On Saturday, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) will host grand celebrations to celebrate Türkiye's military operation that saved the local population but also cemented an ongoing divide in the Mediterranean island. A source of pride for Turks, it will be an occasion for commemoration for Greek Cypriots. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be joined by high-ranking officials at events to mark the golden jubilee, while Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will be island's south to attend the commemoration.

Special events will be held in memory of those who died in the Cyprus Peace Operation to mark the golden jubilee with grandeur. Events include concerts by the military band and mehteran unit band, sports competitions, conferences, seminars, symposiums and essay competitions will be held to mark the occasion.

A military parade will also feature Türkiye’s first aircraft carrier, the TCG Anadolu, and several ships. The Turkish Stars and SOLOTURK teams, two prominent aerobatic demonstration teams of the Turkish Air Force known for their impressive aerial displays and precision flying, are also scheduled to perform as part of the ceremony.

A total of 50 ships of the Turkish navy will be in a military parade, while two Bayraktar AKINCI unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and four F-16 fighter jets will join the parade. En route to the TRNC, the UAVs made a historic flight of about three hours, from Türkiye to Geçitkale airport in Cyprus, a distance of about 1,022 kilometers (635 miles).

Along with Erdoğan, Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş, Cabinet members, political party representatives and parliamentarians will also attend the celebrations in the TRNC.

Kurtulmuş will be accompanied by members of the Presidency Council and the group deputy chair of the Grand National Assembly.

Opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairperson Özgür Özel will attend the celebrations alongside 174 Cyprus veterans, members of the party's Central Executive Committee and numerous parliamentarians. At Özel's invitation, Ayşe Güneş Ayata, the daughter of then-Foreign Minister Turan Gunes, who inspired the "Ayse should go on vacation" code phrase during the Cyprus Peace Operation, and the then-Minister of Labor Önder Sav will also attend the golden jubilee events.

Heads of various Turkish parties, including Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairperson Devlet Bahçeli, Önder Aksakal, head of Democratic Left Party (DSP) whose founder Bülent Ecevit, then a prime minister, ordered the Peace Operation, and Great Union Party (BBP) Chairperson Mustafa Destici, will attend the events in TRNC.

The date, celebrated as Peace and Freedom Day by Turkish Cypriots, is a memorial day for Greek Cypriots. On July 20, 1974, Türkiye launched the Cyprus Peace Operation after a coup attempt by the Greek Cypriots on the island south of Türkiye. The operation, which ultimately prevented Cyprus' incorporation into Greece, paved the way for strengthening the safety of the Turkish Cypriot community. After two days, Türkiye suspended the operation and called the U.K. and Greece to come to the negotiation table. Ultimately, guarantor states signed the Geneva Declaration on July 30, 1974. Türkiye relaunched the military operation on Aug. 14 and two days later, a cease-fire was declared, successfully wrapping up the operation. But tragedy followed as withdrawing Greek Cypriot troops committed massacres in Turkish villages on their way back. Mass graves were discovered after the peace operation ended. The Turkish army lost 498 soldiers during the operation, while 70 "mücahits" (volunteer Turkish Cypriot fighters) were killed in the operation.

About two months after the operation, Turkish Cypriots declared autonomy and one year later, announced the establishment of the Turkish Cypriot Federal State. In 1983, its name was changed to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).

Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Tahsin Ertuğruloğlu says the Cyprus Peace Operation literally brought peace to the island, not only to Turkish Cypriots but also for Greek Cypriots as it paved the way for an end to the military junta in Greece.

"Mehmetçiks and Mücahits came together on that day and saved Cyprus from being a Hellenic island like Crete," Ertuğruloğlu told Anadolu Agency (AA) ahead of operation’s anniversary, using affectionate nicknames for Turkish soldiers and Turkish Cypriot volunteers respectively. Ertuğruloğlu was referring to the largest Greek island, which severed ties with the rule of Ottomans who governed the island for a long time and united with Greece after a period of autonomy under Ottoman suzerainty.

Ertuğruloğlu says Turkish Cypriots have dreamed of having Turkish troops on the island for years before the peace operation and recalls a battle of songs in Turkish and Greek Cypriot songs. "They used to play the (Turkish) song 'I Waited and You Did Not Show Up' and our radios would broadcast "I can come one night, all of a sudden."

The minister said the operation was also decisive in changing the regional dynamics. "It reset all affairs in the Mediterranean Sea and paved the way for the Blue Homeland," he said, in reference to the Turkish initiative for more assertive policies in Turkish territorial waters, which have long been a source of dispute between Ankara and Athens.

"It is a birthday for Turkish Cypriots, a day of revival. So, it is also significant for the greater Turkic world," he said. The minister noted that Turkish Cypriots fought for their "identity" and this fight "continues to this day."

