By Euronews
Published on
On Monday 20 July, the Republic of Cyprus marked the 52nd anniversary of the 1974 invasion and subsequent occupation of its northern half by the Turkish military.
Sirens have sounded across the country at 5:30 am, the time of the invasion, every year since then.
A month of fighting after the invasion began, approximately 37% of Cypriot territory had fallen under Turkish military control, displacing 170,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots from their homes.
Turkey’s military presence persists to this day, making the Republic of Cyprus the only European Union member state that is under occupation.
Turkey’s invasion had been carried out following a Greek-backed coup which overthrew the Greek Cypriot President Makarios III, the country’s first elected leader of both its Greek and Turkish-speaking communities.
Today, the occupied territory in the north is recognised only by Turkey. The territory controlled by the Republic of Cyprus in the south is recognised internationally.
“Turkey continues to illegally occupy 37% of our homeland, perpetuating one of the greatest crimes in the post-war history of Europe,” said the Cyprus Presidency in a post on X.
“For 52 years, it has refused to provide answers about the fate of the missing, expanded illegal settlement, destroyed our religious and cultural heritage and deprived all Cypriots of the right to live freely in their homeland,” it added.
‘Operation Attila’
In 1974, Turkish armed forces landed boots on the ground in Kyrenia, in the north of Cyprus, as Ankara’s air forces carried out an aerial assault campaign on several targets on the island, causing panic and leaving widespread devastation and misery in their wake.
The invasion led to the deaths of more than 3,000 people, mainly civilians. 1,619 were later declared missing. Residents, still shaken by the aftermath of a violent Greek-backed coup d’état just five days prior, watched in horror.
The Cyprus issue remains to this day an international issue of illegal invasion and occupation of a state that is a member of both the EU and the UN.
Athens, a long-time ally of Cyprus and especially its Greek Cypriot community, expressed its support for a peaceful and permanent settlement to the Cyprus issue, based on a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation, with political equality between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, governed under a single sovereignty and comprising of a single citizenship, as defined by UN Security Council resolutions on the matter.
Cyprus currently stands as the only EU territory under occupation. Brussels has for decades sought to broker a diplomatic ending to the invasion, but has so far failed.