Peace and Freedom Open Air Museum
Greek and Greek military vehicles captured during the 1974 Peace Operation are exhibited in the Peace and Freedom Open Air Museum, located in the garden of the Peace and Freedom Museum. As for the Peace and Freedom Museum, this building, which was the house of Makarios' dentist Yorgacis, was used as the headquarters building on the night of July 20, when the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation started, which was a turning point in the history of the struggle of the Turkish Cypriots. However, the entrance of the building was hit by a rocket launcher bullet fired by Greek soldiers and in the violent explosion, 50th Infantry Regiment Commander Infantry Senior Colonel İbrahim Karaoğlanoğlu, Pilot Major Fehmi Ercan, who served as Air Liaison Officer, and two privates were martyred. For this reason, the house, which has become a historical document, was organized as a museum in order to immortalize the Cyprus Peace Operation and was opened to visitors with an official ceremony as the Peace and Freedom Museum on the second anniversary of the operation. The museum was built as a wealthy Greek house in the early 1970s and is located just east of Yavuz Landing Beach, where the First Peace Operation began. The place where the rocket launcher bullet hit on the night of July 20, 1974 was untouched. The maintenance, repair, landscaping and interior exhibition of the museum in its current state was carried out in cooperation with the Turkish Cypriot Peace Forces Command, the Turkish Aviation and Space Industry, the Ministry of Tourism and Environment and the Department of Antiquities and Museums. The sections of the museum are as follows. Ground Floor: On the ground floor of the museum, the events that necessitated the 1974 Peace Operation are presented with representative animations in the historical process, while the weapons captured during the operation are also exhibited here. Also on this floor, visitors to the museum are given the opportunity to watch the Cyprus Peace Operation documentary. Upper Floor: On the upper floor of the museum, the uniforms and personal belongings of martyr Colonel İbrahim Karaoğlanoğlu and martyr Pilot Major Fehmi Ercan, as well as the photographs, personal belongings and uniforms of those who were martyred during the operation are exhibited. Inner Courtyard: In the inner courtyard of the museum, there is a monumental panel with the names of the soldiers and civilians martyred during the Cyprus Peace Operation. In the open area between the museum building and the Karaoğlanoğlu Martyrdom, armored vehicles and heavy weapons abandoned by the Greek National Guard Army are exhibited. Room I: This is the hall where the historical development of the events that took place between the two peoples in Cyprus until 1974, maps related to the 1st and 2nd parts of the Peace Operation, pictures of armored vehicles and weapons used by the Greeks against the Turks are exhibited. II. Room: This is the room where the video trailer showing the "30 Hot Days" document flood, which describes the events in Cyprus, and newspaper news about July 20, 1974 are located. III: Room: This is the room where the biographies and uniforms of Infantry Senior Colonel İbrahim Karaoğlanoğlu and Air Pilot Major Fehmi Ercan are exhibited. IV. Room: This is the room where the pictures, weapons, uniforms and personal belongings of the martyred Cypriot Mujahideen are exhibited. V. and VI. Rooms: This is the room where the pictures of the martyred Turkish soldiers and the uniforms and personal belongings of our martyrs are exhibited. VII. Room: This is the room where the words of then Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit and TRNC President Rauf Raif Denktaş about the Cyprus Peace Operation and pictures of martyrs' cemeteries and monuments are displa