On August 19, 1974, just days after the second phase of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, US Ambassador to Cyprus Roger Davies was shot dead inside his office during a major demonstration outside the US Embassy in Nicosia.
The atmosphere was intensely anti-American, with widespread anger over the belief that the US had supported the Turkish invasion.
Thousands of protesters gathered outside the US Embassy, burning American flags and chanting slogans against NATO, the US, the CIA and then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
The area around the Hilton hotel became the scene of violent clashes.
Shots fired at the embassy
Davies was on the second floor of the embassy with four other people: Administration Officer Eddie Edwards, Personnel Officer Stella Charalambidou, Administration Officer’s secretary Antoinette Varnava and Charis Evangelides.
Although security officials had urged him to move to a safer location, Davies decided to remain in his office.
Gunfire suddenly erupted from the crowd. According to accounts of the incident, masked gunmen who had hidden among the demonstrators began firing at the building.
One bullet shattered the window of Davies’ office before another struck him in the chest. A second bullet killed Antoinette Varnava.
Acting President Glafcos Clerides was giving a press conference when he was informed of the shootings.
In a statement broadcast by the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (RIK), Clerides described the killing as a “heinous crime” and said it brought the Cyprus tragedy to its “climax”.
He condemned the killing and expressed his deepest sympathy and sorrow.
Investigation reopened
The US continued to pressure the Cypriot government to investigate Davies’ assassination.
In 1976, on the instructions of Archbishop Makarios III, the case was reopened. Investigators discovered, however, that the case file had disappeared from the police archives.
By 1977, the case remained unsolved, with critics arguing that neither Cyprus nor the US had pursued the investigation sufficiently.
That year, the CIA station chief in Cyprus requested that the investigation be reopened.
Interior Minister Christodoulos Veniamin instructed police officer Phanis Demetriou to review the case.
Police managed to obtain a single witness statement from a firefighter who had been present at the demonstration.
According to his account, the shots had not been fired from within the crowd but from a nearby apartment building.
Six people arrested
Six people were arrested in connection with the case, two of whom were imprisoned on charges relating to the disturbances.
One of them was Neoptolemos Leftis, a close associate of Nikos Sampson and Polycarpos Georgadjis and a member of EOKA B.
Leftis said he had gone towards the demonstration with around 10 soldiers but denied firing any shots.
He later claimed that, after Sampson was arrested in 1976, around 15 supporters of Makarios arrived at his home and arrested him on charges of Davies’ murder.
Leftis maintained that his imprisonment was the result of a conspiracy and alleged that US intelligence services and the CIA were responsible for the ambassador’s killing.
Case remains unsolved
Despite the arrests and renewed investigations, no one has ever been convicted for the murders of US Ambassador Roger Davies and Antoinette Varnava.
More than five decades later, the circumstances surrounding the shootings remain unresolved.
Also read: Eight years after Kofi Annan’s death, his Cyprus plan revisited
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