Only Türkiye fully recognizes the TRNC as a state, and Ankara mobilized to help it gain wider recognition, through various international platforms, particularly the Organization of Turkic States (OTS). In 2004, the island was admitted to the European Union as a state but the EU recognizes only the Greek-Cypriot-run southern part. Negotiations have been ongoing between Turkish and Greek Cypriots under the mediation of the United Nations but a solution appears far away. The TRNC insists on a two-state solution, while Greek Cypriots refuse it and try to impose a reunification of the island.

"We are under no circumstances discussing a two-state solution," Greek Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) shortly before the anniversary of the peace operation.

Without recognition, the TRNC faces embargoes and restrictions, spearheaded by the EU and U.N. Security Council resolutions. Ertuğruloğlu says the U.N. and EU punished them instead of the Greek Cypriots. He also denounced the approach of "some EU countries" trying to blame Turkish Cypriots for the lack of a solution to the Cyprus question.

Bitter memories

For some, the anniversary will be a bittersweet occasion, like Cuma Erdem, a Turkish soldier who participated in the operation. Now 74, Erdem recalled his grisly discovery of Turkish Cypriots slaughtered by Greek Cypriots. Erdem, who now heads a veterans' association in the southern Turkish province of Gaziantep, was 22 when he was deployed from the province of Kahramanmaraş to Cyprus. He and his fellow soldiers were only informed two days before the operation. The Turkish contingent boarded a passenger ship instead of a naval vessel. "Some soldiers were worried and others were jumping with joy. It was the first time the Turkish army was engaged in a war after years but we were all proud because we were going there to save fellow Turks," he told AA on Thursday. As the ship approached Port of Girne (Kyrenia) it came under fire by Greek Cypriots positioned on a mountain overlooking the port.

The ship steered back and waited while smaller ferry boats were dispatched for troops. Still, they could not anchor at the port. "So, we had to make a landing on foot. I remember wading through waist-deep water," he said. After a cease-fire, Turkish forces moved forward with a second operation as attacks on troops and the local population continued. Before the second operation began, Greek Cypriots were already withdrawing but were leaving a trail of massacres behind. Erdem was there after such massacres in three villages and recalled how he and others stumbled upon "a pit full of bodies."

"We found out that (Greek Cypriots) took some villagers to a prisoner camp and executed all the rest. We came across trails of blood on the ground and we traced it, we reached the pit. Bodies were piled upon each other and set on fire. Later, they apparently tried to cover the pit with a thin layer of soil. We dug out many bodies but I particularly remember two: A mother and her child, probably a girl of 5 or 6, embracing each other, completely burned."

Turkish Cypriot Mustafa Ahmet Binatlı was among those held captive by Greek Cypriots and he is thankful to Türkiye for the peace operation. "I am alive today thanks to my motherland, Türkiye. Without Türkiye, there would not be a single Turkish Cypriot today," he told AA ahead of the anniversary. Now 81, Binatlı was a law student in Türkiye when he joined a secret resistance organization for the protection of Turkish Cypriots against Greek Cypriot attacks in 1961. In 1963, he left for home, along with his brother, and joined the armed resistance against Greek Cypriot attacks. "We were engaged in clashes (with Greek Cypriots). My brother was a machine gunner. We were in the same front back then but I only knew that he was still alive when I heard the sound of a machine gun," he recalled. The resistance continued but Binatlı says only Turkish intervention saved them from "Greek Cypriot peril."

Binatlı was assigned as an "investigation officer" by Rauf Denktaş, founder of the TRNC who later went on to be its first president. When Greek Cypriots launched another offensive on July 15, 1974, Turkish Cypriots, though outnumbered, had to fight back. One clash in Limassol ended with a defeat, and Binatlı was taken prisoner.

"They took us to a clinic on the Greek Cypriot side. I recognized it because it was where my son was born. A Greek Cypriot soldier there recognized me. 'Aren't you that lawyer' he asked me. When I said 'yes' he gave me bread and a blanket. The next day, they took us to a school. There, under high temperatures, they ordered us to march barefoot on melting asphalt," he recalled.

"Among us was a prisoner named Cafer. He told us he could not bear the thought of being a prisoner of Greek Cypriots. He stood up one day and started marching toward Greek Cypriot machine gunners. He was reciting the (Turkish) national anthem. They fired on him. He was injured and died en route to the hospital," he recounted.

Binatlı said they were subject to "intense" torture and were saved only after a prisoner exchange. "We have smuggled a radio into the prisoner camp. There, we heard about the operation. Our morale improved then," he said.

"We heard the landings began. I cannot describe the joy among us then. People were telling each other that they won't be killed because Türkiye was there."