Turks execute Greek couple

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33628, 2 September 1974, Page 13

Turks execute Greek couple

(N.Z. Press Assn —Copyright} NICOSIA, September 1. Turkish troops invaded a Greek Cypriot village near the British sovereign base at Dhekelia yesterday and executed an elderly man and woman they took as hostages, a Government spokesman said. Another 15 people were reported missing after the raid on the south-eastern village of Akhryritou, the fourth community in the area raided by Turkish troops in three days, the spokesman said. The two dead — a man aged 68 and a woman aged 60 — were found in a field with their eyes blindfolded and their bodies riddled with bullets, a Greek Cypriot spokesman said. He called the incident the most serious violation of the two week old cease-fire. In Greece, the Prime Min-, isister (Mr Karamanlis)

[warned Turkey it could not i hold the territory it had I seized on Cyprus without endangering its own security land world peace. In his first public address since taking over as head of I the new civilian Govem- | ment, Mr Karamanlis said that the Greeks had suffered a “painful disappointment [from the fact that N.A.T.O. [proved incapable of stopping the barbarian invasion by (Turkey and the danger of conflict between two of its I members.

“The invaders should [know that we shall not yield [to any accomplished facts and that we shall pursue our struggle until justice is done, no matter how much time and how many [sacrifices may be required.” the Prime Minister said. Meanwhile, the socialist Cypriot leader (Mr Vassos Lyssarides) who survived an assassination attempt in which his driver was killed lon Friday, said that revoluItion could erupt unless the (Government seized the (weapons of Eoka-B guerrillas.

: Mr Lyssarides, speaking at (the funeral of his driver and (friend, Mr Doros Loizou | blamed the assassination ■attempt on gunmen from the underground movement whom he called "lackeys” of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and laraeL “If the Government does I not take immediate action to (disarm the Fascist murderiers, the, people will rise.” the leader of the Social [Democratic Party said. The Dutch Foreign Minister (Mr Max Van Der Steel) has offered to act as an emissary between Greece land Turkey to find ways of 1 reopening negotiations over I Cyprus.

He also said that it would be helpful if Turkey made some concessions, such as permitting refugees in Cyprus to return to their homes or a partial withdrawal of Turkish troops on the island. GIRL RAPED An American girl, aged 14, who was trapped in a Greek Cypriot village overrun by Turkish soldiers, has returned home and said that she saw a girl raped by 30 soldiers and a child, aged ‘three months, shot to death.