The 70th Engineer Battalion was ordered not to lay mines at a key landing point on the northern coast of Cyprus shortly before the Turkish invasion in 1974, according to an account published by Phileleftheros on Friday.

The report, by Vassos Vasiliou, focuses on the battalion’s movements in the hours before the Turkish landing at Pente Mili and the subsequent fighting around Kyrenia, Lapithos and Karavas.

According to a draft war diary attributed to then engineer lieutenant Panayiotis Panagopoulos, a detachment of the battalion arrived in Kyrenia at 11.45pm on July 19.

The unit had been expected to mine the coast at Pente Mili, where a Turkish landing was considered possible.

Instead, Panagopoulos recorded that the detachment received an order from Stylianos Michopoulos, commander of the 3rd tactical group, not to mine the coast.

The order was reportedly justified with the words “you have come merely as a precaution”.

The account reported by Phileleftheros says the engineers were therefore prevented from carrying out preparations at an area where Turkish forces would land hours later.

A similar account was later given in a television interview by reserve officer Kostas Santamas, who said the engineers had not been permitted to mine the landing point shortly before the invasion.

The report also cites the testimony of Theodoros Charalambous, then an assistant in the 4th Staff Office of the Higher Tactical Command.

He said the 70th Engineer Battalion had received orders on July 19 to lay mines at beaches five and six miles from Kyrenia, but that Michopoulos prevented the operation.

Charalambous has attributed Michopoulos’ decision to instructions from the Greek junta under dictator Dimitrios Ioannides.

He also cited an audio recording from a July 20 war council in Athens in which Ioannides is reported to have said “let them enter Kyrenia and then intervene”.

The 70th Engineer Battalion subsequently became heavily involved in the fighting around Lapithos and Karavas.

On August 5, an engineer company was sent into the area to lay a minefield.

According to a later account cited by Cyprus Mail, the minefield was almost completed by the evening, but the engineers were ordered to remain close to the front line and continue their work the following day.

On August 6, Turkish forces launched a major attack in the area. Of the 53 engineers involved, 22 managed to escape, while 31 were reported missing.

The fighting left the battalion with some of the heaviest losses suffered by a single National Guard unit during the invasion.

The question of whether the National Guard was deliberately restrained on orders from Greek commanders, inadequately prepared by the misuse of weaponry taken by Archbishop Makarios’ paramilitary units or simply overwhelmed remains contentious.