the majority of casualties back then with ethnic turks un peacekeeping troops intervened. the island was divided in 1974. greek cypriot military officers staged a coup against president makarios. on july 20th 1974 some 30000 turkish troops invaded the northern part of the island turkey said its goal was to protect the turkish cypriot population of. greek cypriot families fled to the south the troops remained and northern cyprus is still under turkish control to this day. a number of border crossings have been opened along the green line since 2003 including one between cars hopi across and a turkish cypriot village on the other side. christophe and his friends sometimes