It expresses the desire ofthe refugees to return to their homes and of Greek Cypriots in general not toforget that a major
part of their country is under military occupation byTurkey. I previously showed that the three main events that are picked out ofthe recent history of Cyprus are the start of the EOKA
struggle, independenceand the 1974 coup and invasion. What is the significance of these? If we firstlook at the actors involved, the Turkish Cypriots do not appear except aspossible complicitors of the British. Then the importance of the enosisslogan is underemphasized during the EOKA struggle and the later period. From acommemoration of 1960 we move to one of 1974. The period in-between isofficially not part of the social memory and this policy of silence can onlyamount to an eventual forgetting. The silence over the 1960-74 period alongwith the way the EOKA struggle is presented, essentially mean that no room isgiven to memories of official proclamations for enosis by the GreekCypriots (up to 1967 and after 1970) and to the
intercommunal (andintracommunal) violence of that period. The absence of intercommunal conflictmakes the current policy of rapprochement, based on the idea that 'we used tolive well with the Turkish Cypriots', appear both as plausible and truthful. Thesame date has been designated as the Turkish Cypriot Armed Forces day and alsocommemorates the conquest of Cyprus by the Ottomans. The military interventionof Turkey in 1974, the 'Peace Operation', is regarded as having saved them fromthe possible threat of extinction in the hands of the putschists. Finally,there is the celebration of the declaration of the area under their control asan independent state (15th November 1983). The July one is the Barish veOzgurluk Bayrami (Peace and Freedom Celebration) and it usually ends with a20th of July parade, celebrating the arrival of the Turkish army in Cyprus. Duringthis week all the dead Turkish Cypriots of the 1963 to 1974 period are mourned.The history of the TurkishCypriots emerges as one of unequivocal conflict with the Greek Cypriots untilthe Turkish army brought peace in 1974 and the official rhetoric thataccompanies such commemorations stresses that the past proves the impossibilityof the two nations ever living together in the future.