Today marks 52 years since US ambassador Rodger Davies was assassinated inside the American embassy in Nicosia on Wednesday, August 19, 1974, during a violent anti-American demonstration held days after Turkey’s second military offensive.

The 53-year-old diplomat had presented his credentials as ambassador only weeks earlier, on July 10, 1974, shortly before the coup against President Archbishop Makarios and the subsequent Turkish invasion.

By August 19, anger towards the United States had intensified among Greek Cypriots who believed Washington had failed to prevent the Turkish advance and was favouring Turkey.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the embassy in Nicosia, with American flags burned and slogans directed against the US, Nato, the CIA and then secretary of state Henry Kissinger.

The demonstration became violent as protesters confronted embassy security and gunfire was directed at the building.

Davies had been advised to move to a safer location but remained inside the embassy.

As gunfire struck the building a bullet struck him in the chest.

Antoinette Varnava, a 30-year-old Greek Cypriot embassy employee who moved to assist him, was also shot dead.

The shooting took place as acting President Glafcos Clerides was holding a press conference in Nicosia.

He later condemned the killing as “a heinous crime” and expressed his “deepest sorrow and sympathy”.

The immediate investigation produced no definitive identification of the gunman.

American officials attributed the shooting to Eoka B members suspected of carrying out the attack.

Later accounts and investigations also placed the gunfire in a nearby building rather than within the crowd.

The precise circumstances were never established in court.

The case was reopened in 1976 after Makarios ordered a fresh investigation, yet investigators found that the original police file had disappeared from the archives.

Six people were subsequently arrested in connection with the assassination, although the proceedings did not produce a final conviction for Davies’ murder.

Davies remains the only US ambassador to have been killed inside an American embassy, while Varnava is also remembered by the US Embassy in Cyprus as having been killed in the line of duty.