How was Cyprus divided? Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Geopolitical and economic factors of tension in the region

Today, about 80 percent of Greeks and 20 percent of Turks live on the island of Cyprus. After the formation of the Republic of Cyprus, a mixed government was formed, but as a result of various interpretations of the provisions of the Constitution, neither side obeyed the instructions coming from the ministers of the opposing community. In 1963, outbreaks of violence on both sides became a reality. From 1964 to 1974 a UN contingent was stationed on the island to prevent conflict. However, in 1974, a government coup was attempted, as a result of which President Makarios was forced into exile. In response to the coup attempt, Turkey sent a 30,000-strong military corps to Cyprus. Hundreds of thousands of Greek Cypriots fled to the south of the island under the fierce attack of the Turkish army. The violence continued for several months. By 1975 the island was divided. As a result of the partition, one third of the island in the north is controlled by Turkish troops, and the southern part by Greeks. Under the supervision of the UN, a population exchange was carried out: the Turkish Cypriots were moved to the north, and the Greek Cypriots to the south. The Green Line separated the conflicting parties, and in 1983 the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was proclaimed; however, only Turkey recognized it. The Greek side demands the return of the territory, the Greek Cypriots who lived in the north hope to return to their homes and believe that the north is occupied by Turkish invaders. On the other hand, the contingent of Turkish troops in the north of Cyprus is constantly increasing, and neither one nor the other Cypriots give up the "image of the enemy." In fact, contacts between the north and south of the island have been reduced to nothing.

The final solution to the conflict is still far away, since neither side is ready to make concessions.

2.3. Conflicts in the Balkans

There are several cultural regions and types of civilization on the Balkan Peninsula. The following are highlighted: Byzantine-Orthodox in the east, Latin Catholic in the west, and Asian-Islamic in the central and southern regions. Interethnic relations here are so confused that it is difficult to expect a complete settlement of conflicts in the coming decades.

When creating the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which consisted of six republics, the main criterion for their formation was the ethnic composition of the population. This most important factor was subsequently used by the ideologists of national movements and contributed to the collapse of the federation. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Muslim Bosniaks made up 43.7% of the population, Serbs 31.4%, Croats 17.3%. 61.5% of Montenegrins lived in Montenegro, 77.9% were Croats in Croatia, 65.8% were Serbs in Serbia, these are with autonomous regions: Vojvodina, Kosovo and Metohija. Without them, in Serbia, Serbs accounted for 87.3%. In Slovenia, Slovenes make up 87.6%. Thus, representatives of ethnic groups of other titular nationalities, as well as a significant number of Hungarians, Turks, Italians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Gypsies and Romanians, also lived in each of the republics.

Another important factor is confessional, and the religiosity of the population is determined here by ethnic origin. Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians are Orthodox groups. However, there are also Catholics among the Serbs. Catholics are Croats and Slovenes. interesting

a confessional section in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Catholic Croats live, Orthodox Serbs and Muslim Slavs. There are also Protestants - these are national groups of Czechs, Germans, Hungarians, Slovaks. There are also Jewish communities in the country. A significant number of inhabitants (Albanians, Muslim Slavs) profess Islam.

The linguistic factor also played an important role. About 70% of the population of the former Yugoslavia spoke Serbo-Croatian or, as they say, Croatian-Serbian. These are primarily Serbs, Croats, Montenegrins, Muslims. However, it was not a single state language; there was no single state language in the country at all. The exception was the army, where office work was conducted in Serbo-Croatian

(based on Latin graphics), commands were also given in this language.

The country's constitution emphasized the equality of languages, and even during elections

bulletins were printed in 2-3-4-5 languages. There were Albanian schools, as well as Hungarian, Turkish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Slovak, Czech and even Ukrainian ones. Books and magazines were published. However, in recent decades the language has become the subject of political speculation.

The economic factor must also be taken into account. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro and the autonomous province of Kosovo lagged behind Serbia in economic development. This led to differences in the income of various national groups and increased the contradictions between them. The economic crisis, years of unemployment, severe inflation, devaluation of the dinar intensified the centrifugal tendencies in the country, especially in the early 80s.

