Friday marks July 20 Peace and Freedom Day in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which commemorates Turkey’s ‘Cyprus Peace Operation’ -- a huge military intervention to protect Turkish Cypriots from inter-communal violence which struck the island in 1974.
In a Twitter post, the military wrote: “We commemorate our martyrs and veterans with mercy and gratitude on the 44th anniversary of Cyprus’s Happy Peace Operation.”
It also released a video showing the operation conducted 44 years ago.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.
The latest attempt to reunify the long-divided Mediterranean island ended in failure in 2017 after two years of negotiations.
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