TRNC President Ersin Tatar Tatar issued a message on Thursday to remember the Alaminyo Martyrs and stated that the massacre, that had taken place in Alaminyo in which innocent civilians between the ages of six and eighty were murdered, was a crime committed against humanity.

According to the statement issued by the TRNC Presidency, Tatar said that the Greek Junta and its Greek Cypriot collaborators had set out to wipe out all Turkish Cypriot existence on the island following the coup carried out on July 15, 1974.

He said that the Greek Junta and EOKA militants had carried out great atrocities in places where the Turkish forces could not liberate, Alaminyo being one of them. “Innocent civilians between the ages of 6 and 80 were massacred in cold blood. This is a crime against humanity, this is brutality,” Tatar said in his message.

He reminded that similar massacres had taken place in Taşkent, Atlılar, Muratağa and Sandallar.

The President said  that the effective and de facto guarantorship of the Republic of Türkiye and the presence of Turkish army in Cyprus are the red lines because of this atrocity that has been inflicted on the Turkish Cypriots for years and added that it is impossible for Turkish Cypriots to accept the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island.

He added that the Turkish Cypriot people will continue to live in freedom thanks to the support and protection of Türkiye.

Underlining that it is everyone’s most sacred duty to protect the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which the Turkish Cypriot people founded at the cost of their lives and blood, and to fight for this cause with their freedom and sovereignty, Tatar said, “I express my gratitude to all our martyrs and veterans.”