There are dozens more reasons for the collapse of the Yugoslav state, but one way or another, by the end of 1989, the one-party system disintegrated, and after the parliamentary elections in 1990-1991. hostilities began in Slovenia and Croatia in June 1991, and in April 1992 a civil war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was accompanied by ethnic cleansing, the creation of concentration camps, and robberies. To date, the "peacekeepers" have achieved an end to open fighting, but the situation in the Balkans today remains complex and explosive.

Another hotbed of tension arose in the province of Kosovo and Metohija - on the original Serbian lands, the cradle of Serbian history and culture, where, due to historical conditions, demographic, migration processes, the dominant population is Albanians (90 - 95%), who claim to separate from Serbia and create independent state. The situation for the Serbs is aggravated by the fact that the region borders on Albania and Albanian-populated regions of Macedonia. In the same Macedonia, there is a problem of relations with Greece, which protests against the name of the republic, considering it illegal to assign a name to the state that coincides with the name of one of the regions of Greece. Bulgaria has claims to Macedonia because of the status of the Macedonian language, considering it as a dialect of Bulgarian.

Serb-Croatian relations are aggravated. This is due to the position of the Serbs in

Croatia. The Serbs, forced to stay in Croatia, change their nationality, surnames, accept Catholicism. Dismissal from work based on ethnicity is becoming commonplace, and there is increasing talk of "Great Serbian nationalism" in the Balkans. According to various sources, from 250 to 350 thousand people were forced to leave Kosovo. In 2000 alone, about a thousand people were killed there, hundreds were wounded and missing.

On the island, the Cyprus Dispute has been defined as "a conflict between the peoples of Cyprus and Great Britain as colonial rulers". However, today the United Nations and, more recently, the European Union are taking part in solving this problem.

Background of the conflict

see also

Write a review on the article "Cyprus conflict"

Notes

An excerpt characterizing the Cyprus conflict

Cyprus conflict

Cyprus conflict, or Cyprus dispute- a territorial conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in relation to the island of Cyprus, which is now actually an island state in the Mediterranean Sea.

Since the arrival of the British military contingent on the island, the Cyprus dispute has been defined as "a conflict between the peoples of Cyprus and Britain as colonial rulers". However, today the United Nations and, more recently, the European Union are taking part in solving this problem.

Background of the conflict

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what the "Cyprus conflict" is in other dictionaries:

Cyprus conflict in 1974- Cyprus, which was part of the British colonial possessions, gained independence on August 16, 1960. The Zurich-London agreements of 1959 became the legal formalization of the granting of independence, significantly limiting sovereignty ... ... Encyclopedia of Newsmakers

Date In Pakistan: from 1948 (from 2006 to 2009) In Iran: from 2003 to 2009 Place Balochistan Ito ... Wikipedia

See also: Chronology of the Arab-Israeli conflict and History of Israel Arab-Israeli conflict ... Wikipedia - Interethnic conflict is a conflict between representatives of ethnic communities, usually living in close proximity in any state. Since "nationality" in Russian usually means the same as "ethnic ... ... Wikipedia

The Georgian-Abkhaz conflict is an ethno-political conflict between the central government of Georgia and the leadership of the autonomous republic of Abkhazia. In a broader sense, it is one of the manifestations of the geopolitical conflict in the Caucasus region, ... ... Wikipedia

Date since 1947 Place Kashmir Outcome The conflict continues Opponents ... Wikipedia

South Ossetia on the map of Georgia South Ossetian conflict (Georgian South Ossetian conflict) ethno-political conflict in Georgia between the central leadership of Georgia and the Republic of South Ossetia (from the late 1980s to the present ... Wikipedia

In the very middle of summer, exactly 35 years have passed since the official start of the Cyprus conflict: on July 15, 1974, officers of the Greek military junta organized a military coup on the island of Aphrodite and overthrew the then president of the country, Archbishop Makarios. Turkey immediately felt that things were moving towards the annexation of the island to Greece, and already on July 20 landed its 40,000th army contingent on its northern part. The island split into Turkish and Greek parts and continues to be split to this day.

