Kurtar Çakın, one of the former presidents of the Çukurova Journalists’ Association, was invited to the TRNC on the anniversary of the Muratağa, Atlılar and Sandallar Massacres, carried out against Turkish Cypriots by the EOKA-B terrorist organization during the Cyprus Peace Operation.
[Çukurova](https://www.haberler.com/cukurova/ "Çukurova News, Çukurova News, Çukurova News") Kurtar Çakın, one of the former presidents of the Journalists’ Association, was invited to the TRNC on the anniversary of the Muratağa, Atlılar and Sandallar Massacres, carried out against Turkish Cypriots by the EOKA-B terrorist organization during the Cyprus Peace Operation.
The opening of the “Massacre Monument,” commissioned by Yeniboğaziçi Municipality, will take place on August 14, attended by state officials, military personnel and relatives of families who lost loved ones in the massacre. After the monument’s opening, an “Open-Air Exhibition of Massacre Photographs Through Kurtar Çakın’s Lens” will be held. In 1974, journalist Kurtar Çakın worked on the island for 45 days on behalf of Günaydın Newspaper and was the first to bring news of the massacres to the world through the photographs he took.
Yeniboğaziçi Mayor Katip Demir said they hoped to experience the peace of having laid the martyrs to rest in their eternal resting places at the ceremony to be held on August 14.
Recalling those days, journalist Kurtar Çakın said, “When I went to Muratağa, as the rubbish was uncovered, I came face to face with burned necks and human heads, mutilated bodies, and people whose arms and legs had been severed. What I saw was something no human being could bear to look at. The photographs, taken in broad daylight and for the first time by me, also received extensive coverage in the world press. The Atlılar Massacre came to light a day or two after the unit under the command of Major General Fazıl Osman Paşa, commander of the 28th Division, captured Magosa. The scene there was just as brutal as at Muratağa.”
The exhibition will be held under the auspices of Yeniboğaziçi Municipality and curated by Cem Kar and Mine Çeliker.
Journalist Kurtar Çakın opened an exhibition in Adana three years ago, and more recently in Mersin on the anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation.