At 5:30 in the morning, the time of the invasion, sounded the sirens.
With memorials, appeals and other events, the people and the State in the free areas remember and pay tribute to the freedom fighters while at the same time festivals for the invasion are organized in the occupied areas.
At eight o’clock in the morning, in the Tomb of Makedonitissa, in the presence of President Anastasiades, there was a memorial ceremony and a wreath was deposited for the fallen officers and soldiers during the Turkish invasion. The Church of Cyprus was represented by the Primate of the Holy Monastery of Apostle Barnabas Archimandrite Ioannis Ioannou. On behalf of the Greek Government, the Minister of National Defense, Mr. Nikos Panagiotopoulos, attended and wrought a wreath.
At ten o’clock in the morning, at the Church of Panagia Faneromeni in semi-occupied Nicosia, in the presence of the President of the Parliament, Ministers, military and civilian Authorities, the Head of the Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus, there was held the Memorial Service and a prayer was prayed for the liberation of Cyprus, the return of refugees to ancestral hearths and finding missing persons.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Nikos Christodoulides, spoke at the memorial.
In July 1974, with deportation and air operations codenamed “Attila” and on the pretext of restoring the constitutional order, Turkey invaded the island by sowing death and destruction.
On July 20, 1974, approximately forty thousand Turkish soldiers, under the aegis of the Turkish Air Force and the navy, invaded illegally and in violation of the Charter of the United Nations Security Council on the northern shores of the Republic of Cyprus.
The Turkish troops’ turnout, which was completed in two phases, with a mere one month difference from the second, resulted in the illegal occupation of 37% of the Republic of Cyprus.
About 200,000 were expelled from their homes, became refugees in their homeland, about 4,000 died, and 1,619 were reported missing.
More than 43,000 heavily armed soldiers from Turkey are still in the occupied areas. Starting with Security Council Resolution 353 of 20 July 1974, the UN has called for the “immediate cessation of foreign military intervention in the Republic of Cyprus” and “for the immediate withdrawal of foreign military personnel from the Republic of Cyprus whose presence is not foreseen by international agreements”.
Source: Church of Cyprus