Cyprus is a paradox and a "headache" of the European Union, where it was admitted in 2004, and NATO, where it is not a member. Its capital Nicosia remains the only divided city in the world. Previously, there were five of them: in addition to Nicosia - Berlin, Jerusalem, Beirut and Belfast. Berlin went to the destruction of the wall for exactly 42 years. There are hopes that Cyprus will need a little less for this. Brussels and the UN hope that agreements on the creation of balanced Greek and Turkish federations on the island and the formation of a federal state will be reached this fall or next spring. There are prerequisites for this, but this has already happened in Cyprus: there were prerequisites, but everything fell apart at the very last moment.

However, now the situation is somewhat different. The new president of Cyprus, Dimitris Christofias, elected in the spring of 2008, immediately kept his main election promise - immediately after the election, to return to the "marriage contract" with the Turkish half of the island: less than a month after the election, he already met with the leader of the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic Northern Cyprus Mehmet Ali Talat. The last round of negotiations on a Cyprus settlement took place in early July of this year.

But there are too many problems in Cyprus to be able to immediately hope that the signatures of the two politicians will immediately return peace and tranquility to the island. Today it is already divided territorially, nationally and on the basis of faith.

At present, there is the Republic of Cyprus proper (approximately 60% of the territory and 770 thousand of the population) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (approximately 38% of the island and about 300 thousand of the population). Another 2% of Cyprus is made up of British exclaves, where British military bases are located. The Republic of Cyprus is recognized by almost everyone, with the exception of Turkey. Northern Cyprus is recognized only by Turkey. Unless, of course, we do not consider the anecdotal "official recognition" of the TRNC by the Azerbaijani Autonomous Region of Nakhichevan.

It must be said that since our Russian Slavic sympathies have always gravitated towards Greece, we have usually been inclined to blame all Cypriot troubles exclusively on the unhealthy genes of Ottoman Turkey. Although this is not entirely true. The Turks brought their troops to the island on completely legal grounds, in accordance with the Treaty of 1960 (the year the island gained independence from Britain) on guarantees for the existence of an independent Cyprus between Britain, Greece and Turkey. It gave the right to protection of representatives of the communities living on the island. Moreover, if they had not done this, then President Makarios might not have returned to power in a few months and not have been president until 1977.

In fact, the Cyprus crisis began to emerge in the second half of the 50s and almost reached the civil war in the very beginning of the 60s, after independence. Then the Greek majority began to carry out what is now commonly called soft genocide against the Turkish minority. They simply tried to squeeze them out of the island. Makarios, by the way, was a supporter of the so-called enosis - from the Greek union, unity - the reunification of the island with mother Greece. Incidentally, neither the USSR nor Russia has ever supported such a reunification.

The whole trouble is that the island of Aphrodite was cut into two unequal parts for too long. Even if a political agreement is reached, it will by no means be a complete solution to the problem. Especially when you consider what exactly is preventing you from "gluing the island together" now. They are trying to make a two-zone, two-communal federation of Turks and Greek Cypriots out of it. No one seems to argue with the federal structure. Moreover, it seems that there is already an agreement on the division of power between the communities. But if only that were the case.

The chronic causes of the "Cyprus disease" are much deeper. So far, the problem of the return of the Greek Cypriots to their homes and lands, from where they were expelled by the Turks, has not been resolved in any way (not even moved forward). The issue of compensation for the confiscated property has not been resolved. It is not clear what to do with the Turkish settlers from Anatolia. Indeed, after the invasion of 1974, more than 100 thousand people were resettled to the island from Turkey in order to strengthen the "Turkish component". In general, there are a lot of problems on the way to reunification.

But there are also incentives to do so. According to the calculations of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, a united Cyprus can get additional income from opening direct trade with Turkey (the south does not trade with Anatolia) and with the EU (northern Cyprus still cannot sell its goods to the European Union) by about 2 .8 billion dollars a year.

The new president, Dimitris Christofias, by the way, speaks Russian almost the same as his native Greek. In Soviet times, in the very late 60s - early 70s, Christofias graduated from the Institute of Social Sciences, and then postgraduate studies at the Academy of Social Sciences in Moscow. He knows and loves Russian history and culture very well. Although Christofias has been the permanent secretary general of the allegedly communist AKEL, the Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus, since 1988, in fact, nothing communist has remained in it for a long time. AKEL now owns several large commercial and industrial companies of the island, including one very solid investment firm. Dimitris himself prefers to call himself a left-wing social democrat or a progressive socialist. He also hopes very much that already this year he will again be able to safely travel to the homeland of his ancestors, to the village of Dimko in the north of the island, which is still occupied by Turkish troops. True, for this it is still necessary to arrange a not quite equal marriage between the Greek Kupros and the Turkish Kibris.

