Operation Atilla
Turkish troop movements on the evening of July 20, 1974.
| date | July 20, 1974 to August 14, 1974 |
|---|---|
| place | Cyprus |
| output | Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus |
| consequences | 1975 proclamation of the Turkish Federal State of Cyprus and 1983 declaration of independence of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
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| Troop strength | |
| 40,000 Turkish soldiers 20,000 fighters from the Turkish resistance organization |
40,000 Greek Cypriot soldiers 2,000 Greek soldiers |
| losses | |
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Under the code name Operation Atilla ( Turkish Atilla Harekâtı , propagandistically also Kıbrıs Barış Harekâtı - "Cypriot peace operation" called) ran in the consequence of the Cypriot National Guard against Makarios III. The limited intervention ( Atilla I ) by the Turkish military began on July 20, 1974, as well as the occupation ( Atilla II ) of a part of the Republic of Cyprus from August 14 to 16, 1974, in violation of international law and treaty , on which in 1983 the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized internationally only by Turkey , was proclaimed.
course
On July 15, 1974, the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios , was overthrown in a coup by the Cypriot National Guard . The aim of the coup, directed by the Greek junta, was the overthrow of the democratic government of Cyprus and the annexation of Cyprus ( Enosis ) to Greece in clear violation of the Zurich and London agreements .
After Great Britain rejected joint action by the guarantee powers, Turkey intervened on July 20 by sending regular troops. A Turkish invasion fleet that had been on the way since the previous evening was misinterpreted as an "exercise" in Athens and the Turkish armed forces invaded Cyprus undisturbed on the morning of July 20, 1974.
After an interim ceasefire, Turkey used the presence of its troops on August 14th to occupy the northern part of the island in violation of international law. The area of Northern Cyprus made up only 37 percent of the national territory of the Republic of Cyprus , but 70 percent of all economic output was generated there. So were z. B. 66 percent of all tourist facilities, 80 percent of all citrus trees and the commercial port of the island in Famagusta on the northern part of the island.
consequences
The Turkish military drove 162,000, according to Turkish data 120,000, Cypriot Greeks from northern Cyprus to the south, 1500 disappeared . Turkey was sentenced in May 2014 by the European Court of Human Rights to pay 90 million euros in pain and suffering and compensation for the families of the missing Greek Cypriots.
A small minority of Cypriot Greeks remained on the Karpas ( Rizokarpaso ) peninsula , as did Arabic-speaking Maronites . In 1975 Cypriot Turks, who then made up 19 percent of the island's population, had to leave the south of the island. This led to a de facto - Separation of the previously bi-lingual and multi-cultural island.
As a result of its involvement in the coup and the catastrophic military development in Cyprus, the Greek colonel's regime now also lost support within its own ranks. After the regime was overthrown in July 1974 by opposition sections of the officer corps , Greece returned to democracy and the leading colonels were sentenced to life imprisonment. In the part of the island controlled by the Greek Cypriots, with the return of Makarios III. the old order of the Republic of Cyprus restored. There was no withdrawal of the Turkish troops, the Turkish Federal State of Cyprus was proclaimed as a federal state in 1975 and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983 . An uninhabited buffer zone is administered by the UN, in which the Nicosia Airport , which has since been closed, and the Ledra Palace Hotel are also located .
Code names
Operation Atilla refers to the two operations carried out by the Turkish army during the invasion of Cyprus.
Atilla I was the first stage of the operation. The operation began in the morning hours of July 20, 1974 in response to the coup against Makarios by the National Guard directed by the Greek military dictatorship. Three days after the invasion, the putschists were driven out and the elected parliament reinstated.
Atilla II was called the second stage of the Turkish invasion, which took place less than a month after the restoration of parliament on August 14, 1974.
Web links
- Karpasia on schwarzaufweiss.de
- British TV report on the invasion on youtube.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Haydar Çakmak: Türk dış politikası, 1919-2008 . Platinum, 2008, ISBN 978-9944-13-725-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The political systems of Eastern Europe. Edited by Wolfgang Ismayr, Solveig Richter, Markus Söldner. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 3rd updated and expanded edition, 2010. S. 1151. ( limited preview in the Google book search)
- ^ The Middle East and North Africa. 2003, p. 255.
- ↑ a b Heinz A. Richter : Historical Backgrounds of the Cyprus Conflict , in: Cyprus , From Politics and Contemporary History, 12/2009, ISSN 0479-611X , pp. 3–8, download from the homepage of the Federal Agency for Civic Education (PDF; 2 , 7 MB)
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated February 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Case of Cyprus v. Turkey (Application no. 25781/94) Homepage of the European Court of Human Rights
- ↑ See also the report of the European Commission for Human Rights of July 10, 1976: Application Nos. 6780/74 and 6950/75 Cyprus against Turkey
- ↑ Ronald Wellenreuther: Career and background of the Cypriot ethnic group discussions between 1974 and 1993. In: Zeitschrift für Türkeistudie . 7th year, issue 1, 1994, p. 118; Ilse Dorothee Pautsch (Ed.): Files on the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1975. Volume 1. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, p. 1855 f.
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from February 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Jan Asmussen: Cyprus at War. London: IB Tauris & Co Ltd, 2008, p. 19.
