Cypriot National Guard

[Tsontos]

This thread is for posting pictures, updates and news about the Cypriot National Guard.

To start of the thread heres a quote from the then commander of the EU who explained the heroism of the massively outnumbered Cypriot National Guardsmen with inferior weaponry making it impossible for the Turks to capture Nicosia airport as they had planned.

General Prem Chand, Commander of the UN Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus 1974, from an interview with CNA, in New Delhi, India.

“Chand believes that a report by the Commander of the British UN Contingent, Francis Henn, in 1974 to the effect that "an initiative taken by UNFICYP with a view of consolidating an agreed but precarious ceasefire came dangerously close to having an altogether contrary and unforeseen consequence, a fight between the UN force and mainland Turkish forces," reflects "one hundred per cent what had happened at the time."

The report says Turkey had three prime objectives during the first phase of its invasion of Cyprus, launched on July 20, 1974 using as a pretext a coup d'etat engineered by the Greek military dictatorship in Athens against the legitimate Cyprus government. These objectives were "to capture the port of Kyrenia, to effect a link- up over the Kyrenia mountain pass between it and the main enclave, and to seize Nicosia airport."

Despite Turkish anticipations, Henn argues, Turkey failed to reach all its objectives due to "a lack of drive on the part of their troops (Turkish), the courageous resistance of inferior National Guard forces, equipped generally with a hotch-potch of obsolescent weapons and without air support of any kind" and UNFICYP's "unexpected pre-emptive intervention at the airport."

On July 22, the Turkish army defied a ceasefire agreement reached between Turkey and Cyprus and advanced towards Nicosia International Airport. Commenting on the ceasefire, Henn points out that despite General Chand's "determined efforts", no ceasefire conditions were signed by the two sides because of Turkey's refusal.