July 1974: how it all happened

Formed during the Ottoman Empire, the two communities in Cyprus at the beginning of their existence did not conflict with each other. There was a significant number of intercommunal marriages on the island, the population converted to Islam and Orthodoxy relatively easily. And yet, alas! For 400 years, they have not become a single people. The reason for this, first of all, was religious differences, the system of "millets". According to it, each community enjoyed separate rights in the field of self-government, education, courts, etc.

It was then that the idea of ​​creating an independent Greek state on the lands of the Ottoman Empire inhabited by Greeks first arose among Greek intellectuals. It was called "enosis".

RECENT PAST

When, in 1960, Great Britain, the last metropolis of the island, granted independence to Cyprus, it found itself in a similar situation, using not at all advanced Ottoman experience. Adopted on the basis of the Zurich-London agreements signed by Great Britain, Greece and Turkey, the Constitution of the new state legitimized the existence of two self-governing communities - with ethnic quotas for filling positions in the state apparatus, army, police, etc. The balance of power, established according to the Lebanese model, was maintained by the guarantor powers.

Despite good intentions, the extremists of each side stuck to their national idea. The Greeks were supporters of the same "enosis", and the Turks put forward in response the doctrine of "taksim" - the division of the island between Greece and Turkey.

The newly formed state lived peacefully for a very short time. Outbreaks of interethnic strife began already at the very beginning of the 1960s, and the situation on the island remained quite tense. The growing tension led to the formation of ethnic armed formations, which actually fell under the control of Greece and Turkey, respectively.

CHRONICLE OF OPPOSITION

First wave

November 1963 The President of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, proposed a series of amendments designed to restore the constitution to work. They were completely rejected by the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Vice President Dr. Kuchuk. Turkish Cypriots refused to participate in any government.

On December 21, 1963, Turkish Cypriots clashed with the police in the Turkish quarter of Nicosia. Kuchuk comes up with a proposal to divide the island along the 35th parallel.

On February 15, 1964, Great Britain raised the issue of Cyprus at the UN Security Council, and on the same day, Archbishop Makarios III informed the Security Council of the clear preparation of the Turkish troops for an invasion.

On March 4, 1964, the UN Security Council adopts resolution No. 186, according to which UN peacekeeping forces arrived on the island. They remain here to this day.

Second wave

Spring 1974. A new outbreak of terror and violence in Cyprus. By that time, there were about 650 Greek officers at the command posts of the National Guard, coordinating their actions with the EOKA-2 organization, known for its extremism and anti-Turkish activity. Funded by the Greek "black colonels" EOKA-2 repeatedly tried to remove President Archbishop Makarios III.

July 2, 1974 The Cypriot government demanded that Greece withdraw its officers from the island. In response to this…

On July 15, 1974, a mutiny broke out and a civil war began. Archbishop Makarios III was removed from power, and control of the island passed to a group of radicals led by Nikos Sampson, a representative of E * KA-2. The main forces of the conspirators were the National Guard of 11 thousand people, commanded by Greek officers. In addition, on the side of the rebels were: the Greek regiment stationed on the island, several units deployed from Greece by transport aircraft the day before, as well as the EOKA-2 terrorist groups. Bloody battles began with security forces loyal to the Government, police and volunteer detachments. The rebels seized the airport, the radio station, the Presidential Palace and a number of other government offices in Nicosia.

On July 20, 1974, Operation Atilla began. Under the pretext of the impossibility of a peaceful settlement of the conflict and the protection of the Turkish community, the Turkish government sent its troops to Cyprus. The occupation began with an amphibious landing at dawn on July 20, 5-7 km west of Kerinia. At the same time, airborne assault forces were dropped south of Kerinia and at Nicosia Airport. The Turkish Navy blocked the ports of Limassol and Paphos and prevented the transfer of Greek troops by sea.

On July 21, 1974, a naval battle took place between the Turkish and Greek navies in the Paphos region, during which the Greek fleet suffered heavy losses. During tense bloody battles, Turkish troops captured Kerinia, Nicosia airport and established control over the road between the capital and the seaport.

