President Ersin Tatar reacts to the use of the award winning 1964 photograph of Turkish Cypriot Nevcihan Oluşum by priests who portrayed her as being a Greek Cypriot woman
“The massacres committed against Turkish Cypriots cannot be hidden”
President Ersin Tatar said it is a “disgrace” that endeavouring to show the suffering of a 'Greek Cypriot woman, Greek Cypriot priests in South Cyprus chose to use the 1964 award winning photograph of Turkish Cypriot, late Nevcihan Oluşum, which was taken at the time she had learnt of the killing of her husband by Greek Cypriot forces.
“Massacres committed against Turkish Cypriots cannot be hidden”
President Tatar reacted to the event that was organised by the ‘Metropolitan of Constantia-Famagusta’ and the Greek Cypriot Youth Organisation under the name “Never Forget and Always Remember”, that was held on December 2, 2022. In the photograph used to promote the event, late Mrs Oluşum is seen crying and restrained by family members in Gaziveren having just been informed of the killing of her husband, but is claimed wrongly to be a “Greek Cypriot woman” of 1974.
The statement of the President reads as follows:
“Greek-Greek Cypriot forces and EOKA terrorists started island-wide attacks against the Turkish Cypriots as from December 21, 1963, as part of efforts to annex the island of Cyprus to Greece (Enosis). The purpose of the attacks were to eliminate the resistance of the Turkish Cypriot co-owners of the island to Enosis. In one of these attacks, Greek-Greek Cypriot forces attacked the village of Gaziveren on March 19, 1964. Five people were martyred in this attack whilst trying to defend the village.
Turkish Cypriot woman Nevcihan Oluşum had just been informed that her husband, Hüseyin Niyazi Hasan, had been martyred in the attack, and she was crying out in pain at the news when The Times newspaper war correspondent Sir Don McCullin snapped the photograph of Mrs Oluşum. This photograph later became the symbol of the great suffering of Turkish Cypriots in the face of Greek-Greek Cypriot attacks.
It is a disgrace that the Greek Cypriot side and their propaganda machinery, is trying to deceive the world public opinion by trying to hide the atrocities and massacres they committed against the Turkish Cypriot people in Cyprus. An attempt has been made to portray Mrs Oluşum, who passed away at the age of 87 in 2019, as being a “Greek Cypriot woman whose husband was (supposedly) killed in 1974”. The Times newspaper has previously denied the claim of the Greek Cypriot side, and has stated that the woman in the photograph is a Turkish Cypriot woman.
The attempts to portray Mrs Oluşum as being a Greek Cypriot woman of 1974 is a serious disrespect to all Turkish Cypriot women who have lost their loved ones, who were killed by Greek-Greek Cypriot forces between 1963 to 1974. It is not possible for us to accept this. The barbaric acts and massacres committed against Turkish Cypriots cannot be hidden through lies and portrayals.
My call is for religious officials and priests in South Cyprus to stop spreading lies and using the pain of people for political purposes.
May Mrs Nevcihan Oluşum and her martyr husband rest in eternal peace.
We respectfully remember with gratitude all our martyrs who gave their lives for the freedom of the Turkish Cypriot people.