ISTANBUL

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday marked Peace and Freedom Day in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), celebrating the 51st anniversary of the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation.

Erdogan is visiting the TRNC to attend events commemorating the military operation that Türkiye launched in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at annexing the island to Greece.

"Wholeheartedly" congratulating the Turkish Cypriot people, Erdogan said on X: "On the 51st anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation, I remember with respect our martyrs who gave their lives for the Turkish Cypriot people's struggle for existence, and I offer my gratitude to our heroic veterans."

Decades-long problem

Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement.

Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.

In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.

It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Türkiye, Greece, and the UK.

The Greek Cypriot Administration entered the EU in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots single-handedly blocked a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.