South mourns and north rejoices as Cyprus marks 50 years of ethnic division

Cyprus has marked the landmark anniversary of 50 years of ethnic division amid markedly contrasting scenes: mourning in the south and celebration in the north.

At 5.20am Greek Cypriots in the internationally recognised south awoke to air raid sirens reminding them of the arrival of thousands of invading Turkish troops on the eastern Mediterranean island five decades ago. In the Turkish-occupied north, the milestone event was cause for joy, with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , flying in to attend a military parade and fly-past commemorating the “peace operation”.

Related: Where time has stood still for 50 years: the UN buffer zone in Cyprus – in pictures

In a speech, Erdoğan called the breakaway territory, recognised only by Ankara since unilaterally declaring independence in 1983, as “the apple of our eye, a part of our soul”.

He said the sunrise of 20 July “put an end to the 11-year darkness enveloping” the Turkish Cypriots, who constituted 18% of the island’s population in 1974.

“The Cyprus peace operation saved Turkish Cypriots from cruelty and brought them to freedom,” he told the jubilant crowd who had gathered in Nicosia, the island’s war-split capital, despite the blistering heat.

Turkey launched the amphibious invasion, code-named Attila, five days after a coup was ordered and set in motion by the military junta in Athens with the aim of annexing Cyprus to Greece.

The takeover, which saw the island’s president, Archbishop Makarios III, flee the country, followed years of inter-communal violence after a shared administration between Greek and Turkish Cypriots began to unravel after the nation’s independence from Britain in 1960.

Earlier on Saturday, the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis , posted an image of a blood-stained map of Cyprus on his LinkedIn page with the words: “Half a century since the national tragedy of Cyprus.” The leader was due to participate in events marking “the black anniversary” on Saturday evening.

Over the course of the month-long Turkish offensive thousands were left dead, missing, tortured, raped and taken prisoner.

By 16 August, the invading troops had seized 37% of the island’s north with an estimated 200,000 Greek Cypriots and 45,000 Turkish Cypriots displaced in the process.

Decades of UN-brokered reunification efforts have since failed. The country has not only earned the reputation as a “graveyard” for mediators but is an emotional issue that is a constant thorn in relations between Nato members Greece and Turkey.

On Saturday Cyprus’s president, Nikos Christodoulides, described the anniversary as a sombre occasion for reflection and remembering the dead. “Our mission is liberation, reunification and solving the Cyprus problem,” he said. “If we really want to send a message on this tragic anniversary … it is to do anything possible to reunite Cyprus.”

Talks have been stalled since the collapse of negotiations in the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana in 2017 – an unprecedented hiatus that has been attributed to the recent rise in tensions along the UN-patrolled ceasefire line dividing the island.

But speaking ahead of Saturday’s military parade, Erdoğan scuppered hopes for a quick resumption of the peace process reaffirming his support for a two-state solution that has been rejected outright by Greek Cypriots and fellow member states of the EU.

Related: Turkish Cypriot leader: ‘The only way forward is a two-state solution’

“A federal solution in Cyprus is not possible, this is what we believe,” he said.

Marking what she described as a “tragic anniversary”, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen reiterated the bloc’s support for the EU’s last divided member state. “Cypriots deserve to live in a reunited country in conditions of peace, coexistence, stability and prosperity,” she wrote on X.

“The Cypriot question is a European one. We will continue to firmly support Cyprus in the efforts to reunify the last divided EU member state, in line with the relevant UN security council resolutions.”

On both sides of the island’s ethnic divide, Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been left reeling from the events of 1974. Athens’s role in the coup and US military support for the junta then in power has been increasingly singled out for censure.

“The coup of Greeks against Greek Cypriots was the biggest crime to have occurred in modern Greek history,” said Takis Hadjidemetriou, a major figure of the progressive left now working on the fifth volume of his overview of the island since 1950. “It gave Turkey the opportunity to invade,” he told the Guardian. “While Greece solved its problem in 1974 beginning a new era of stability with the collapse of military rule, in the case of Cyprus, the coup brought catastrophe from which our island has yet to recover.”

Globally Cypriot diaspora communities also marked the anniversary. In the UK more than 200 Greek Cypriots protested outside the Turkish embassy in central London demanding a “ free united Cyprus “ and the withdrawal of occupation forces from the Turkish-held north.

In downtown Melbourne parts of the city centre were illuminated in red to mark the occasion with community members slated to attend a flag-raising and wreath-laying event in the Australian city on Sunday.

In New York, the Orthodox Archdiocese of America announced that a special memorial service would be held in honour of those who died or went missing during the invasion.