Kokkina is a village in Cyprus, administered by the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. It was one of the Turkish Cypriot enclaves prior to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. It is bordered on three sides by mountainous territory to the Greek part of the island, with the Mediterranean sea (Morphou Bay) on its northern flank. The exclave sits several kilometres away from the mainland of the TRNC and is a place which has special symbolic significance for the Cypriots because of the events of August 1964.HistoryThe Tylliria/Dillirga region, where Kokkina is situated, had been a place of intense confrontation between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities during the inter-communal struggle of 1963-1964. On 4 April 1964, armed groups originating from both communities had fought over a strategic location overlooking the region's only highway. There had also been several sporadic incidents of gunfire between villages of the region. On 8 April 1964, the United Nations Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) managed to arrange a ceasefire which was enforced by stationing UNFICYP troops at several critical points.The government of the Republic of Cyprus viewed Kokkina as a point of insertion for Turkish paramilitaries and weaponry in Cyprus because about 500 Turkish Cypriot volunteers who had been trained and armed in Turkey had landed there. So, on 6 August 1964, elements of the Greek Cypriot National Guard and Greek Army units led by General George Grivas attacked the area around Kokkina and surrounded the village forcing its defenders and the civilian population to retreat to a narrow beachhead. The defenders consisted of elements of the Turkish Resistance Organization and a number of the volunteers mentioned above. A heavy artillery barrage (with naval support) of the beachhead followed causing a number of casualties and heavy damage to the village.
