Makarios III the British press as a crooked Cypriot priest and viewed with suspicion by the British authorities, was intercepted by Special Branch officers while attempting to board a flight at Nicosia airport. The joint police/military plan, codenamed Operation Apollo, saw Makarios exiled to Mahe Island in the Seychelles on 9 March 1956, as a 'guest' of Sir William Addis, Governor & Commander-in-Chief of the Seychelles. The Archbishop and his staff were flown to Aden and then on to Mombasa. At the Kenyan port the party were embarked in the East African Naval Vessel "Rosalind", escorted by the frigate HMS "Loch Fada".
Makarios I of Cyprus died a month earlier. For his days, thanks to the Ottoman Reform Edict of 1856, he managed to rise and sound the bell for the first time in the Turkish-occupied Nicosia, in the cathedral of St. John. He made sure that the religious duties of the clergy were guaranteed, while he was the first Archbishop to gain the right to participate in the general board of the island. He repaired the Archbishop's building (1862-1863), rebuilt the Grand Synod and completed the final picture of the Archbishop's building complex until the changes that took place in the past century. Makarios was