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Sunday, September 11, 2005

It’s time to take our heads out of the sand

"It’s time to take our heads out of the sand
By Elias Hazou

FILMMAKER Antonis Angastiniotis, the man behind the Voice of Blood documentary telling of the massacre of Turkish Cypriot civilians in 1974, has called on all Cypriots to open their eyes to the past and acknowledge that crimes and mistakes were committed on both sides.

“I am a warrior of peace, if you will,” he told the Sunday Mail. “There is too much hatred on this little island, and what I’m trying to do is show that there are bad apples in both communities.
“That doesn’t mean everyone is a rabid nationalist or criminal,” adds Angastiniotis, who insists his work aims at dispelling myths and stereotypes propagated on the two sides of the divide.

Last year his documentary was shown in the north only, after media in the south effectively banned it. It includes extensive footage and interviews with survivors of the attacks. All the Greek television networks contacted either bluntly refused to air it or diplomatically talked their way out of it.

The film explores the killings perpetrated by Greek Cypriot paramilitary groups in the villages of Maratha, Aloa and Sandalari in the wake of the Turkish invasion. It was filmed entirely in the occupied areas.

In the village of Tochni, 69 Turkish Cypriots were murdered and later found in a mass grave. In Aloa, 57 Turkish Cypriots were killed, while in Maratha a further 88 corpses were discovered in a mass grave. Reports in the international media shortly after the invasion spoke of men, women and children being massacred, then buried in a rubbish dump and bulldozed over. Their putrefying bodies were later dug out in the presence of UN troops and world press."

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