The operation launched in 1974 under the code-phrase “Ayse Tatile Ciksin” (Ayse should go on vacation) stopped the bloodshed on the island.

Violence broke out amid a Greek Cypriot attempt to forcibly unite Cyprus with Greece, which was then ruled by a military junta. Turkey sent 40,000 troops to the island’s north.

The developments that set the stage for the Cyprus Peace Operation began in 1959 when the London and Zurich Agreements were signed between Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom for the constitution of the Republic of Cyprus on the basis of equality of rights.

However, the Turkish Cypriots, who had been attacked since 1963 by the Greek Cypriot armed groups, were removed from the state administration by pressure and oppression.

The attacks and embargoes carried out against the Turkish community by the Greeks, who wanted to give the administration of the island to Greece, increased between 1963-1974.