Turkey prepared for 1974 Cyprus ‘peacekeeping operation’ for ten years, official says

Turkey had to wait until 1974 to invade Cyprus because it did not have enough equipment and ships but had wanted to invade the island for ten years, the Speaker of the Turkish National Assembly, Mustafa Sentop was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

In a speech at a reception he gave for Turkish ambassadors, according to CNA, Sentop said: “We had to wait until 1974 to intervene in the deteriorating situation in Cyprus since the 1960s and the massacres suffered by the Turkish community”.

“Because we didn’t have enough equipment, especially landing craft. We prepared for the peacekeeping operation for 10 years,” he was quoted as saying.

“But a lot of water has flowed under the bridges, and many caravans have gone over them,” he added.

Today, he said there were drilling vessels that “serve as a statement and a symbol of our power in the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea”.

All this, he added, “is very valuable to show our transition from a Turkey, which was able to reach its expatriates in Cyprus only 10 years later, due to insufficient means, to a Turkey, which has demonstrated the will of the Blue Homeland”.