By Utku Simsek
Although a few countries supported the 1974 Turkish military intervention in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Libya was one of the leading countries that backed Türkiye, according to a former Turkish ambassador to Libya.
“There was support from very few countries around the world for the Turkish Armed Forces to land in the Cyprus (Island). But one of the leading countries that supported Türkiye was Libya and (Muammar) Gaddafi,” Uluc Ozulker, who served as Türkiye’s ambassador to Libya at the time of the Cyprus Peace Operation, told Anadolu.
Noting that Libya had two large arms warehouses at that time, Ozulker said Libya opened their entire warehouses to Türkiye in case of any need.
Ozulker said that Gaddafi told them: "Come and get whatever you need. If all the materials in this warehouse are in a position to meet your needs, you are free to take anything you want, and I am your supporter in this sense."
The Turkish Armed Forces sent experts to Libya to examine the warehouse after Gaddafi's call, he said, adding that Libya gave everything they had that was compatible with the Turkish weapons.
Stressing that Gaddafi continued to support Türkiye on the Cyprus issue both during and after the operation, he said the relations with Türkiye were extremely “warm and positive.”
The island of Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive settlement.
Ethnic attacks starting in the early 1960s forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety.
In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at Greece’s annexation of the island led to Türkiye’s military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence. As a result, the TRNC was founded in 1983.
The Greek Cypriot administration was admitted to the EU in 2004, the same year Greek Cypriots thwarted a UN plan to end the longstanding dispute.
*Writing by Gozde Bayar