On July 22, 1974, in accordance with UN Resolution No. 353, a provision for a temporary ceasefire came into force. At the same time, negotiations were underway in Geneva between Great Britain, Greece and Turkey with the participation of the USSR and the USA. However, this attempt to resolve the Cyprus issue within the framework of NATO failed due to the demands of the Turkish side to allocate 34% of the island's territory for the creation of the Turkish Cypriot state.

On August 14, 1974, fighting resumed. Two days later, Turkish troops reached the border between Cyprus (the Attila line) proposed earlier by the Turkish government and established control over the ports of Famagusta, Bogaz, Morphou and others.

On August 17, 1974, the Government of Cyprus announced that Turkish troops occupied up to 40% of the entire territory of the island. The next day, Glafkos Cleridis, who temporarily headed the country, accepted the Turkish proposal, which consisted in dividing the territory along the Lefka-Famagusta line. The fire between the warring parties was ceased. It was supposed that a federation would be created in Cyprus, but nothing of the kind happened.

1975 The "administration" of the occupied territories unilaterally proclaimed Cyprus a Turkish federal state.

1983 The so-called "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" was proclaimed, but only Turkey recognized this state. Under international law, the Republic of Cyprus retains sovereignty over the entire territory that was part of it until 1974. The EU also recognizes its sovereignty over the entire territory, considering that the north of the island is temporarily beyond the control of the legitimate Government.

2003 On the Attila line, in the presence of peacekeepers, the unarmed Solomos Solomou, who tried to rip off the Turkish flag, was shot point-blank by the Turks.

April 26, 2004. The failure of the Annan Plan. In the referendum on the solution of the Cyprus problem, held under the auspices of the UN, 75.8% of the Greek Cypriots voted against, believing that this plan does not provide for the unification of the island, but the recognition of the results of intervention and occupation.

2008 Resumption of negotiations on the Cyprus problem between President of the Republic of Cyprus Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

CONSEQUENCES

Legally, Turkey justified its actions by the Treaty on Guarantees of the Independence of Cyprus of 1960, according to which Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom acted as guarantors. In fact, Turkey had been hatching a plan for dividing the island for a long time, and the coup itself was needed to give legitimacy to the Turkish intervention. Although Turkey used the removal of Archbishop Makarios III as a pretext for intervention, after the landing, it ceased to recognize him as President of Cyprus. The European Court of Human Rights found Turkey responsible for violations of the rights of Greek Cypriots.

Now the "green line" dividing Cyprus is guarded by the contingent of the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP). The hostilities had tragic consequences for the island: hundreds were killed and wounded, thousands of inhabitants lost their homes, about 200 thousand refugees left their homes and went south. The life of the country was paralyzed. Nicosia is the only divided capital on the planet, however, both the Cypriots and the world community are very hopeful that this sad attraction will soon cease to exist.

Cyprus is a beautiful resort known for its warm beaches, ancient archaeological sites and offshore zone. However, few people know that behind all the current prosperity of the island lies a conflict that divided it into 2 states almost 45 years ago. It was then that the half-century bloody confrontation between the local communities of Greeks and Turks, who claimed the island, ended.

The conflict between Greeks and Turks in Cyprus began in the 16th century, after the capture of the island by the Ottoman Empire. Then the Turks began to gradually move to the homeland of Aphrodite, where expelling, and where trying to assimilate the indigenous Greek population. Domestic ties between the Greek Cypriots and the settlers were very limited, the emerging communities lived rather closed. The Ottoman authorities regarded local Christians as second-class people, imposing heavy taxes and requisitions on them, which led to the discontent of the population. The tension culminated in a riot in 1821, which was brutally suppressed and culminated in the massacre of Christian Cypriots.

In 1869, the Suez Canal opened and the importance of Cyprus in the Mediterranean increased. If earlier merchant ships had to go around all of Africa on their way to India and China, now it was possible to get to the Indian Ocean directly through Egypt. In 1878, Great Britain concluded a secret treaty with Turkey, according to which Cyprus was placed at its disposal - through which it could control trade routes to its colonies. After the Turks lost their dominant position, the ethno-political situation on the island changed dramatically, the dominant position passed to the more numerous and economically strong Greek population. The Treaty of Lausanne, adopted in 1923, finally secured the protectorate of Great Britain over Cyprus. So the local Turks were faced with a choice: either become subjects of Great Britain, or leave for Turkey.

