How do you know about a war that happened 17,764 years in the future? You're not a former companion, are you?
But seriously, what happened in the Cyprus War?
In 1974, Turkey invaded northern Cyprus in support of the Turkish Cypriots (who had disagreements with the Greek Cypriots), over a dispute that should probably be discussed in The Neutral Zone rather than here.
I don't need all the filthy "My side! Your side!" details but what, praytell, was at the heart of the dispute?
In broad brush, as a usefully positioned island in the eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus was regularly taken over by the latest rising power for at least 2000 years, starting with Alexander the Great, and then more recently the Ottoman Empire who ceded it to Britain in 1878 (after the Russian-Turkish war).
As so often in these post-imperial situations, this left Cyprus with two major ethnic populations, Greek and Turkish descended, both of whom had been used to being the more priviliged under one overlord power or another.
After World War II, Greek Cypriot nationalists began a guerilla campaign to force Britain out, which led to independence around 1960.
However, many of the Greek Cypriot nationalists wanted to merge with Greece rather than be independent, which didn't go down well with the Turkish community, who'd obviously be happier back under Turkish control.
So, there's communal in-fighting from the mid-1960s, culminating in the Turkish invasion of the northern half of the island in 1974. Ironically, this led to the collapse of the military dictatorship then ruling Greece (Turkey also had a military regime at the time, but that survived longer).
