Military history of the Republic of Turkey in foreign relations and join NATO on February 18, 1952. Following NATO membership, Turkey initiated a comprehensive modernization program for its Armed Forces. In July 1974, the Turkish Armed Forces intervened against a coup in Cyprus, organized by EOKA-B and led by Nikos Sampson who ousted the democratically elected Cypriot President Archbishop Makarios III in order to establish Enosis (Union) between Greece and Cyprus. The coup was backed by the Greek military junta in Athens. On 20 July 1974 the Turkish Army invaded the island from the north, landing in Pente Mili beach, near Keryneia. The operations (named Attila I
History of Greece Colonels". The junta government's accession to power lead to an isolation to Greece from European affairs and froze Greece's entry to the European Union. In 1973, the régime abolished the Greek monarchy and in 1974, dictator Papadopoulos denied help to the United States. After a second coup that year, Colonel Ioannides was appointed as the new head-of-state. Ioannides was responsible for the 1974 coup against President Makarios of Cyprus. The coup became the pretext for the first wave of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 (see Greco-Turkish relations). The Cyprus events and the outcry following a bloody suppression of