50 Years of Cyprus Divided

Though only eight at the time, Graeme Stanford vividly recalls his experience during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974. His father was serving with the RAF at the British Sovereign Base (BSB) of Dhekelia. He and his family were living in the port town of Famagusta, some 20 miles to the northeast of the BSB. One day, as they were sitting on the veranda, a Turkish jet ‘streaked past followed by a huge explosion’. Stanford’s father took the risk of driving through a contested area in order to arrange his family’s rescue. Meanwhile, Stanford and his mother holed themselves up in a bedroom with ‘a bed propped against the window’. Fearing the worst for the Greek Cypriot mother and daughter living downstairs, Mrs Stanford led them into her own apartment at the risk of being shot at. Eventually, a British army convoy arrived and took the Stanfords to safety. Their Greek Cypriot neighbours, however, had to fend for themselves. To the day he had his recollections recorded for the BBC in 2008, Stanford still wondered about the fate of his landlady, her child and her husband who was serving with the Cypriot defence forces.