Fifty-two years after that dark morning of July 15, 1974, the memories and wounds of the treacherous coup that opened the floodgates to Operation Attila remain vivid for thousands of Cypriot citizens.

One of them is Christakis Souroupis, who was 9 years old at the time and the son of a police officer, living with his family in the police housing complex in Nicosia. His home was located in the “triangle” formed by RIK, Police Headquarters, and the Reserve Corps headquarters—which were the first targets of the coup plotters on that dark Monday…

READ ALSO: “Alexander Was Admitted to the Hospital”: A Chronicle of July 15, 1974, and the Beginning of the Cypriot Tragedy

As reported on the Alpha News program, the military raids brought destruction and death to the area, with little Christakis’s eyes witnessing the lifeless bodies of police officers lying in the streets.

“Four units of the National Guard attacked: ELDYK, commandos sent from Pella Pais, an artillery unit, and tanks from the Pouliou-Kapota camp in Athalassa.”

Christakis spent that day with his mother, his grandmother, and his brother, as the military forces unleashed a relentless barrage of fire, forcing them to hide in their home and remain in the hallway for hours.

“The gunfire was indiscriminate—it was chaos. At one point, we heard the rumble of tanks. We could hear bazooka explosions,”

He and his family fell into the hands of the coup plotters, who led them from their home to RIK with their hands raised.

“The gate guard had been killed and was lying in a pool of blood. There, men from the Reserve Forces lay sprawled in the grass; they were being trampled on, and the coup plotters were shouting at them, ‘Communists, Reds!’ and forcing them to shout, ‘Long live Grivas and the Union!’”

READ ALSO: “I was holding the baby by half his head”: The brutal murder of 8-year-old Stavros and his grandmother Margarita during the coup