Today marks fifty-two years, Wednesday, since the treacherous coup of July 15, 1974, which was planned by the junta regime in Athens and carried out with the involvement of EOKA B in Cyprus.

The clock read 8:20 a.m. when the Cypriot tragedy began to unfold, as the junta put its plan into action. With the primary goal of overthrowing the legitimate President of the Republic, Makarios III, the colonels’ junta and its collaborators in Cyprus launched a military operation in the early morning hours of July 15.

Although their plans ultimately failed—since Makarios was rescued and, after months abroad, returned to Cyprus to resume his presidential duties— the heinous acts against the constitutional order and the Republic led, five days later, to the second crime committed against the Cypriot people. Turkey found the pretext it was looking for and exploited the coup to invade the island on July 20, 1974, causing death, displacement, and destruction.

The countdown to the partition of Cyprus began when the military dictatorship seized power in Greece in 1967. Relations between this brutal regime and the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Makarios III, were strained because Makarios refused to be a president under guardianship.

Seven years after the military junta took power in Greece, and while relations between Makarios and the junta were tense, on the morning of July 15, the commander of Greek military forces in Cyprus, Brigadier General M. Georgitsis, announced to the leadership of the Greek junta, with the signal “Alexander has been admitted to the hospital,” the start of the coup against the democratically elected President of Cyprus.

Early in the morning of July 15, Makarios was returning to the Presidential Palace in Nicosia from his country home in Troodos, where he had spent the weekend. At the time the coup took place, Makarios was receiving a group of Greek schoolchildren from Egypt.

The coup plotters’ gunfire at the Presidential Palace intensified, and Makarios escaped through the only unguarded passageway, located to the west of the Presidential Palace. Makarios then took refuge at the Kykkos Monastery and subsequently in Paphos.

By noon, the coup plotters had taken control of the police and all essential state services.

And while the coup plotters declared Makarios dead and repeatedly announced it on RIK, he is alive and delivers a message that same day via a makeshift radio station in Paphos:

“Greek Cypriot People! The voice you hear is familiar. You know who is speaking to you. I am Makarios. I am the one you elected to be your leader. I am not dead. I am alive. And I am with you, a comrade-in-arms and standard-bearer in our common struggle. The junta’s coup has failed. I was its target, and as long as I live, the junta will not prevail in Cyprus. The junta has decided to destroy Cyprus, to divide it in two. But it will not succeed. Resist the junta in every way possible. Do not be afraid. Join the legitimate forces of the state. The junta must not prevail, and it will not prevail. Now, above all, the struggle.”

Makarios boards a British military aircraft and, via Malta, travels to London, where the following day, July 17, he meets with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Foreign Secretary James Callaghan.

The United States called for support for Cyprus’s independence and urged all nations to do the same, while Secretary of State Henry Kissinger rejects a proposal to support the ousted Makarios regime.

Meanwhile, the role of President of the Republic of Cyprus is assumed by then-Member of Parliament Nicolas Sampson. He is sworn in and delivers a proclamation declaring martial law.

The instability on the island ultimately provided the perfect pretext for Turkey, which on the morning of July 20 put its plan into action under the pretext of protecting the Turkish Cypriots.

In a two-phase invasion, in July and August, and despite the appeals of the UN Security Council [Resolution 353 (1974)] for the swift restoration of constitutional order on the island, Turkey occupied 36.2 percent of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus and forcibly displaced approximately 200,000 Greek Cypriots from their homes.

Another 20,000 Greek Cypriots, who remained in the occupied areas, were also eventually forced to abandon their homes and seek refuge in areas controlled by the Government of Cyprus.