Turkish Military Intervention Begins

Turkey’s government under Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit treated the coup of 15 July as the first step towards enosis and as a direct threat to Turkish Cypriots. Article IV of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee reserved to each guarantor power the right to act with the sole aim of restoring the state of affairs the treaty had created. Ecevit flew to London on 17 July to discuss joint intervention with Britain, which did not take part, and US mediation led by Joseph Sisco failed to win concessions from Athens.

In the early hours of 20 July, Turkish forces landed at Pentemili (Five Mile Beach), about 8 km west of Kyrenia (Girne), while paratroopers dropped north of Nicosia near the Turkish Cypriot enclave at Gönyeli. Turkey named the operation the Cyprus Peace Operation (Kıbrıs Barış Harekâtı), with the military codename Attila. Turkey and Turkish Cypriots describe it as a lawful intervention to protect Turkish Cypriots and restore constitutional order. Greek Cypriots, and most of the international community, regard it as an invasion. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 353 the same day, calling for a ceasefire, an end to foreign military intervention and talks between the guarantor powers.

The National Guard, still commanded by the Greek officers behind the coup, fought back on the coast and around Nicosia, and fighting broke out around Turkish Cypriot enclaves elsewhere on the island. Greek Cypriot villagers in the path of the advance fled south, while Turkish Cypriots in the south found themselves cut off from the area Turkey now held. Civilians in both communities were killed in these first days.

A ceasefire was declared for 22 July, by which point Turkish forces held a corridor from the coast to the Nicosia enclave. Fighting did not fully stop, and by the time of the second phase in August they held around 7 per cent of the island, including Kyrenia and its harbour, which allowed reinforcements to arrive by sea. On 23 July both Sampson’s regime in Nicosia and the junta in Athens collapsed. Glafcos Clerides became acting president of the Republic of Cyprus, and on 25 July Britain, Greece and Turkey sat down in Geneva.