1920s-1950s: rising tension

Since that time, the contradictions and tensions between the communities began to grow actively. The economic development of the region and the emergence of affordable education gradually pushed aside religious contradictions, but the growth of nationalism in the "mother" states had a huge impact on the communities. The Greek Cypriots, like the Greeks in Greece itself, actively supported the slogan of enosis - the unification of all islands and lands with a Greek Christian population into a single state. The slogan appeared with the independence of Greece from the Ottoman Empire, but was most relevant in the interwar years, especially after the Greco-Turkish war (1919-1922) and the Greek genocide.

In turn, the Turkish Cypriots fell under the influence of Turkish nationalism, which was one of the foundations of the revolutionary program of Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern secular Turkey. The principles of nationalism and secularism reduced the role of Islam in the life of the Turks, but emphasized their national identity, which inevitably perpetuated the division and led to disagreements between the communities. The Turkish response to enosis was the slogan of Taksim - the division of the island into a northern Turkish and southern Greek state, or the creation of internal Turkish autonomy. It is worth noting that the population of Cyprus in the period from the 20s to the 50s increased from 300 to 500 thousand people. The majority were Greeks (80%) and Turks (17%), Armenians were a national minority.

1950s: Party struggles

Seeing the cultural and emerging ideological contradictions of the local population, Great Britain was guided by the principle of “divide and rule”, that is, it supported hostility between communities in order to maintain power over them. Opposing the British authorities, the Cypriots began to found parties that fought against the protectorate and for independence. In the mid-1950s, the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters, the Greek acronym EOKA, appeared. She, unlike the Labor Party of Cyprus, AKEL, fought for independence with the subsequent annexation of the island to Greece. AKEL, at that time an influential socialist party, preferred strikes and protests, EOKA fought with violent methods. At the same time, covert deliveries of weapons for the party from Greece began. After the Istanbul pogrom, EOKA began its activities against the Turks. In response to this, the British authorities began to recruit local Turks into the police. In contrast to EOKA, the Turkish Defense Organization (TMT) appeared in 1958, which was also actively armed with the help of Turkey. Local Turks perceived it as the only opportunity to defend their rights and national identity.

1960s-1970s: autonomy and coup

Losing its influence and seeing what the situation in Cyprus was leading to, Great Britain decided to give autonomy to the island. So the sixties became the time of gaining independence not only for Africa, but also for Cyprus. In 1959, treaties were signed in Zurich and London guaranteeing the independence and invariability of the status of the island and the communities. Greece and Turkey pledged to maintain order on the island with their limited contingent of troops, and Great Britain reserved the territories of two naval bases. A year later, without the participation of representatives of local communities, the constitution of the new country was drawn up, in which the Turkish and Greek communities were defined as the main ones.

Makarios III, previously an active fighter for the independence of the island, became the president of the new state. Back in the 50s, for the Greek Cypriots, he became the so-called ethnarch - such a nickname directly referred to the rulers of ancient Greece. The nickname consists of two Greek words, translated meaning "father of the nation." However, Makarios was not popular with the Turkish population, because he was also the patriarch of the Cypriot Orthodox Church. The Turks doubly disliked him: for his clergy and for his Greek origin. Domestic politics was controversial, because the position of vice-president of the country was assigned to the Turkish Cypriot, who, like Makarios, could veto the adopted laws. The situation was fueled by the constitution, which obliged to keep at least 30% of the Turkish population of Cyprus in leadership positions, with 18% living on the island at that time. Mutual killings, violence and pogroms at this time became commonplace. In 1963, the tension turned into an ethnic conflict, at the same time the UN peacekeeping forces appeared on the island.

The reason for the start of the military operation by Turkey was the coup d'etat in Cyprus, prepared by the junta of the Black Colonels, who were then in power in Greece. On July 15, 1974, the nationalist leader Nikos Sampson came to power to replace Makarios. He, unlike the previous president, was a radical supporter of enosis, and the goal of the coup was to annex the island to Greece.

