The time was 6:07 a.m. and the summer sun was just beginning to spread over the deep purple mountains and brown fields of Cyprus when the first airplanes appeared. They were propeller-driven C-130s and C-47s, and Cypriots hearing the hum of many motors realized instantly that the planes were not carrying the usual hordes of summer tourists. As each flight approached the plain between the capital city of Nicosia and the Kyrenia Range, which shields the capital from the sea, a stick of Turkish paratroopers jumped into the cloudless sky. Floating into...
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