Takis Hatzidimitriou considers the emptiness of the junta but also the mentality and the inability of its leadership to realize the destruction of Cyprus and Hellenism that it has brought about as revealed by the declassified documents of the then KYP, which were made public yesterday by the EYP on the occasion of the 50 years since the coup and the invasion of Cyprus.
Invited by the KYPE to comment on the content of the documents, the historian and writer, as well as a former politician who lived that period closely, since he was a collaborator with Archbishop Makarios, stated that the documents reveal "nothing". They promote apolitical rather than reveal actions of the junta in Cyprus, said Mr. Hatzidimitriou who has read - as he mentioned - the writings and considers them to be indicative of the dictator Dimitris Ioannidis' belief that the coup in Cyprus would have no consequences
"Not only dates are missing, but substance as well. What new did these documents tell us? Nothing new. And this is the tactic followed by the KYP in all its documents, which I am able to know because I have been following them since the time of the junta". According to Mr. Hatjidimitriou, the junta's strategy against Makarios. He also asked if it is "secret and confidential" the reference in one of the documents that 50 new police officers were hired for the Reserve.
He characterized the references in the documents to the intra-community talks on the subject of the Municipalities as "ridiculous" and wondered if it is a revelation that the reference that the departure of Greek soldiers causes anxiety among nationalists, because the communists will prevail and take action. Elsewhere, he says, it is recorded that the expulsion of officers is led by a foreign power - meaning the Soviet Union - and the communists and that the Soviet Union said that if the Greek officers leave it will take over the security of Cyprus. "Tell me if these things make sense."
While, he continued, as he is in a position to know, the then KYP had information from mid-June about the movements of the Turkish army in the south, but in the declassified documents, the KYP presents the Turkish army under disbandment.
In an intense tone, Takis Hatzidimitriou said that about July 15, when the coup took place, he "doesn't say anything" and wonders if "they didn't notice that a coup had taken place, because after the whole world knew about it, they didn't send a supplementary report". The resumes of the ministers were sent the day after the inauguration of the Samson government, he said, while after the invasion of Turkey, on July 20, the documents speak of a "moderate and mild reaction by Turkey." In the joint bulletin of July 23 and 24, 1974, it is noted that "the Turks were not determined for war with Greece", described the Cypriot historian, wondering if "we understood what happened". Are these things declassification of documents or revelations of the stupidity of the Junta that waged war against Cyprus, he wondered.
Asked if he thinks they have nothing to offer, he replied: "not only do they have nothing to offer, they are also jokes".
After July 24, 974, Mr. Hatzidimitriou, which in Greece was taken over by Konstantinos Karamanlis, the bulletins of the then KYP become more descriptive.
Conspiracies are not made with documents and services, noted the then associate of Archbishop Makarios, saying that these conspiracies are made with orders and emissaries. In the final phase of the coup process in Cyprus, said Takis Hatzidimitriou, they did not communicate with Athens by phone or with documents, they sent Kontosii to convey the messages to Athens and he did not come "with a written text in his puga".
"There is no document of substance that refers to the action of the Junta. Their content is to present the Makarios instrument of the communists, so the coup was savior", he added.
All the juntas knew how to do were coups, arrests and torture, commented Mr. Hatzidimitriou. These cannot be seen from the documents, but it was the KYP people who were moving the threads here on the national front and EOKA B. "What they showed us was different and what they did."
He wondered why the Greek government does not make public the reports of the then Greek Embassy to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the reports of Grigoris Bonanou (head of the Greek armed forces at the time). Mr. Hadjidimitriou said that when he himself went to Athens after the second invasion, on his way to London, and saw the then Foreign Minister, Georgios Mavro showed him the empty shelves and told him that he did not find any documents in the Ministry.
