A major international scientific conference entitled “1974-2024: Fifty years since the Turkish invasion in Cyprus” will be held at the University of Cyprus, Nicosia, on 4-6 October 2024. The conference is co-organized by the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Cyprus, the Faculty of Law of the University of Nicosia and the Tassos Papadopoulos Study Centre. It will be hosted at the University of Cyprus Ceremonial Hall, 75 Kallipolios Street, Nicosia. It will run from 9.00 in the morning until 8.00 in the evening on 4 and 5 October 2024 and from 10.00 to 13.00 on Sunday 6 October.

The conference will begin with a welcome address by the Rector of the University of Cyprus, Professor Tasos Christofides, and the greeting of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nicos Christodoulides. This is the premier scientific meeting organised in Cyprus on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of 1974, as 76 participants will participate in the conference with papers on various dimensions of the coup and the Turkish invasion and their consequences: military, diplomatic, social, psychological, domestic and international aspects, education issues, the issue of missing persons and war crimes, issues of memory and memorial depictions, journalistic impressions, etc.

The conference programme includes 14 sessions, three keynote speeches (by Alexis Papachelas, Evanthis Hadjivassiliou and Polybios G. Polyviou), two roundtable discussions and 57 scientific papers. Among the participants are both renowned scientists and young researchers from Cyprus, Greece and other European countries. The discussions of the two round tables are expected to be of particular interest. In one of them, entitled “After the Devastation: Humanitarian Support – Reconstruction “, four of the unsung protagonists of that era will discuss the colossal work carried out by agencies and institutions such as the Cyprus Red Cross, the Service for the Rehabilitation of Displaced Persons and the Planning Office in dealing with the humanitarian crisis, and in the second, entitled “Personal experiences – collective traumas”, two daughters of missing persons, a Lysiotissa refugee – a student at a secondary school in Evia in 1974-1975 and a young prisoner of 1974 discuss their experiences of fifty years.

The scientific committee of the conference consists of Achilles K. Emilianides, George Kazamis and Petros Papapolyviou.