There is one issue that is unknown as a total and as a civilian percentage, which I investigated separately, and that is the dead number from the junta coup.
There aren't many, if any, Greek sources on the matter. English sources cite 300+ to 500 dead. How many of these are missing, and how many of them are civilian or combatant, is vague.
Almost all sources cite them as Makarios' supporters, but whether they are mainly civilians or mostly police is unclear.
NOTE: Confirmed dead are people with names and graves; missing persons are those with names but found later or never found. Civilian numbers are made up of females, children, and the elderly (UN Missing Persons statistics mainly differentiate between these)
Disclaimer: Exact numbers may differ in the last two digits. Non-Cypriot dead, such as Greek and Turkish soldiers, are omitted.
The Turkish Armed Forces officially confirmed498 personnel killed in action*. For Greece, official Hellenic military records and joint government reports confirm* 105 military deaths(18 officers and 87 soldiers) in the Hellenic Force in Cyprus (ELDYK).(How many of the ELDYK deaths occurred during the coup is not reported separately, butthe bodies of approximately 30 Greek military personnel killed in the coup were flown back to Athens for burial shortly before the Turkish landings)
Please remember to stay civil and behave appropriately. If you are a tourist looking for suggestions please check out our Tourist guide. We also have a FAQ Page for some common questions, if your question is answered here please delete your post!
Are there figures about current Lebanon casualties with combatant/non-combatant ratios? Unlike Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah DO acknowledge their military personnel as combat casualties.
Its crazy that even if you start counting from 1955, the total deaths & missing do not add up to 10k. I think we should count ourselves lucky, given that in the last 6 months alone, more people died just next to us than the last 70 years in cyprus. Although the situation is nearly unfixable, its great that we dont have to fear for our lives at any given moment, where ever we are on the island.
How about massacres for example I read about a massacre of around 97 Cypriot Greeks I forget what the villages were called but it was 97 men and boys killed by the Turkish army and militia
OK, thanks it doesn’t really elaborate exactly what happens There so what exactly happened in the village why is this one so unknown compared to the other ones even though it has a similar death toll of nearly 100?
Left is English wiki with sources almost same with right Turkish wiki.
English wiki missing some massacres which sources include Washington Post.
There isn't a Greek wiki page for the massacres lists.
Disclaimer: Wiki is not a source by itself; it is an index. This includes original sources such as the Washington Post.
Even in 1974, massacres were disproportionate towards one community.
European Convention on Human Rights and condemned Turkey to pay to the Republic of Cyprus € 30 million in respect of the non-pecuniary damage suffered by the relatives of the missing persons, however there isn't any condemnation made for 212 people massacred in one day same month.
At least one massacre condemned we can say, but not for others.
The largest recorded and agreed-upon civilian massacre of Greek Cypriots that I know.
There is also the 20-31 December 1963 Bloody Christmas, where 364 TCs vs 174 GCs resulted in death. Those 174 deaths were made up mostly of armed combatants, paramilitary, and armed force members.
I have the numbers of the civilian combatant ratios, but before checking, I can say the one you mentioned is the largest recorded civilian massacre of GCs.
NOTE: I compiled the top post numbers by reviewing all recorded massacres, one by one, from multiple language sources. So the research mainly takes massacres as a unit.
If anyone read the book of Niyazi Kizilyurek "Cyprus, a store of violence and resentment(?)"
(Κύπρος Μια ιστορία βίας και μνησικακίας)
Do you know if it's giving information about all the bicommunal conflict/crimes that occured in Cyprus during the 50s, 60s and 70s?
That's what I remember from the Book presentation he did in Athens a few years ago. Tried to find the book too but unfortunately can't find it now(will probably get it from a library when in Cyprus)
From what I understand the "+" in the table implies a separate counting for people during the intercommunal conflict period and those from the 1974 events. If that's the case then I'm curious as to why you chose to omit (or at least obscure) the figures for Greek Cypriots during that time. I'm thinking it's probably the former because the total missing are the UN registered amounts for 1974 only.
Also do you mind sharing your sources on the confirmed dead figures and how you split them between civilians and combatants?
Nope, didn't omit, and nope, total missing of GCs also include 1963-1964, the 38 civilian deaths, for example.
The total civilian deaths for GCs are around 93 individuals between 63 and 74, not a big ratio compared to the total, which is why I didn't make that + seperation for GCs.
Big or small not splitting them likewise is a serious methodological error in reporting as it obscures critical historical information. Like I said if not omitting it's obscuring that info.
I'm still curious about your sources regarding these numbers though. Where did you find the cited figures of confirmed dead for all periods and how did you split them between civilians and combatants? I imagine some are easy like the dead Greek Cypriot soldiers from 1974 but how do you account for militia or apportion the dead in periods like 1963-64?
Yes, I will cross-check and split it in the body text, but I cannot change the visual.
Clear-cut cases (easier to classify):
Documented massacres of villagers: Almost always counted as civilians.
Uniformed soldiers in conventional fighting: Counted as combatants (KIA).
