What was the immediate damage of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 1974 to the island?

Essay by KeirHigh School, 12th grade March 2005

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The Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 1974 was an act universally condemned as a gross infringement of international law and the UN charter because of its illegal status and its destructive nature. It had and still has a very negative impact in the island. The aim of this investigation is to analyze the immediate damages that the Turkish invasion of Cyprus brought to the island. An analysis of the different factors covered in the investigation should indicate the importance of the damages brought by the invasion to the economy, the cultural heritage and how they contributed to the worsening of the daily life of its inhabitants.

B: Summary of evidence

On 15 July 1974, a coup to overthrow the democratically elected government of Cyprus was planned by the ruling military junta of Greece. Turkey used that as a pretext to invade the island on the 20 July of the same year .

The Turks occupied 35% of the island's territory and expelled approximately 142 000 Cypriots living in the Northern invaded area.

1. Impact in the economy and demographic changes

The Northern occupied part of Cyprus was the richest and most developed part of the island before the invasion (70% of the gross output). Economic devastation was brought by the policy of integrating the area with Turkey, and vast numbers of Turkish Cypriots were forced to immigrate to other countries. The policy of bringing Turkish settlers to the invaded area brought such changes to the demographic situation that there are a lot more illegal settlers now than 'proper' Turkish Cypriots. Independent observers such as the parliamentarians Alfons Cuco (Spain) and Jaakks Laaks (Finland) confirmed the existence of settlers, and submitted reports on the issue in 1992 and 2003 respectively to the committee on migration refugees and demography of the...