| Battle of Ledra Palace | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofTurkish Invasion of Cyprus | ||||||||
 | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Turkey |  Cyprus |  United Nations | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
| Hasan Pasias |
Sub-lieutenant Andreas Magnitis |
 Colonel Clayton Beattie | ||||||
| Units involved | ||||||||
|  UNFICYP | |||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
| 300–1,000 | Approx. 200 | Unknown | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| Unknown | 1+ | None | ||||||
TheBattle of Ledra Palace was fought during theTurkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974.
Ledra Palace is located inNicosia district, about 2.6 km north of thePresidential Palace and on theGreen Line.[1] During the invasion, and indeed from the beginning of the conflict on 20 July, Ledra Palace was a point of vital importance for theTurkish Armed Forces and its possible occupation would have likely led to the destruction and dissolution of theRepublic of Cyprus.[2]
The Reserve Officers Company of theNational Guard, a few days before the invasion, had been based in the camp of the 11th tactical group, which was located near theELDYK camp andNicosia International Airport, and on the day of the invasion (20 July), it received orders to take hold of Ledra Palace and the surrounding area before the Turkish military.[3]
Soldiers from the 1st Company of the 211th Infantry Battalion went to the roof of the hotel and mounted a 50mm machine gun and whenTurkish paratroopers began to descend, they began to fire on them.[4][5]
The Turkish military, at 8 a.m. began to hit the national guardsmen and the surrounding area with bullets, mortar shells, and artillery and this continued until the end of the day withUNFICYP men conveying threats by the Turks that if the national guard did not leave, they would dropnapalm bombs on them the Greeks refused to leave.[6][7] By the end of the day, the first National Guardsmen had been killed.[8]
On 21 July, in the morning hours, the battle started again with the national guardsmen firing against the Turkish military who were fortified in the surrounding houses.[9] During the battle, a Greek Cypriot opened fire on the Turkish mast with the Turkish flag (and therefore fell) to mislead the other Turkish soldiers that the outpost was captured (to send reinforcements). Some Turkish soldiers also tried to trap the national guardsmen allegedly surrendering in order to for the advancing national guardsmen to be trapped and killed.[10]
After this incident, the Turkish side tried through the United Nations (UNFICYP), to have a cease-fire, again, with the threat that if the Greeks did not leave, they would drop napalm bombs but again the national guard refused to leave.[11][12]
The soldiers from the National Guard then received a call from the government to leave the hotel but refused because they were afraid that if they left, the hotel would be taken over by the Turkish military and therefore made a plan with the government which included the National Guard troops leaving the hotel and for it being turned over to UNFICYP.[13][14][15]
Turkey did not try to seize the hotel and therefore, the hotel has remained under the control of UNFICYP since then with various meetings and events held there either by the Republic of Cyprus or theUnited Nations.[16][17][18]
"A helicopter, landing in the Turkish sector of Nicosia drew fire from a 50‐caliber machine gun on the roof of the Ledra Palace Hotel...".
Without any improvement in the Ledra situation, Manuel, in his capacity as Nicosia Sector commander, took significant action to prevent both sides from using the hotel. According to Col. Beattie, Manuel ordered his twelve men into the hotel and told his counterpart with the Greek National Guard ,‚It's time to go. Get your men together and get them out of here. You're compromising the lives of civilians. This is UN territory. If you are afraid the Turks will fire on you, I will personally escort you and your men out of the Hotel.‛'.
The Ledra Palace, its glory days long over, has spent the last half-century in the buffer zone, serving as a barracks for British UN troops and a rendezvous for high-level negotiations that get nowhere.
