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source: Cyprus Indymedia, 01 July 2010
Jennifer PLEASE don't go!
The location of this place is my mother's and grandfather's village named Ayios Epiktitos (Άγιος Επίκτητος). It was illegally invaded in 1974 and ethnically cleansed by force of all its native and indigenous hellenic people.
It is still occupied today - illegally.
The invaders gave it a new name (a further violation of the Geneva Convention), razed most of our traditional adobe homes to the ground and is now building glitzy glamor social "hot" spots, along with casinos, brothels, money laundering and illegal tourist operations.
Hundreds of my cousins, uncles and relatives from Ayios Epiktitos have been forced into exile and now live as refugees spread all over the globe. The Turkish military does not allow us to return to live there - everyone else in the world is invited by the regime for illegal tourism and to settle on our stolen lands except our own people, even though these have been our peoples' traditional homelands for thousands of years.
Every other stone you kick over while walking, building or cultivating the land in our country reveals a statue, a shard of pottery, an antiquity site documenting and tracing the continuity of civilization in Cyprus for more than ten thousand years... until now. The custodians and keepers of that civilization, the native people of the land, have been expelled from there by force, by murder and violence.
I barely survived that invasion myself. One of my last memories of Ayios Epiktitos as I fled the area with my father and other family friends running for our lives, is the image of the olive groves extending from the edge of the village to the main road and then all the way down to the sea. By the side of the road and in between the olive trees were overturned tractors and trucks on fire, trucks upside down with the wheels still spinning, and the fertile cultivated land strewn with dead bodies. These were the last defenders of the village, blown to bits, burned, strafed and machine-gunned to death protecting the entrance to Ayios Epiktitos from the invading enemy troops. Some of them were my schoolmates; some of them will just be forever unknown: the faces of those who died so that I may live.
Forcibly chased away from our homes and homelands our people have become refugees, activists and freedom fighters... by necessity. We see that you have a sensitivity for social causes, especially around Feminist values, which by definition are against war, slaughter, racism, ethnic cleansing and genocide. We ask for your kindness, your solidarity, your understanding.
Why lend your good name to the oppressors, exploiters and butchers of the world?
Jennifer PLEASE don't go!
Petros Evdokas, petros@cyprus-org.net
http://CyprusIndyMedia.org
and
http://petros-evdokas.cyprus-org.net/Another-sort-of-Introduction.html
~~~~~~~~~~
Military Occupation, Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide:
http://www.kypros.org/Occupied_Cyprus/epiktitos/
Wartime: Missing Persons from Ayios Epiktitos:
http://www.missing-cy.org/cgi-bin/missing/display_origin?orc=0&or1=Ayios+Epiktitos
* Friends, please feel free to distribute, publish, email and post this letter far and wide, wherever you think it is appropriate to do so. Thank you.
AGAINST JENNIFER LOPEZ PERFORMING IN OCCUPIED CYPRUS
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AGAINST-JENNIFER-LOPEZ-PERFORMING-IN-OCCUPIED-CYPRUS/129154837124167?v=wall
The headlines speak for themselves:
Jennifer Lopez to Attend Opening of Cratos Premium
http://www.ftnnews.com/content/view/9756/26/
Excerpts from the news:
"Turkish Cypriot daily Halkin Sesi newspaper (30.06.10) reports on the visit of Jennifer Lopez to the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus in order to perform at the Cratos Premium Hotel on June 24. Speaking to the newspaper, [occupation regime] officials evaluated the arrival of Lopez to the occupied areas as a great event. Specifically, [the occupation regime's] self-styled minister of tourism, Kemal Durust stated that the arrival of such artists to our country is a great advantage for both recognition and tourism. On his part, the self-styled minister of finance, Ersin Tatar noted: 'Let Lopez come and we will welcome her at the airport. A world star will come and a message will be given to this world. This is an amazing event.'
.../...
Furthermore, Cyprus Today newspaper (30.06.10) reports that the contract of the concert, which Jennifer Lopez will give at the invitations-only official opening of Cratos Premium Hotel located in occupied Kazafani, has recently been signed and Ms Lopez is said to have been paid three million dollars for the concert. As the paper notes, it is claimed that she will arrive in the occupied areas of Cyprus two days prior to the concert with her 80-strong entourage and will spend three days there."
http://www.hri.org/news/cyprus/tcpr/2010/10-06-30.tcpr.html#07
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