Glory and honour to the children of our people who defended Cyprus against Turkey’s invading army of Attila
19 July 2025, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
The anniversary of the Turkish invasion of 20th July 1974 brings back to the memory of our people the brutality and devastation it suffered from the hordes of Turkey’s invading army of Attila. Turkey – taking the baton from the Greek junta and EOKA B, which had carried out the coup five days earlier – executed the second part of the NATO plan to divide Cyprus. Turkey invaded our homeland, massacred our people, committed war crimes on a mass level – the murder of civilians and prisoners, rape, destruction of cultural sites and heritage – occupied 36% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus and uprooted tens of thousands of Cypriots from their land in order to consolidate the violent separation of the two communities that had begun in 1963.
The tolerance that the West has shown for half a century towards Turkey’s occupation of Cyprus confirms that the crime committed against Cyprus was NATO-inspired.
On the occasion of the anniversary of Turkey’s invasion, AKEL reiterates that the pretexts that Turkey deployed in 1974 and which it has been peddling to this very day to justify the invasion and occupation have no legal, political or moral basis. Turkey never had any right to invade the island and neither the first, nor the second phase of the invasion have any legal basis.
Neither international law nor the Treaty of Guarantee – which is maliciously invoked by Turkey – gives the guarantor powers the right to intervene militarily, since this is directly contrary to the UN Charter. Turkey has not restored the constitutional order that overthrew the coup, nor has it ever had such an objective. After all, constitutional order had been restored initially, with the removal of the traitorous traitor Samson, and definitively, with the return of Makarios to Cyprus and the Presidency in December 1974. However, Turkey has remained for half a century a power of occupation and colonization in our country. Turkey has never had the aim of ‘protecting Turkish Cypriots’ and this has been confirmed in the years that followed and is confirmed today. On the contrary, colonization, militarization, economic-political domination and the imposition of Erdogan’s Islamic agenda leads to the strangulation and assimilation of Turkish Cypriots as a community.
This year’s black anniversary of the invasion coincided with the conclusion of the informal five-party meeting in New York on the Cyprus problem. Although the process was sustained, it failed to break the deadlock given the demands of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership for a two-state solution and “sovereign equality”.
AKEL signals in all directions that it will never accept a partitionist confederal solution and that it will never compromise with the occupation divisive status quo. Only freedom and reunification can vindicate the sacrifices of our heroes and guarantee peace and security for the future generations of Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. This can be achieved through a solution to the Cyprus problem that puts an end to the occupation, the foreign guarantors and intervention rights and at the same time through a solution that reunites our country and people with a solution of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, as provided for in the UN Resolutions and as its content has been agreed upon between the two communities. This is precisely why AKEL consistently insists on the need to resume the talks from the point where they were interrupted in 2017, preserving all the convergences achieved through the negotiation procedure and continuing negotiations on the basis of the Guterres Framework on outstanding issues.
AKEL pays tribute to the children of our people who fought heroically in the unequal battle against the Turkish invading army of Attila and defended our Freedom and Homeland, at the same time as the coupists were hiding in the rear and the Athens junta was preventing the strengthening of Cyprus’ defence. We also honour the Greeks who stood by Cyprus and defended it with self-denial.
AKEL underlines again that it will continue to stand with and beside our compatriots who bore the burden of the tragedy of 1974; the war-stricken victims, the relatives of the missing persons, the prisoners of war, wounded and disabled of the war, the women victims of rape, the refuges and the enclaved people (in the occupied areas).
A delegation of AKEL and the Organisations of the People’s Movement, headed by the General Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee, will hold a symbolic event of remembrance and honour at the Mound of Makedonitissa, on Sunday 20th July 2025 at 9:00 a.m.
