Report says engineers were ordered not to mine Pente Mili before 1974 invasion

Kyrenia, Cyprus. The 70th Engineer Battalion was ordered not to lay mines at the Pente Mili coast shortly before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, according to an account published by Phileleftheros on Friday.

The report by Vassos Vasiliou examines the battalion’s movements before the Turkish landing at Pente Mili and the subsequent fighting around Kyrenia, Lapithos and Karavas.

Draft war diary

According to a draft war diary attributed to then engineer lieutenant Panayiotis Panagopoulos, a detachment of the 70th Engineer Battalion arrived in Kyrenia at 11.45pm on July 19.

The unit had been expected to mine the coast at Pente Mili, where a Turkish landing was considered possible.

Panagopoulos recorded that the detachment received an order from Stylianos Michopoulos, commander of the 3rd tactical group, not to mine the coast. The order was reportedly justified with the words: “you have come merely as a precaution”.

Further accounts

The account reported by Phileleftheros states that the engineers were prevented from carrying out preparations in an area where Turkish forces landed hours later.

Reserve officer Kostas Santamas later gave a similar account in a television interview, saying the engineers had not been permitted to mine the landing point shortly before the invasion.

The report also cites testimony from Theodoros Charalambous, then an assistant in the 4th Staff Office of the Higher Tactical Command. He said the 70th Engineer Battalion received orders on July 19 to lay mines at beaches five and six miles from Kyrenia, but that Michopoulos prevented the operation.