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Fifty years ago, a coup instigated by the Greek military junta overthrew Cypriot President Makarios (July 15, 1974), provoking a Turkish military intervention. Turkish troops occupied part of the island, thereby implementing its de facto partition (August 17, 1974). Since then, the official Turkish version has never varied: It was a “peace operation” aimed at protecting the Turkish Cypriot minority, while, on the Greek Cypriot side, the operation is described as an “invasion.” Since then, and especially since the end of the Cold War, debates and developments in international law and practice have fuelled both versions of the story: Continued affirmation of the rejection of interference in the internal affairs of States, but also the emergence of the principle of the Responsibility to Protect; military interventions claimed to be humanitarian, but also the dubious invocation of the concept of maintaining peace and international security (Iraq, 2003), and finally Russia’s aggression against Ukraine disguised as a “special military operation” and even a “special peacekeeping operation.” This article proposes to put the Turkish military intervention in Cyprus into perspective in the light of these debates and developments.