The Invasion of Cyprus
The coup that was staged in the name of union — and brought partition instead.
17 min
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About
On July 15, 1974, the Greek military junta overthrows Archbishop Makarios in a bloody coup in Nicosia. Five days later, Turkey invades the island, citing that very coup as its pretext. A story about a dictatorship that played with fire, a president who escaped death but not his homeland's partition, and a wound that's still open half a century later.
Sources
- James Ker-Lindsay, The Cyprus Problem: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2011)
- Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), official statistics
- Cyprus Mail, "Divided Island" special reports
- UN Security Council S/PV.1780 (19 July 1974)