Commemoration on the 40th Anniversary of a Bloodshed

On that day, the patrol team “Izay", comprising four Austrian soldiers, was conducting negotiations with the opposing sides in order to prevent an attack launched by the Greek Cypriot National Guard against the village of Koshi, defended by Turkish Cypriot troops. At 14:10 the fighting resumed, so the patrol team pulled back to the southern edge of the village where it was waiting until the resumption of the negotiations. At 15:20 a low-flying Turkish fighter flew over the car of the patrol team. The blue berets attempted to leave the area immediately in the direction of Larnaka, but when the aircraft flew overhead for the second time, it dropped a napalm bomb on the four Austrian soldiers. Of the four peacekeepers wearing proper UN signs, 1st Lt. Johann Izay, SFC Paule Decombe and Cpl. August Isak lost their lives, and the driver, PVT1 Sattlecker, was the only one to survive the attack. Two days after the tragedy, the two sides signed a ceasefire agreement.

The commemoration was attended, among others, by UNFICYP Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Kristin Lund, Dr. Karl Müller, Austrian ambassador, Sofoklis Fittis, the representative of the Republic of Cyprus, Lt.-Col. Jaroslav Bitala, the commander of Sector 4 and Lt.-Col. Imre Kovács, the commander of the Hungarian contingent. Following a wreath-laying ceremony, the general delivered a speech, in which she praised the heroic sacrifice and thanked the peacekeepers for their work during their past and present service on the island.

Sofoklis Fittis said that there had been no similar threat in Cyprus for a long time, but they would never forget the events of the past, and the self-sacrificing role of UN soldiers. In the closing part of the ceremony, Capt. Ján Sakla, Slovak field chaplain blessed the monument. The commemoration was co-organized and managed by the Austrian soldiers serving in Cyprus and the Hungarian and Serb soldiers serving in Camp Szent Istvan in Sector 4. Since 2001 – the year of withdrawal of the Austrian contingent – the monument has been taken care by Hungarian soldiers.

Photos by the author