On this day, July 15, 1974, the military coup took place in Cypruswith the aim of overthrowing the then President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, from the leadership of the junta of the Colonels. Five days later the Turkish invasion of Cyprus was a fact.
During the coup, a total of 91 people were killed and 250 injured, reports the cyprustimes.gr.
As every year, today at 08:20 in the morning, the moment of the start of the operation towards the Presidential Palace and the escape of Archbishop Makarios the sirens sounded in all the cities of free Cyprus.
The President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiadis will attend the memorial service for the fallen of the coup that will be held at the Holy Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, in Nicosia.
At 09:45 he will attend the procession and lay a wreath at the site of the Democracy and Resistance Monument and the columns of the fallen resistance fighters in the park of the Presidential Palace. The organizers are the Committee for Training and Maintaining the Register of Resistance Fighters and the Association of Resistance Democracies of Nicosia.
At 11:00 the President Nikos Anastasiadis will attend the anniversary session of the House of Representatives.
The history
Early on the morning of Monday July 15, 1974, Makarios made his way back to the Presidential Palace in Nicosia from his country residence on Mount Troodos, where he had spent the weekend. Makarios’ procession passed in front of the National Guard camp in Kokkinotrimithia, without any of the members of his entourage noticing anything suspicious, reports the sigmalive.gr.
At the time of the coup d’état, Blissful was receiving a group of Greek children from Egypt. Some of the children heard the shots, but Makarios calmed them down.
When the fire intensified and the Presidential Palace began to be cannonaded by the armored vehicles of the National Guard, Makarios, after first protecting his little visitors, then escaped through the only unguarded passage that existed to the west of the Presidential Palace.
With the help of three of his bodyguards and dressed in civilian clothes, he followed the bed of a nearby stream and under novel circumstances arrived at the Kykkou Monastery.
Source: News Beast
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