‘Turkish troops fired on our hotel, the invasion had begun’: 50 years after Cyprus was torn apart

Greek Cypriots arrive at a refugee camp in the south of Cyprus after fleeing Turkish air raids on Famagusta in 1974. Photograph: Don McPhee/the Guardian

Free Paphos Radio broadcast it in both Greek and English. “Greetings Greek Cypriots,” he began. “You know the voice you hear. You know who is speaking. I am Makarios. The coup of the junta has failed. I was the junta’s target, and as long as I am alive the junta will not succeed … Put up resistance in every way. Don’t be afraid.”

Fifty years ago this month, Athens’s military junta, a colonels’ cabal bent on the union with Cyprus they called enosis, briefly believed that, after three failed attempts, they had finally assassinated Archbishop Makarios, Greek Cypriot president since 1960, when Britain granted Cyprus and its Turkish Cypriot minority independence.