ATHENS – Turkey’s Defense Ministry said the 48^th anniversary of a second invasion stage of Cyprus was a reminder that it wasn’t an occupation but an operation to protect Turkish-Cypriots.

That came with a message that Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriots don’t want reunification if the island split by the two 1974 invasions that saw the northern third occupied, but demands for the world to recognize the seized land as a state. No other country apart from Turkey does.

Those came in tweets on the Aug. 14^th anniversary of the second taking that saw Famagusta and Morphou lost to the Turkish army, which keeps 30,000 troops on the occupied side.

“We will always continue to stand by our Turkish Cypriot brothers in their righteous cause!,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s Twitter post, uploaded in both Turkish and English, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) said.

“The security of both Turkish-Cypriots and Greek-Cypriots was ensured with the peacekeeping operation in Cyprus, which took place 48 years ago within the framework of the guarantee rights,” it added, not mentioning the slaughter, kidnapping, imprisonment and disappearance of Greek-Cypriots.

“Those who call the peace operation in Cyprus an occupation ignore the historical facts and try to prevent the world from seeing the massacres that took place between 1958-1974,” the tweet said.

It also claimed that during the “peace operation,” no lives were lost on the island and “peace, prosperity and tranquillity prevail,” drawing praise from a Turkish-Cypriot newspaper, Avrupa.

It wrote: “We are one army and one nation. We die for our country without batting an eye. Every page in our history is filled with victories. We are the great Turks fighting for peace!”