Cutting - Mines kill BBC man (1974)

9th August 1974

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After a long history of Greek and Turkish clashes over the running of Cyprus, England became involved in 1878. With the demise of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 Cyprus became a British Colony and the wrangling continued between the Greeks and Turks but now they also had a common enemy. They both wanted Britain off their island. Tri-partite talks resulted in an Independent Cyprus in 1960 but Britain still controlled two military zones. The extremists on both sides were unhappy and the violence continued.

In early 1974 the comparatively moderate Greek Archbishop Makarios was deposed by a Greek hard-line coup-d'etat and as a result Turkey invaded the island on 20th July. This eventually led to the partition of Cyprus into Greek, Turkish, British Military and U. N. Buffer zones.

Ted Stoddart was killed on 8th August while covering the troubles with a BBC News team.