Nicosia, Cyprus. Monday marked 52 years since Turkish troops landed in Cyprus on July 20, 1974, beginning an invasion that reshaped the island’s map, political and demographic balance and caused its second mass displacement in little more than a decade.
The operation followed a Greek military junta-backed coup d’état five days earlier and Turkish efforts to restore the Republic of Cyprus’ constitutional order through international action.
Diplomatic efforts and landing
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit travelled to London to seek the support of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson for an international force. Wilson refused, and Turkey proceeded alone.
Turkish forces landed shortly before dawn at Five Mile Beach, west of the Kyrenia district village of Ayios Georgios. The landing force comprised about 3,000 troops, 12 tanks, 20 armoured personnel carriers and 12 howitzers.
Two Greek Cypriot motor torpedo boats were dispatched from Kyrenia to engage the landing force, but both were sunk. The initial landing at Five Mile Beach was not contested.
Fighting across the island
Greek Cypriot forces first engaged Turkish landing troops at around 10am but did not halt their advance. At the same time, Turkish paratroopers landed on the outskirts of Nicosia, on the other side of the Five Finger Mountains.
Following the initial parachute landings, Greek forces stationed in Cyprus attacked the Turkish Cypriot village of Kioneli, immediately north of Nicosia on the main road to Kyrenia.
Elsewhere, fighters from the Greek Cypriot paramilitary group Eoka-B attacked the Turkish Cypriot enclave in Limassol. A Greek landing ship shelled Turkish Cypriot positions in Paphos, where Turkish Cypriots surrendered after nightfall.
Developments on the second day
The following day, a second wave of Turkish troops departed from the port of Mersin for Cyprus. Turkish forces already on the island mistakenly sank a Turkish destroyer off the coast of Paphos after identifying it as an approaching Greek warship.
A Greek airlift carrying troops from Crete’s Souda airbase was also mistakenly engaged by Greek Cypriot anti-aircraft fire at Nicosia airport.
In Kyrenia, Greek Cypriot forces split to approach the town from the east and west. One unit captured the Turkish mountaintop position at Kotza Kaya, near St Hilarion Castle, between the Kyrenia district villages of Agirda and Karmi.
