The unionists from Northern Ireland who are fond of and support the Turkish-Cypriot run territory of Northern Cyprus

​The term ‘invasion’ is how it is overwhelmingly described by people in the UK who remember the Turkish landings, but as the article noted (click here to read it) the word is not accepted by Turkish Cypriots, who say that it was an ‘intervention’ to save them from their Greek Cypriot counterparts.

On reading our article, the former Ulster Unionist MP John Taylor took to the social media platform X (Twitter), to write: “The Belfast News Letter reports that 50 years ago the Turkish Army invaded Cyprus and the island has been divided ever since! NOT SO AND I WAS THERE!”

Lord Kilclooney, as John Taylor has been styled since his peerage in 2001, has talked to us about his connection to North Cyprus, a part of the island that is separated from the larger, more populous and better known southern part. The latter, the Republic of Cyprus, is a holiday destination and part of the EU.

The cross-bench peer is one of a number of unionist politicians with connections to the country of 400,000 people on the northern side of the divided island, which calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) but which is recognised by no country other than Turkey.

The one-time Strangford MP bought a house in a village Kazaphani, now called Ozankoy, in 1972 when the island was one country under President Makarios, the former Greek Orthodox Archbishop who had led Cyprus since it gained independence from Britain in 1960.

"I bought the house so that the family could enjoy a holiday away from the Troubles in Northern Ireland,” Lord Kilclooney explains. That year was not only NI’s most violent since the turbulent years in the 1920s after the province’s creation, but it was a year in which he was shot and injured by the Official IRA weeks before the suspension of Stormont, in which he was a government minister.

But John Taylor would find that his holiday home destination of Cyprus was not to be a place of peace and harmony. A form of power-sharing between the Turkish and Greek populations on the island in the years immediately after independence had floundered.

“Little did I expect that Greece would carry out a coup d’etat two years after I bought when President Makarios was replaced by a Greek stooge called Sampson [Nikos Sampson],” says Lord Kilclooney.

"Then in 1974 Turkish Cypriots were getting murdered by their fellow Greek Cypriots and Turkey had little option to send in Turkish troops to rescue the Turkish Cypriots."

There is a rough overlap in the timelines of the most fraught periods in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. In Cyprus power-sharing failed in the 1960s, politics stumbled on unsatisfactorily but without major violence, then events exploded in 1974. In NI there was no power-sharing in the 1960s, things deteriorated badly in the late 60s, reaching their worst moment in 1972, before power-sharing was agreed between unionists and nationalists in 1974 – until it was brought down by loyalists.

Lord Kilclooney says: “The island of Cyprus is now like the island of Ireland ie divided into two countries, with the southern part called Cyprus, even if it does not govern the northern part. The island of Ireland is similar ie the southern part does not govern the northern part, but some now call it Ireland.

“Interestingly it was UK troops that rescued the former president of Cyprus [Makarios], after the Greek coup d’etat as he fled in the Kyrenia mountains [in the north of the island, near Lord Kilclooney’s home].

“Today, 60 years after the coup, I see no political settlement in Cyprus,” says Taylor. He still has his home there: "Sunshine, food and prices mean that Turkish Cyprus is one of the most attractive locations for a holiday.”

The only direct flights to Northern Cyprus are from Turkey, making it hard to get to. Restoring such connections is a key demand of supporters of the territory, such as Kilclooney and the former president of the Ulster Unionist Party, Dennis Rogan, who says he is “very supportive” of the North.

"They have a cause that is justified,” says Lord Rogan. “They are being treated badly by the international community.”

In May the former Conservative Party leader, Iain Duncan Smith and the former Labour Party foreign secretary both called for direct flights from the Britain to Northern Cyprus. This would be unusual, given that the the UK does not recognise the country. But Lord Kilclooney says that it has direct flights to Taiwan, even though London does not recognise it either.

Also this year, the then DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and his party colleague Sammy Wilson went a step further and joined the Turkish Cypriots in calling for a two-state solution to the island in which the north would be a state on a par with the south. “It is an unfair and untenable situation faced by Northern Cypriots to live in a mostly unrecognised state, given that they are not the ones that rejected a fair unification proposal,” he said, referring to a 2004 UN plan.

The plan would have meant, in essence, a single country of Cyprus with two devolved regions, north and south. The Turkish Cypriots accepted it, the Greek Cypriots didn’t.

Lord Kilclooney’s former Ulster Unionist Party colleague, Ken Maginnis, former MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. had a holiday home Ozankoy too. Lord Maginnis has fond memories of spending hot summers on holiday there. Back at Westminster, he spoke up for the TRNC in the face of what he calls “aggressive” opposition fromy Greek Cypriots.

He recalls: “I was proud to call former President, Rauf Denktash, my friend.” Denktash was the man who declared Northern Cyprus to be independent in 1983. Lord Maginnis describes him as a “a towering figure in securing the TRNC’s place whilst recognising the need for buy-in from other states”.

Ken Maginnis helped restore the British cemetery in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus which has the names of seven members of the Royal Ulster Rifles killed in the 1950s by Greek terrorists seeking independence from the UK.

The former chair of the Northern Ireland Conservatives, Alan Dunlop, has a property portfolio in Northern Cyprus: “I fell in love with northern Cyprus and quickly saw the huge economic potential of the state.

"It is dynamic, forward-thinking and a good base for the entrepreneur. Despite political impediments, it is a good place to do business and that will only get better in coming years.”

Next week we will look at the Greek Cypriot view of the situation on the island