Bloody Christmas (Turkish: Kanlı Noel) refers to the resumption of intercommunal violence between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots during the Cyprus crisis of 1963–64, on the night of 20–21 December 1963 and the subsequent period of island-wide violence[1] amounting to civil war.[2] This initial episode of violence lasted until 31 December and was somewhat subdued with the start of peace talks at the London Conference, but outbursts of violence continued thereafter.[3] The violence precipitated the end of Turkish Cypriot representation in the Republic of Cyprus.

The death toll for the entire conflict between December and August amounts to 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots, of whom [4] 136 Turkish Cypriots and 30 Greek Cypriots were killed in the initial period between 21 December and 1 January.[5]

Approximately 25,000 Turkish Cypriots from 104 villages, amounting to a quarter of the Turkish Cypriot population, fled their villages and were displaced into enclaves.[6] Thousands of Turkish Cypriot houses left behind were ransacked or completely destroyed.[7] Around 1,200 Armenian Cypriots and 500 Greek Cypriots were also displaced.

Most of the property abandoned by Turkish Cypriots was ransacked, damaged, burned or destroyed by Greek Cypriots. A 1964 United Nations report that used aerial photographs determined that at least 977 Turkish Cypriot homes had been destroyed and that 2,000 Turkish Cypriot homes had suffered severe damage and ransacking.[36] The report by the UN Secretary General on 10 September 1964 gives the number of destroyed houses as 527 and the number of looted houses as 2,000. This included 50 totally destroyed and 240 partially destroyed houses in Omorfita and the surrounding suburbs, and 38 totally and 122 partially destroyed houses and shops in the town of Paphos.[37]

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody_Christmas_(1963)

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