Greek intel releases 50-year-old documents on Cyprus

ATHENS

Greece's state intelligence agency has said it had declassified archival documents for the first time in its history, covering the period of the Greek-led coup in Cyprus and Türkiye’s Peace Operation in 1974.

The redacted documents shed light on the Greek perspective between July and August 1974 and have been released to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the events, Greece's National Intelligence Service (EYP) said in a statement.

The move coincided with the 50th anniversary of Türkiye's operation, launched five days after a coup orchestrated by the junta then in power in Athens sought to unite the whole island with Greece. The island has since been divided between Turkish Cypriots and the Greek Cypriot side.

"Fifty years is quite a long and therefore quite safe period, which, even if it doesn't force you to, allows you to look back in an exercise of national but also of professional self-awareness," EYP director-general Themistoklis Demiris said.

The set of documents covers the period of the Turkish operation from July to August 1974, said Evanthis Hatzivassiliou, a professor of postwar history at the National University of Athens, in a statement, adding that they were of "critical importance.”

The archives reveal that the intelligence agency was "not informed" of the attempted coup organized by the Greek dictatorship against Archbishop Makarios, Hatzivassiliou said.

"The [dictatorship]... informed only those absolutely necessary," he said.

After the coup, the agency was "quite accurate" in describing Turkish preparations for the operation, but the warnings were ignored in Athens, he said.

The Greece’s spy agency, which is supervised by the prime minister's office, was embroiled in a major wiretapping scandal in 2022 when it emerged that several ministers and other officials were revealed to have been under state surveillance.

Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriots on Nov. 15 celebrated the anniversary of the declaration of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983.