text in which he recounts what he experienced and accuses the Turkish state, the deep state and nationalist organisations of working together. He concludes his intervention by referring to the daughter of Tasos Isaak, who was born a few weeks after her father was killed.

“I believe it is everyone’s duty to apologise, at least to the orphaned girl who came into the world with the name Anastasia,” he says.

“I was ashamed”

Niyazi Kizilyurek was in a television studio in Nicosia on 11 August 1996 when footage of the beating of 24-year-old Tasos Isaak in the Deryneia buffer zone was broadcast live.

Isaak had run to help another protester when he became trapped in barbed wire. He was surrounded by members of the Grey Wolves and men from the occupation regime, who beat him to death with clubs, stones and metal objects.

The Turkish Cypriot academic describes the embarrassment and anger caused by the images 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 stemmed from the fact that the brutality was being presented as an act carried out in the name of the Turkish Cypriot community.

Three days later, on 14 August, 26-year-old Solomos Solomou was shot when he attempted to lower the Turkish flag from a flagpole at an outpost of the occupation forces. The killing was captured by television cameras and the footage was broadcast around the world.

Grey Wolves and the occupation regime

In his text, Niyazi Kizilyurek claims that members of the Grey Wolves had been brought from Turkey to occupied Cyprus to confront Greek Cypriot protesters.

He also says that Turkish Cypriot journalists had been warned by the occupation regime that on that day they could not record or photograph everything they would see. According to him, journalists were told that their names had been recorded.

Kizilyurek describes hundreds of nationalists moving around near the ceasefire line carrying clubs, shotguns and flags bearing the three crescents of the Grey Wolves.

He is particularly critical of then Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He says that following the killing of Tasos Isaak, Denktash received members of the Grey Wolves at the so-called “presidential palace”, where they called him “Basbug”, meaning leader, and offered them lemonade.

The Turkish Cypriot academic also holds then Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller responsible. She had rushed to the occupied territories and declared that “the hands that reach out to the flag will be broken”. According to Kizilyurek, that statement provided political cover for the perpetrators.

Anastasia, who never knew her father

Tasos Isaak’s wife was pregnant when he was killed. Their daughter was born a few weeks later and named Anastasia, after her father’s name. Her godfather was then Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos.

Haris Alexiou performed “The Swallow Song” for Anastasia, with lyrics by Michalis Christodoulidis. The song became associated with the memory of Tasos Isaak and the daughter he never had the chance to meet.

In 2008, the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey responsible for violating the right to life in the Isaak and Solomou cases. Thirty years after the killings, none of those wanted has been brought before a court, while the arrest warrants remain unexecuted.

Niyazi Kizilyurek’s post in full

“The summer when Tasos and Solomos were killed, I felt deeply ashamed!

That summer, Kutlu Adali was murdered first. Then the horrific acts of violence that followed one after another caused the hot, yellowed August of 1996 to go down in history as a pitch-black month.

That August, Greek Cypriot motorcyclists in the Deryneia area managed to get past the UN soldiers and entered the buffer zone. They began moving towards the soldiers, police officers and ‘fully equipped civilians’ who were standing opposite them.

After getting close enough, they began running back, but became entangled in the barbed wire. Men carrying clubs who were running after them beat the Greek Cypriots to death.

It was a horrific sight.

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

Television stations were broadcasting this scene of savagery live.

Three days later, Tasos Isaak’s funeral took place. The funeral, held in deep silence and black grief, was to end with a terrifying scene.

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

With a cigarette in his mouth, he began climbing the pole from which the Turkish flag was flying.

Television stations were once again broadcasting live.

Suddenly, Solomos slipped down the pole he had climbed and collapsed on the ground. The young man had been shot dead by gunfire from the north, like a bird shot while out hunting.

That summer, salt was rubbed into the wounds of the Greek Cypriots.

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

The journalists would understand exactly what these words meant when they reached the area of the incidents. A journalist, seeing people walking along the ceasefire line carrying flags with three crescents, clubs and shotguns, asked:

– ‘What is happening, is there a hunt?’

– ‘All kinds of hunting are permitted today,’ he was told.

Worst of all was that Denktash, after the savage killing of Tasos Isaak, hosted at his presidential palace those who had grown tired from the ‘hunt’, offered them lemonade to cool down and, amid chants of ‘Basbug Denktash’ (‘Leader Denktash’), brazenly told the press: ‘We will not give you our land!’

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

Because the killers were acting in the name of all Turkish Cypriots.

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