Operation Attila

In response to this, on the morning of July 20, 1974, Turkey landed troops. The troops expected to land on the island at 5 am, but were delayed for 2 hours: the landing ships mixed up the landing site and sailed to the rocky shore. On the Pentemily beach (near the city of Kyrenia), 3 thousand soldiers were landed, who, overcoming the resistance of the EOKA activists and the Greek contingent, began to expand the bridgehead. In the following days, TMT activists began to help the Turkish soldiers, the number of the group increased to 30 thousand soldiers and three hundred tanks. They were opposed by the local Cypriot guard of 12 thousand people, 32 T-34-85 tanks, members of the EOKA and 2 thousand of the Greek contingent of troops.

Related to this conflict is the heaviest friendly fire in modern history. After the start of the operation on July 20, several Greek ships prepared to send troops from Rhodes to Paphos in Cyprus. A day earlier, the landing ship Lesbos sailed to the island. The movements were noticed by aerial reconnaissance and location radars, the Turkish command decided to destroy these ships before they arrived in Cyprus. It was assumed that the aircraft would strike first, and then the fleet. Location monitoring was carried out only during the day. Greek intelligence knew that its communications channels were being tapped and provoked Turkey by reporting the successful arrival of the ships in Paphos. At night, the Greek landing force returned to Rhodes.

As a result, on July 21, 48 F-100 and F-104 aircraft flew to the Paphos area, where 3 Turkish destroyers were already located. The pilots mistook the red flags with a crescent moon for a Greek stratagem and struck anyway. Plus, Greece and Turkey bought fleets from France and Great Britain, so their fleets were almost identical. One destroyer was sunk, two damaged, and 70 sailors were killed. Aviation losses - 2 F-100, 1 F-104. On the same day, the Turkish newspapers reported a crushing victory over the Greek fleet, but later these reports disappeared from the press.

Immediately after the start of the invasion, the UN sharply condemned Turkey's actions and on July 25 a temporary truce was concluded with the defenders of the island - diplomacy was used. Until August 14, negotiations were held in Geneva between Great Britain, Turkey and Greece to stop the aggression and grant autonomy to the Turkish community. Turkey demanded 34 percent of the territory of Cyprus, and Greece, of course, did not approve of these demands. On August 15, Turkey launched the second phase of the offensive, primarily on the eastern and western parts.

In addition to the UN, NATO also condemned the solution of the problems of the allies by force and the fact that Turkey is waging war with the means provided by the Alliance. The experts were especially outraged by the unpreparedness and failures in the operation: losses from allied fire, difficulties in mustering troops and supply problems. Equipped with European weapons, Turkish troops struggled against the obsolete T-34s and the modest Cypriot army, supplemented by untrained local militias and EOKA activists. Then the Alliance seriously doubted Turkey's ability to resist the "red threat".

Consequences of the conflict

On the territory occupied by the Turks, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was founded, which is still recognized by only one state - Turkey. 198 thousand Greeks were moved from its territory to the south, 37 thousand Turks, on the contrary, moved from the southern territory to the TRNC.

The settlements left by the Greeks in the north were almost immediately sacked, and the Varosha area of ​​Famagusta, which also had a Greek population, is today a popular destination among travelers. Varosha is one of the largest settlements, now abandoned by people. Turkish soldiers do not let anyone go there, you can explore on your own only the outskirts of the abandoned area.

The two states are separated by a green line - this is a neutral zone under the control of the UN. At the moment, this is the most secure border of those guarded by UN troops. Despite hostility in the past, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots now live relatively peacefully, with a general warming of relations between Turkey and Greece in the 2000-2010s. Tourists can cross the border through the post in Nicosia; for locals, such movements have practically no obstacles. (Northern Cyprus does not require visas for almost all citizens of the planet, except for Nigeria and Armenia) By the way, Nicosia itself is the only city that is officially the capital of two states at once.

After the entry of Cyprus into the EU and the Eurozone, discussions began on the potential unification of the island. In 2004, the Annan plan was considered at a referendum, which envisaged the creation of a United Cyprus Republic with Greek and Turkish autonomy and the return of the Greeks to their now abandoned places of residence. As a result, 75% of the Greeks voted against, with 65% of the positive votes from the Turks. With the advent of Nikos Anastasiadis to the presidency, this issue began to be discussed again, but serious steps have not been taken so far.