15 July Coup in Cyprus and Turkey's Reaction
The General Staff instructed the Air Forces Command that "no independent air operations and armed reconnaissance should be carried out, instead close air support should be provided to the targets in the landing and landing zones under the direction of forward air control (FAC)".
Treaty of Guarantorship
According to the principles of the Zurich and London Agreements, the constitution of the Republic, the Treaties of Guarantee and Alliance were prepared and on the night of 15/16 August 1960, the Republic of Cyprus was established and its independence was officially declared by the Turkish and Greek Cypriots on the island with Turkey, Britain and Greece as guarantors . Thus, the Cyprus Issue entered a new phase. In the Republic of Cyprus, which was established under the guarantorship of Turkey, the Greeks, who saw the rights given to the Turks as too much, took action on 25 December 1963 within the framework of the Akritas Plan and started to massacre the Turks.
As a result of the activities of EOKA (the Greek Cypriot armed organisation working for the end of the British colonial rule in Cyprus and the annexation of the island to Greece, the Greek Cypriot armed organisation working for enosis), which was based on the Enosis (Unification, Annexation; the policy of annexation of the island to Greece ) of the Greeks on the island against the Common Republic of Cyprus, led to Turkey's Air Operation in Cyprus in 1964.
8 August 1964 Turkish warplanes in Cyprus
During the Cyprus events in 1964, the Turkish Air Force was used as an independent military force for the first time in the history of the Republic as an instrument of foreign policy and the first warning was given to the Greeks from the air.
In this context, F-100 D/F aircraft, which took off from Eskişehir, hit targets in Cyprus. Air Pilot Captain Cengiz Topel, who was serving as a quadruple column leader at the 112th Squadron Command in Eskişehir, participated in the operation in Cyprus on 8 August 1964. The mission of the quadruple column led by Cengiz Topel was to prevent the Greek Cypriots from committing acts of violence, to deter them and to dissuade them from their aims by making air strikes on the assault boats in the Erenköy region. During the operation, Cengiz Topel, while flying at low altitude with his F-100 D aircraft, had to eject with his ejection seat after his aircraft was shot by the Greeks with an anti-aircraft gun from the ground, and although he survived, he was brutally tortured and martyred by the Greeks on the ground.
In 1964, Turkey was involved in a non-NATO operation for the first time and due to some shortcomings, it became clear that powerful transport aircraft were needed for airborne operations and fighters with new generation radar for air operations. For this purpose, C-130 and C-160 transport aircraft and combat aircraft such as F-104, F-5, F-102 entered the inventory of the Air Forces Command. Helicopters were purchased for land aviation units, and a Naval Aviation fleet was established for maritime patrol and anti-submarine operations.
Scope of Air Operation Directive
The fact that the Greeks did not give up their goals and ideals since 1960 and that the attacks against the Turkish Cypriot people continued influenced the Cyprus Peace Operation. For this reason, the Turkish General Staff declared military alert on 25 May 1974 and on the same day, the Turkish Air Forces Command started preparations for the operation plan to be implemented against Greece. The Turkish Air Forces were put on high alert before the operation, and the General Staff instructed the Turkish Air Forces to move their squadrons to the operation deployment when the order was given.
The General Staff instructed the Air Forces Command that "no independent air operations and armed reconnaissance should be carried out, instead close air support should be provided to the targets in the landing and landing zones under the direction of forward air control (FAC)". At the same time, it was requested that "Çanakkale Mobile Radar should be deployed to Bababurun and İzmit Mobile Radar should be deployed to Didim and made ready for the operation".
Turkey's Reaction to the 15 July Coup in Cyprus
On 15 July 1974, the Greeks took over the government with a coup d'état with the support of the Junta of Colonels who seized power in Greece. The Greek National Guard Army, led by Greek officers, and EOKA put the bloody Nikos Samson in power. Now, the Akritas Plan was replaced by the Iffestos Plan and with great determination, it was aimed to strike a blow to the centuries-old Turkish presence in Cyprus and to completely destroy the Turks.
On 15 July 1974, Turkey reacted strongly to the coup d'état carried out by the Greek-Greek duo in Cyprus and declared to the whole world that it did not recognise this illegitimate new administration, emphasising that it saw this coup d'état as the destruction of the constitutional order on the island, the violation of the 1960 treaties and that the Greek Cypriot administration that came to power with the coup d'état was a veiled Enosis. Turkey also decided to prevent this situation as a guarantor state.
Yıldız Operation Plan
After the Sampson coup d'état in Cyprus, the "National Security Council" convened on 15 July under the chairmanship of President Fahri Korutürk, and it was decided that Turkey would intervene militarily in Cyprus within the scope of its rights arising from international law by using the guarantor rights granted to it by the London and Zurich Treaties upon the conditions on the island reaching a critical stage, and that the representatives of the Air Force would be at the Joint Operation Centre in Adana on 18 July 1974.
For this purpose, the Air Force elements performed their duties under the command and administration of the 2nd Tactical Air Force Command. At the same time, 20 July 1974 was designated as the day of the "Cyprus Peace Operation" and the operation plan that constituted the basis for the Cyprus Peace Operation to be carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces was named as the "Star Operation Plan".
The Turkish Armed Forces were put on alert against the Greeks who did not give up their goal of completely destroying the Turks in Cyprus and connecting Cyprus to Greece, all units in the Air Force were put on alert, leave was cancelled and all personnel were called to their duty stations. At the meeting of the National General Assembly, it was planned that the operation would start in the morning of 20 July 1974 by using the guarantor rights granted to the Turkish Armed Forces by the London and Zurich Treaties, and that air strikes would be followed by airborne and landing operations.
The principles of the operational plan to be implemented guided the operation; planning the operation in a raid style, completing the operation in a short time, making a joint operation execution plan with the contributions of the Land, Naval and Air Forces, the unification of the troops brought to the Island as a result of the landing operation to be carried out in Kyrenia and the landing operation to be carried out in Gönyeli and Kırnı, and the transfer of echelons to the landing area after the security of the coastal area is ensured, and since there is no air threat, no additional air effort is planned during the transfer of the troops to the Island, except for isolation, close air support and protection of transport aircraft.
