I would like to wish a warm welcome back to John Alexander, who has been rather conspicuous of late by his absence. However, I note that his all-too-brief hiatus from posting on the CM has not cured him of his endearing habit of being rather economical with the truth.

JA claims: "So, the idea that Papadopoulos said he would wipe out the TCs in 45 or 75 minutes is just another TC myth, I'm afraid."

No, John, I am afraid it is well documented in the United States National Archives, and brought to light by Makarios Drousiotis. In Greek, the quote from PapaDop to an American official was the following:

«Αν ο τουρκικός στόλος εισέλθει εντός των νέων ορίων των 12 μιλίων θα το θεωρήσουμε ως έναρξη εισβολής. Υπολογίζουμε ότι αυτό θα μας δώσει 75 λεπτά για να καθαρίσουμε τους Τουρκοκύπριους, ώστε να μπορέσουμε να αμυνθούμε, και έχουμε σχέδια και μέσα για να το πράξουμε».

which basically translates as:

"If the Turkish fleet enters our 12 mile soverign zone, we will consider this as an act of invasion. We believe that gives us 75 minutes to wipe out the Turkish Cypriots, so that we can defend ourselves, and we have the plans and the means to achieve this."

JA will of course dismiss this, by claiming that PapaDop meant only armed enclaves (as if this justifies wiping them out, as the "armed enclaves" were also full of TC civilians, including women and children, who were gathered there for their own protection. This would have meant in practice wiping out a great number of TCs). However, this claim is disingenuous, as the language is clear, and does not anywhere specify only armed Turkish Cypriots, or fortified enclaves. Moreover, considering the source of the declaration, I would not be inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Finally, to add to JA's hagiography of the infamous man who is fortunately no longer with us, I believe we should all not forget the role of the law firm he founded and which bore his name, in laundering billions of euros from the Milosevic regime. Ah, such principle, such ethic. The man is truly missed.

Zeytin – The Amenian, Greek and Kurdish communities are waiting with baited breath for the many apologies from Ankara for the great number of atrocities committed over the past 100 years but do the Turks ever apologies?

Politics of the Cyprus problem aside, I think that this ridiculous events reveal deep troubling problems withing Cypriot society. To use a dead man's body as a publicity stunt is despicable in the least.

What happened to the 3 pages of 36 comments on the article analyzing the ECHR political reprecussions? Is censorship taking place by Cyrpus Mail indiscriminately on all the 36 comments made there, or is the topic adjudged too sensitive forCyprus Mail to permit free discussion here?

I shall only request the editor of CM that that the comments there (or some) are brought back. Until then I shall not contribute in this forum.

Papadop did a lot of good for Cyprus. It is for people like him that we have PARTITION. Thank you for that!

May he now rest in peace!

TMT=EOKA , they are both same in my opinion. If you call one of them being terrorist, the other also should be call terrorist too. They both were against Cyprus being independence.
The history (past) is too painful to go by, future should be in peoples (cypriots) minds and move forward. Can they do that? any possibility? can it happen?
But i still will say rest in peace for the man.

Hello John!!
You are back again!!!
Were you not one of those that blamed the TC's for the disappearance of the body?
By the way, we never did get your answer on how you decided Mr Eroglu was a terrorist. Where did you read it? Who wrote it? When was it published?
I understand Eroglu has started legal proceedings agains you and the CM for libel.
Kemal has his facts all wrong! Mr Papadopoulos was not so naive as to claim that he could wipe out the Turkish Cypriots in 45 minutes. He actually said it would take 75 minutes.
Now that we are on the subject of terrorists-
PapaD was a founder member of that terrorist organisation EOKA (can't remember now if it was A,B,C or what ever).
He was the co-architect of the Akritas Plan to exterminate Turkish Cypriots and was so confident about it that he boasted to the USA that he could do it in 75 minutes. You still looking for a Cypriot terrorist???

Mr Papadopoulos had many enemies.

He married Gorgagis wife and he was active member of EOKA (cell leader).

He telephone US embassy in 1964 and told them that if Turkey invaded he would wipe out the Turkish Cypriot community in 45 minutes.

He was the main engineer and brain behind Arkidas plan.

He has also done alot of good for Cyprus.

We forgive all his sins. Rest in peace

We have nothing to apologise for. Neither the Greek Cypriot leadership or the majority of the community ever blamed Turkish Cypriots for this or the other crime you mentioned. Only a handfull of idiots on these comments ever did.