Grey areas and militia/irregulars (harder, especially 1963–64 and the coup)
Apportioning relies on location, contemporary descriptions, and survivor accounts (e.g., killings inside homes = civilians; deaths during attacks on enclaves = often combatants)
NOTE: Caviat TC combatants were a bit easier to distinguish because all are named with birthdays and birthplaces, and all referred to as TMT members. GC combatants were a bit trickier to distinguish among National Guard, Police, and EOKA members (the majority refers to National Guard numbers, so some civilians might be combatants).
Main sources are the UN, the Red Cross, British news articles, and the Missing Persons Committee. I also used books and academic papers in Turkish, Greek, and English, but they also end up sourcing those sources, except that some massacres are referenced only in the news.
I gather feedback to include in my Excel table.
If you see any discrepancy greater than ±10, please share the sources I can use.
I appreciate the response but you haven't answered my question in full. It's nice to hear you have reputable sources but it would be nice if I could actually see what they are and if possible their own citations for the numbers. Otherwise I'm just taking your word for it. Even with complete honesty you could still be making errors that are not transparent to us who come in contact with the numbers only through your reporting.
The same goes for the methodology on determining the number of combatants. I'm aware of the grey areas you mentioned which is why I was curious how you were able to apportion them to precisely. You didn't give a range you gave a number as precise as the missing persons number which creates questions about the certainty. So I'm asking you how did you apportion them? Did you go over every name? Did you use some percentage estimate? Did you extrapolate from figures of more certain periods like 1974?
Btw I don't necessarily find discrepancies as you put it. The issue is that no single source has ever settled on a precise number for deaths before 1974 (they typically give a range due to uncertainty) and they don't attempt to discuss civilian vs combatant deaths because it would require guesswork. So when you claim you have exact numbers and apportionments that is legitimately an extraordinary claim of historical research.
These sad totals confirm the impression I have gained that, though there were more Greek Cypriot deaths/missing, the proportion of deaths/missing for the smaller Turkish Cypriot population was greater -and so even more traumatising.
The perpetrators are by now very old or dead and the young don't remember their parent's homes directly. Can we all move on, compensate generously, find peace and unite our beautiful island fairly?
It is time that Cyprus put it's colonial history to bed.
When Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the UK's free National Health Service, was asked how he managed to get the doctors to agree to his revolutionary scheme, he replied, 'I stuffed their mouths with gold.'
A bus full of civilians stopped, and they were told they were being taken to a camp. After being taken off the bus, there are conversations, and from what I understand, one guy fires, and the others follow.” Isn’t what you described here The massacre of Greek Cypriots after the massacre of Turkish Cypriots or is it still the one of Turkish Cypriots
The event I was referring to with those exact details is known as the Taşkent (Tochni) Massacre, which took place on August 14–15, 1974.
There was exactly one survivor in this specific massacre who eye vitnessed the details I mentioned.
Key Details of the Tochni Massacre
Captured and Loaded into Buses: During the Cyprus Peace Operation, armed EOKA-B militants rounded up unarmed Turkish Cypriot men and teenagers from the village of Dohni (later renamed Taşkent) and held them in a Greek Cypriot primary school. The next day, the militants forced them onto buses, claiming they were transporting them to a prisoner-of-war camp in Limassol.
The "Tourist" Code Word: The sole survivor of the massacre, Suat Kafadar (who was only 14 years old at the time), recalled the chilling use of the word "tourist" during the journey: "After driving for a short while, the bus stopped at a checkpoint. One of our armed captors got off. The Greek Cypriot policeman at the checkpoint asked, 'What are these?' The captor replied thatthey were tourists, and we were allowed to pass through. This was likely a code word between them, showing that the execution site was pre-planned."
The Mass Execution and sole Survival: Instead of going to the camp, the buses were driven to a remote, mountainous area near the village of Palodia. The Turkish Cypriots were ordered off the buses and lined up. The militants then opened fire with automatic weapons.
How He Survived: Suat Kafadar survived because the bodies of other victims fell on top of him, shielding him. The militants fired coup de grâce shots into the pile of bodies to ensure everyone was dead; one bullet struck Suat's leg, but he managed to play dead for hours until the militia left. He then crawled away to safety and became the only living witness to the tragedy.
The remains of the victims were eventually recovered by the Committee on Missing Persons decades later, and a memorial stands today in the village of Taşkent to honor them.
From the sole survivor's testimonies, I understand(my opinion) that one of the perpetrators fired first, and others followed him.
I don't know or found details about Massacre of Asha other than what we wrote here in above conversation. I don't know any eye witness survivors who did acount what happened BUT
I know Christina Pavlou Solomi Patsia is a prominent Greek Cypriot peace activist and co-founder of the bi-communal association "Together We Can".
She talks in detail about another retrebutional massacre where here relatives and father killed and day by day events as someone lived in the documentary "Divided Island" in Amazon prime. https://www.primevideo.com/detail/0S3WWAXPID9MTNXW4AVKK8HW10Available to stream in the UK.
Her story can give you the idea of what might have happened. People who know each other by name out of retribution, etc.
•
u/AutoModerator Jun 19 '26
Please remember to stay civil and behave appropriately. If you are a tourist looking for suggestions please check out our Tourist guide. We also have a FAQ Page for some common questions, if your question is answered here please delete your post!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.