Events kick off Sunday to mark invasion in the north

Celebrations in the north for the 41st anniversary of the Turkish invasion of July 20, 1974 will begin on Sunday, while Monday’s military parade will take place in the presence of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Celebrations will begin with 21 gun shots on Sunday at noon followed by the speech of Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Bayrak TV.

The parade on Monday will begin at 4pm and later in the day Akinci is set to host a reception in the ‘presidential palace’ in the north.

To mark the anniversary, several other events are to take place including Turkish diver Cem Karabay’s attempt to stay underwater for 72 hours to break the world Guinness record for the longest open saltwater scuba dive.

Turkish army vessels and aircraft are to also make an appearance, while several memorials are to take place for the Turkish Cypriot victims of the war.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.