Cyprus: Coups and clubbing

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2024

⏱️ 51 minutes

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Summary

We hear Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot perspectives on the island's 1974 coup and subsequent invasion. Bekir Azgun, a Turkish-Cypriot writer, remembers the events.

On the 20 July 1974 Captain Adamos Marneros landed the final flight at Nicosia Airport.

Nicoletta Demetriou talks about returning to her family home in 2003.

Then, a Cypriot Olympic sailing hero Pavlos Kontides takes us back to the London 2012 Games.

And finally the 'Godfather of Ayia Napa', DJ Nick Power, tells us how the island became a party destination.

Max Pearson presents this week's Witness History interviews on the history of Cyprus. Our guest is Dr Antigone Heraclidou, senior research associate at CYENS Centre of Excellence in Cyprus.

(Photo: Greek Cypriot soldier killed in the 1974 conflict. Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC with me Max Pearson
0:10.2	featuring this week's witness history episodes on the World Service.
0:13.6	Coming up, Cyprus 50 years after the Greek-sponsored coup
0:18.0	and subsequent Turkish invasion.
0:20.0	I noticed outside Antalya four dots on the radar which I hadn't seen before.
0:27.0	How after decades of division some families crossed the green line between the Greek South and the Turkish North to find their old homes in the hands of strangers.
0:37.0	My mom immediately asked for one thing, and I knew that this was the single thing that she was going to ask for.
0:44.4	She said, did you find any photos?
0:47.4	And how Cypriot Sporting Pride was kindled by a sailing triumph at the 2012 Olympic Games.
0:54.0	I mean what I clearly remember it's probably being there 4,000 to 5,000 people and shouting in
1:00.5	Greek break the walls, the Contidas is coming.
1:04.4	All that to come as we look at the history of Cyprus.
1:07.8	50 years ago this month, the Greek military dictatorship in Athens
1:11.7	sponsored a coup on the eastern Mediterranean island aiming to unite Cyprus with Greece.
1:17.2	Just days later Turkey invaded taking control of the northern third of the island and displacing many thousands of its inhabitants.
1:25.6	We'll be hearing from both sides of the divide from those who've lost homes and family members,
1:30.6	as well as from those who've helped to shape modern life in this fractured community.
1:34.8	First, a Turkish Cypriot perspective. The writer Bequir Asgun grew up in the village of Potameer
1:42.1	which lies close to the green line separating the Greek and Turkish sectors,
1:46.0	and where Greek and Turkish Cypriots had once lived together in harmony.
1:50.0	He's been talking to Maria Margarones about the moment in 1974 which changed his home country forever.
1:58.0	On the 15th of July, I was cutting hay with my father to our house in the village.
	...

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