The Turkish army
invaded Cyprus on 20 July 1974.
Turkey announced
that the invasion was a "peace-keeping
operation" to restore the constitutional order
disrupted when a Greek military coup overthrew
the Cyprus government. Turkey claimed she was
acting in compliance with the terms of the
1960 Treaty of
Guarantee.
The invading
forces landed off the northern coast of the
island around Kyrenia. By the time a cease fire
was agreed three days later, Turkish troops
held 3% of the territory of Cyprus. Five
thousand Greek Cypriots had fled their
homes.
Following the
invasion, the junta which was in power in
Greece at the time, collapsed and Mr
Constantine Karamanlis was recalled from
self-imposed exile in Paris to form a new
government. In Cyprus, Nicos Samson, the man
whom the junta had set up as President,
surrendered power to the President of the House
of Representatives, Mr Glafcos Clerides,
pending the return of the island's
constitutionally elected President, Archbishop
Makarios, who had fled abroad to save his life
during the coup.
Two unproductive
conferences in Geneva followed, the first
between Britain, Greece and Turkey and the
second with the additional attendance of Greek
Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot representatives.
Throughout this time Turkish troops steadily
expanded their occupation.
On 14 August and
despite the fact that talks were still being
held in Geneva and just as agreement seemed
about to be reached, the Turkish army mounted a
second full-scale offensive, thereby belying
Turkey's original pretext that it was invading
in order to restore constitutional order, in
view of the fact that constitutional order had
already been restored.
By the end of
the offensive, Turkey increased its hold to
include the booming tourist resort of Famagusta
and the rich citrus-growing area of Morphou.
All in all almost 36% of the territory of the
Republic of Cyprus came under Turkish military
occupation, an area Turkey still holds today,
despite international condemnation.
The advance
halted on a line which was almost precisely the
one proposed by Turkey as the demarcation of
partition in 1965. This line has come to be
known as the Attila line, named after the
military codename "Attila" which Turkey gave to
the invasion operation, thereby identifying it
with the chieftain of the Huns known as "the
scourge of God".
As a result, 28%
of the Greek Cypriots were turned into
refugees in their own country and 70% of
the economic potential of Cyprus came under
military occupation. Moreover, thousands of
people, including civilians, were killed or
ill-treated by the Turkish invaders.
There are still
more than 1,500 Greek Cypriots
missing as a result of the Turkish invasion,
many of whom were held in Turkish custody.
Following the invasion the Turkish government
embarked on a policy of bringing in large
numbers of Anatolian
settlers into the occupied area, while at
the same time systematically expelling the
lawful Greek Cypriot inhabitants from their
homes. Currently about 500 mostly elderly
people remain
enclaved in the occupied area.
On 1 November
1974, the UN General Assembly unanimously
passed the first of many resolutions calling all states to respect
the sovereignty, independence, territorial
integrity and non-alignment of the Republic of
Cyprus. It urged the speedy withdrawal of all
foreign troops, the continuation of
intercommunal talks and that urgent efforts be
taken to ensure the safe return of refugees to
their homes.
Intercommunal
talks resumed in 1975. In December, of the same
year, the UN Security Council adopted a new
resolution on Cyprus extending, once more, its
peace-keeping force's (UNFICYP) mandate. At the
fifth round of talks, held in Vienna in
February 1976, it was agreed that an exchange
of written proposals on the territorial and
constitutional aspects of the problem should be
presented to the then UN Special Representative
in Cyprus, Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar. The
Greek Cypriot side submitted detailed
proposals, demanding the return of the Turkish
occupied area to its lawful
inhabitants.
The Turkish
Cypriot proposals, however, envisaged the
continued division of Cyprus. A new recourse to
the United Nations General Assembly was made by
the Cyprus Government in November 1976. This
resulted in the General Assembly calling on the
Security Council to initiate steps for the
implementations of previous UN resolutions on
Cyprus.
|