The Greek attack on GAZIVEREN 60 years ago remembered. Part 2

By Anders Arvidsson….

A past Swedish UN soldier

The onslaught on the village in March 1964 was carried out by the Greek Cypriots although the UNFICYP Resolution 186 to stop the violencewas signed two weeks earlier. The British troops inside the village during the attack were too few to stop the fighting and it was not until they were reinforced by the UN could efforts be made to stop the attacks and arrange a cease-fire which was conducted. In mid-April when the responsibility for the area was handed over to the newly arrived Swedish Battalion.

The first Swedish unit taking over from the British in Gaziveran was the Grenade Launcher unit in command of WO 3 Allevik. He was an officer at the Infantry Regiment in Gävle and had been serving close to the Battalion Commander Waern in the Congo, and as platoon commander he was very popular and appreciated by his men. In the yard of a not yet ready-built petrol station on the main road, they rapidly made an encampment with tents for a major part of the platoon. Guard Posts were put along the road to the west and east of the village and a daily observation post was placed facing towards the sea.

Now the villagers could feel safe against further attacks from the Greek Cypriots although it is not more than a couple of weeks since the marauding events occurred in March. The Swedes quickly made good contact with the villagers, and still, the old ones remember “Captain” Allevik.

One of the group commanders, Bengt Inghammar talks about his time in Gaziveren.

“Allevik and I made a lot of tours to Morphou (the district main town, Greek Cypriot) to get spare parts for the tractors in the village among other things. It was clearly obvious that the Greek- and Turkish Cypriots did not have any personal aggression to each other that part was governed by politicians and military people.”

The time off duty was often filled with football games between the platoon team and the young boys of the village. There was a usable field close to the encampment and they started to tour among the other villages, Turkish- as well as Greek. and arrange games. Especially in the now-isolated Turkish Cypriot villages the games become more or less village festivals since the possibility to meet other teams was hampered. A football game was made often and the whole village population came and became involved.

Inghammar tells more:

“Unrest started to prevail in the area and we could hear shootings almost every night. The villagers came often as guests to our camp in the outer part of the village. One evening when the Turks had been with us and were on their way back into the village there was a parcel on the road. Foolishly they picked it up and it proved to be a homemade bomb, a Booby Trap.

They dropped it immediately but the explosion it made resulted in splinter wounds to their legs and buttocks. We heard the explosion and our platoon commander shouted at me to take the Land Rover and a truck to transport the wounded to the Turkish Hospital in Nicosia. I drove the Land Rover with the Commander as passenger and the truck with the three wounded followed us. There were a lot of Greek Cypriot roadblocks in our way but Allevik was a man of decision.

UN takes a tough stance with Greek Cypriots

At each roadblock, he demanded to speak to whoever was in command, he then drew his gun, put it under the officer’s chin, and thus gained us free and rapid passage through. We got the wounded into care and went back to Gaziveren.”

During the time they are away with the victims of the booby trap one of the Greek Cypriot guard posts started to fire towards the village. A patrol of Swedes attacked the Greek position making the Greeks run away and were able to occupy the place and the patrol stayed until the following day.

During the following months, we went on with our usual tasks, escorting farmers into the fields to harvest or water the crops of. Oranges, or watermelons whatever, without UN escort they had not been able to reap during that year.

The platoon rotated later to other services and before being relieved by the next battalion they were posted in Kato Pyrgos further west along the coast.

Inghammar says again:

One day Allevik called for me and told me that the Turkish Cypriots we had saved and taken to the hospital in Nicosia were stuck there because the Greeks refused to let them out of the Turkish part of Nicosia. Together we collected a group we knew we could trust from our platoon. All of us had former UN duty in Gaza or Congo and we were determined to get the Turks back to Gaziveren.

Eight of us were given one evening leave in Nicosia before we were to go back home to Sweden. In a covered 1,5 tonnes Austin truck we drove to the capital, and before the Green Line we let two of our group off at the Greek side with orders at appointed time be back at the roadblock of Ledra Palace where the entrance to the Turkish side was.

The rest of us continued to the Savoy Hotel where we were met by three very nervous Turks. We had a delicious dinner and a couple of hours of relaxation and suddenly it was time to go back through the “gate” and the Greek control.

Returning to Gaziveren

We put the Turks as far as possible back inside the load compartment of the truck which was constructed for troop transport so there were benches to sit on along both sides. When we came nearer to the border we all played drunken, we sang and made a lot of noise. At the roadblock the two of our group we had left were waiting, also acting like drunks, most reliable, more intoxicated than they were. The Greeks laughed and let us through without any closer inspection.

We repeated the same show with laughter, singing, and shouting at every Greek roadblock between Nicosia and Gaziveren, the Greeks waved, laughed, and wished us a good trip. At a quick stop in Gaziveren, we said farewell to our three friends that gratefully disappeared in the darkness of their village. We continued to the camp in Kato Pyrgos relaxing with a couple of beers the Turks sent with us for refreshment.

In the official reports from SWEBAT, we can find the following note of July 6.

INFSUM  82 July 6

Tc leaders Hasan 1 and Hasan 2 of Gaziveran who became wounded when the parcel bomb blew up were returned to the village. It is known that these are the real leaders in the village, the Mukthar was not believed to have any major influence on events. The two had requested UN escort from the hospital in Nicosia but have now, by themselves returned. Their return signifies a substantial reinforcement of the defence of Gaziveren.

This is just an example of the friendship built up between the Swedish soldiers and the Turkish Cypriot people and of one of the humanitarian tasks performed by self-thinking compassioned UNFICYP soldiers at the time.

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