page_title: History of Cyprus since 1878
section_title: Greek coup d'état and Turkish invasion
hierarchical_section_title: History of Cyprus since 1878 / Independence / Greek coup d'état and Turkish invasion
caption_attribution_description: Map of the districts of Cyprus, with English annotations, and showing the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, United Kingdom Sovereign Base Areas, and United Nations buffer zone. The TRNC section illustrates the current de facto district boundaries following this map as a guide. The northern districts are labelled in Turkish.
context_page_description: Cyprus was part of the British Empire, under military occupation from 1914–1925, and a Crown colony from 1925–1960. Cyprus became an independent nation in 1960.
context_section_description: In July 1974, the President was overthrown by the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état carried out by Greece, which was under Greek military junta rule. 
  The Turkish invasion of Cyprus began on 20 July 1974, under Article 4 of the Guarantee Treaty of 1960 by Turkey, after failed UN meetings for international support. The Guarantee Treaty allowed Greece, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, if attempts to get multilateral support failed, to unilaterally intervene to restore democracy in Cyprus in the event of a coup.
  In a two-stage offensive, Turkish troops took control of 38% of the island and 200,000 Greek Cypriots fled the northern areas which were under occupation, whilst at the same time 60,000 Turkish Cypriots were transferred to these northern occupied areas by the United Nations and British SBA authorities after an agreed temporary population exchange by Turkish and Greek leaders. Since then, the southern part of the country has been under the control of the internationally recognized government of Cyprus and the northern part under the control of the  government of Northern Cyprus.
caption: After the invasion Cyprus was separated into a northern area and a southern area, divided by a buffer zone.
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