Turkish Cypriots celebrate the 50th anniversary of Türkiye's Peace Operation in Cyprus which has for half a century been the only means of protection that shields them from the atrocities of the ethnic-cleansing-plotting Greek Cypriots. Backed by the military junta in Greece, the Cypriot National Guard staged a coup on 15 July 1974 and ousted the then-president Archbishop Makarios III to continue the era of violence that had started in 1963. Türkiye's intervention five days later by sea and air granted freedom to the Turkish minority on the island and ended the mindless bloodshed recurring on the island. Türkiye invoked Article IV of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee that authorized guarantor powers (Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and the UK) to take action to restore the situation in Cyprus to its previous state.