Turkish Invasion
The Turkish invasion of Cyprus, launched on 20 July 1974, was a Turkish military invasion in response to a Greek military junta backed coup in Cyprus. It is known in Turkey as the "Cyprus Peace Operation" (Turkish: Kıbrıs Barış Harekâtı), "Cyprus Operation" (Kıbrıs Harekâtı) or by its Turkish Armed Forces code name Operation Atilla (Atilla Harekâtı).
The coup, ordered by the military Junta in Greece and staged by the Cypriot National Guard in conjunction with EOKA-B, deposed the Cypriot president Archbishop Makarios III and installed Nikos Sampson in his place.
More than one quarter of the population of Cyprus was expelled from the occupied northern part of the island where Greek Cypriots constituted 80% of the population. A little over a year later in 1975, there was also a flow of roughly 60,000 Turkish Cypriots from the south to the north after the conflict. The Turkish invasion ended in the partition of Cyprus along the UN-monitored Green Line which still divides Cyprus today. In 1983 the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) declared independence, although Turkey is the only country which recognises it.
Read more about Turkish Invasion: Background, Atrocities and Human Right Abuses, Declaration of The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Code Names, See Also
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