Tears as Cyprus celebrates 50 years after Turkish invasion

On Saturday, tears were shed again in Cyprus for the families of those who died 50 years ago when Turkish troops landed on the Mediterranean island. The invasion has divided and scarred the island to this day.

As the sun rose in the internationally recognized south of the island, it blared at 5:30 a.m. (02:30 GMT), the start time of Operation Atilla in 1974.

The invasion led to the conquest of a third of Cyprus and the displacement of about 40 percent of the population.

A UN-monitored buffer zone now runs from northwest to southeast across the island, with checkpoints and border controls separating the Greek Cypriot community in the south from the Turkish Cypriots in the north.

Under the hot morning sun at a war memorial in the west of the divided capital Nicosia, a mother dressed in black wept at her son’s grave.

She gently ran her hand over a picture of the young man fastened to the marble cross. Other women wiped their eyes nearby.

Greek flags flew over other identical graves stretching in rows around it, as mourners laid flowers and incense.

Ceremonial gunfire rang out and President Nikos Christodoulides unveiled busts of officers killed in the battle. He also laid a wreath.

According to the Bi-Joint Committee for Missing Persons in Cyprus, more than 750 Greek Cypriots and almost 200 Turkish Cypriots are still missing. The committee is trying to locate the remains of missing persons and return them to their loved ones.

– Failed Calls –

Ahead of the commemoration, Greek Cypriot veterans of the fight against the invasion told AFP they were pessimistic about the prospects for peace.

Demetris Toumazis, who was taken to Turkey as a prisoner of war in 1974, said: “It has been 50 years and there is still no solution and no hope.”

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was due to visit Cyprus on Saturday evening to attend the commemorations together with Christodoulides.

In the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is recognised only by Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived for anniversary events including a military parade, a live broadcast by AFPTV showed.

The TRNC’s lack of international recognition since its declaration by the Turkish Cypriot leadership in 1983 means that the party is heavily dependent on Turkey.

On the eve of the commemoration, the Turkish parliament passed a resolution calling for an “end to the inhuman isolation of Turkish Cypriots”.

Decades of UN-backed talks have failed to reunite the island, with the last round of talks collapsing in 2017.

The most recent UN envoy, Colombian diplomat Maria Angela Holguin, wrote in an open letter this month that there is a need to “move away” from previous solutions and “think differently.”

– ‘Missed Opportunities’ –

In a statement marking the commemoration, the European Union, to which Cyprus belongs, stressed the need for all parties to strive for a peaceful solution.

“There is an urgent need for a genuine commitment by all concerned, including the two Cypriot communities and in particular Turkey, to a peaceful solution based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” the report said.

Irfan Siddiq, the British High Commissioner to Cyprus, said on social media platform X that “too many opportunities for reunification have been missed.”

In a similar vein, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a report to the Security Council this month that “a solution to the Cyprus issue is long overdue”.

Guterres deplored “the gradual militarization underway on the island”.

The invasion was triggered by a coup in Nicosia, supported by the military junta in Athens. The aim was to unite the island with Greece. The Turkish Cypriot community, which at the time made up just under a fifth of the island’s population, was strongly opposed to this.

Cyprus had gained independence from Britain with difficulty 14 years earlier, with a complicated constitution guaranteeing minority rights for Turkish Cypriots.

The treaty granting Cyprus independence prohibited union with Greece or Turkey and also a division of the country. London, Athens and Ankara became guarantors of the independence, territorial integrity and security of Cyprus.

Within three years, serious intercommunal violence broke out, causing Turkish Cypriots to retreat into enclaves and Nicosia to be split in two.

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