ANKARA - Turkish Deputy Parliament Speaker Nevzat Pakdil will go to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to attend the Cyprus Peace Operation's 30th anniversary celebrations on behalf of the Turkish Parliament.
Pakdil will go to the TRNC on July 19 and attend a reception that TRNC Parliament Speaker Fatma Ekenoglu will host the same night.
Pakdil who will lay wreaths at the Ataturk and Dr. Fazil Kucuk monuments in Lefkose on July 20 will attend lunch that TRNC Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat will host after the official parade and later he will attend a reception that TRNC President Rauf Denktas will host.
Pakdil is expected to return to Turkey on July 21.
During the period 1963-1974, thousands of Turkish Cypriots, including women and children, were killed, maimed or wounded by Greek Cypriot militia and some 30,000 of them were rendered refugees.
The Turkish Cypriot people were relieved from this agony and saved from total extermination only by the timely intervention of Turkey on July 20, 1974, undertaken in accordance with its 1960 Treaty rights and obligations.
The Turkish Peace Operation in Cyprus took place following the attempt by Greece at the final takeover of Cyprus through a coup d'etat organized by the military junta in Athens and its collaborators in Cyprus.
Turkey, enforced to intervene as a result of the onslaught carried out against the Turkish Cypriots according to the Treaty of Guarantee, which gave the three guarantor powers, Great Britain, Greece and Turkey, the right to take steps, including the right of intervention, for the restoration of the status of Cyprus in case of any change in, or disturbance of, such status.
(MS-AÖ) 16.07.2004