The heroes of peace in Cyprus recounted those days.

Kayseri veterans Tahir Sahin and Halim Shahbaz, who participated in the Cyprus Peace Operation, recounted their experiences from the war on the 50th anniversary of the operation.

70-year-old Cyprus veteran Tahir Sahin shared his struggle to stop the atrocities against Turks in Cyprus and to ensure their peace on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Cyprus Peace Operation carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces on July 20, 1974. Describing his journey to Cyprus, Sahin said, “When we were first called up for military service, I went to Samsun. We participated in the elections as a Change Unit and we were elected. After finishing Basic Training, we were supposed to receive additional training in Iskenderun before heading to Cyprus. In the meantime, Makarios did not behave properly, and the chaos within Cyprus reflected on us as well. One night, we were told to be ready. That night, the first landing took place; we traveled by bus to Taşucu in Mersin. If I remember correctly, we were taken by 67 helicopters and landed in an area behind Gönyeli. Then we moved to Gönyeli and were sent to the front. There was quite a bit of conflict at night; we faced a Greek regiment. We received a withdrawal order during the night and retreated. In the morning, we moved to the British base. We experienced difficulties there as we were fired upon from the places we had captured. We were caught between three fires. We had fierce combat, and we lost our first martyrs in our unit there. The Peace Force intervened, and a ceasefire was established. The second operation began. The Greeks had very good equipment; we went there with training weapons. After the second operation ended, we retreated to our positions again.”

“Eşref Bitlis was one of the rare commanders”
Veteran Sahin noted that the Battalion Commander in Cyprus was Eşref Bitlis, highlighting that he was one of the rare commanders in the army, saying, “The official name of our unit was the Cyprus Turkish Forces Battalion; after these operations, it remained as the Cyprus Turkish Peace Forces. My Battalion Commander was Eşref Bitlis. He was one of the rare commanders in the Turkish army. We have never witnessed him injure any soldier.”

“We heard that Cengiz Topel was martyred, and I inevitably harbored resentment”
Adding that they were happy with the peace that followed the operation in Cyprus, Sahin said, “We knew some things about Cyprus from the past; we heard that Cengiz Topel was martyred there and that our commander’s children were killed in the bathroom, which inevitably makes a person harbor resentment towards the other side. War is not a good thing; may God never allow it again. In our history, we have never been aggressors; if we were intervened upon, we responded. Thank God, we succeeded in all of them. We were also happy because there was peace.” Veteran Tahir Sahin shared an unforgettable memory from the Cyprus Peace Operation with the İhlas News Agency (IHA), saying, “I had made a promise with a friend to be discharged together. On the last day when the operation ended, the Greek regiment was fleeing, and we were following them. There was a Greek position in front of us. I had seen Greeks firing with a machine gun there and was heading that way. A friend from the 50th Infantry Battalion grabbed my arm and pulled me back, then fired at them. Later, I saw the bodies of three Greeks there. God bless my friend; he earned that for all three of them and pulled me out from there.”

“Our tank hit a mine, and at that moment, all hell broke loose”
Another Cyprus veteran, Halim Shahbaz, recounted his experiences in the struggle for peace: “I was a soldier in Isparta, on standby. At the beginning of the events, we were told to gather the standby unit. We gathered and went to our company. They took us and brought us to Ankara. They armed us and transported us by bus to Taşucu in Mersin. On the way, even though it was night, all the people lined up along the roads. It was unbelievable; young and old, we had a glorious journey to Taşucu. We entered Cyprus by helicopter from Taşucu. The Greeks had seized a village in the Beşparmak Mountains, and we were going to attack that village. When we reached the evening darkness, somehow our tank hit a mine. At that moment, all hell broke loose. They were waiting for us; they thought we were firing when the mine exploded, so they started shooting. It lasted about an hour. During that time, one of our friends said, ‘Halim, I’ve been hit,’ but he really didn’t get hit; I got hit. We experienced such a sorrowful moment.