Turkey’s Role in Ukraine and the Shadow of the 1974 Cyprus Invasion

The Republic of Turkey has played an instrumental role in the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Besides providing weapons such as Bayraktar drones, armored personnel carriers, and cluster munitions, Ankara has negotiated a grain corridor for a year and a half, alleviating the wheat crisis that plagued third-world nations during the war.

Along with military and diplomatic support, Turkey also successfully negotiated the release of the Azov commanders and is now actively attempting to mediate the release of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children from Russian possession.

Turkey’s tremendous deeds to Ukraine are invaluable, but these acts also bring up their haunting past. Where Turkey is now negotiating the release of missing Ukrainian POWs and children, the country must also do the same for missing Cypriots after the 1974 invasion.

1974 Turkish Invasion of Cyprus

In the early 1970s, Cyprus was embroiled in ethnic tensions that the United Nations had failed to mitigate. Then Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios grew out of favor with his National Guard, the Greek junta in Athens, and the paramilitary EOKA group over his policies of failing to unite the isle with Greece (Enosis).

The powder keg resulted in the Cypriot coup, which triggered the first Turkish invasion on July 20th, 1974. In the first Turkish invasion, 3% of the isle was captured, and the inability of the Greek and Cypriot juntas to anticipate the domino effect led to the fall of both nations’ military rule.

The United States government appointed Henry Kissinger to mend the tensions in the Mediterranean while the interim civilian governments took power in Greece and Cyprus. However, Kissinger, along with Turkey, had other plans. Wanting NATO to have an extended presence in Cyprus, Kissinger quietly planned another invasion alongside Ankara.

The second invasion, backed by the United States, occurred during the Geneva Peace Conference on August 14th, between Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, nearly a month after the first incursion. In the second invasion, Operation Attila involved ethnic cleansing, whole-scale massacres and left Cyprus permanently divided between Greek and Turkish villages. The Green Line and Dhekelia British sovereign base would mark the new border of the occupied and accessible areas of Cyprus.

Missing POWs and Civilians from Cyprus

The second Turkish invasion was even more brutal than the first. Approximately 2,000 Cypriot National Guard were taken as prisoners of war (POWs) along with 1,100-1,500 civilians. An additional 400 Turkish Cypriots remain missing from retaliation massacres after the invasion.

The United Nations created the Committee of Missing Persons, tasked with finding the dates of thousands of people missing from the invasion. The International Committee of the Red Cross has identified 1,100 bodies so far.

A significant problem in finding and identifying missing prisoners of war is the lack of cooperation from Ankara, as many of the missing have already been executed in the Turkish-occupied North of Cyprus and mainland Turkey. A Turkish Cypriot newspaper, Afrika, reported that the Turkish military took Greek Cypriot POWs to their military bases in Adana and tortured and killed them. The POWs were buried alive, which was witnessed by locals in the Adana region.

Numerous mass graves have been discovered on the isle after the invasion, with many being found in the city of Kyrenia, which held some of the fiercest fighting in 1974. The most recent remains were identified in 2021 by the Committee of Missing Persons. Still, due to non-cooperation by Ankara and lack of access in the occupied and militarized North, it will be hard to repatriate the remains.

Turkey Wants a Path to Rapprochement but Must Mend Relations with Cyprus

Turkey has vetoed Sweden’s NATO membership for various reasons for the past year. Under the guise of ‘sheltering terrorists,’ President Erdogan of Turkey said the veto was due to the presence of former Kurdish fighters and activists in Sweden.

Behind the scenes of stalling Sweden’s NATO ascension, Erdogan secretly wanted to upgrade F-16s and European Union membership negotiations to be brought back into the fold. Erdogan and his ruling AKP party would reveal these demands during the recent NATO summit in Vilnius, and though the US expressed willingness for the F-16 transfer, Turkey’s EU ambitions are at a crossroads, especially with Greece and Cyprus as members.

Turkey currently does not acknowledge the Cypriot government in Nicosia, which is the internationally recognized of Cyprus. The Turkish military also has a prolonged 49-year occupation of the isle, which means Ankara is illegally occupying the territory of the European Union.

Ankara, which is currently facing a significant economic recession and inflation, also has to deal with the fate of the thousands of missing Greek Cypriots, which will be a substantial obstacle to mending the peace process in Cyprus. Suppose the Turkish government wants to start a renewed negotiated settlement toward EU membership. In that case, they must also take steps to withdraw the 46,000 troops in a sovereign member nation and stop violating Greek air and maritime space.

Turkey, which has actively played a humanitarian and diplomatic role in helping to have detained Ukrainians released from Russian captivity, now must confront its dark past and do the same with the fate of missing Greek Cypriots.