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Cyprus Relations with Greece
After the troubles of 1963-64 and the effective
separation of
the two communities, the Greek Cypriots controlling the
republic's
institutions did not, ironically, orient their foreign
policy more
toward Greece. Instead, the growing authority and
confidence of
President Makarios and divergent trends in Greek and Greek
Cypriot
politics led to the republic's foreign policy becoming
more
independent. Greek Cypriots were disappointed that Greece
had
placed the interests of the Western alliance above those
of the
island in the preindependence London and Zurich talks.
Greek
Cypriots also viewed as inadequate the Greek response to
the 1963-
64 troubles, with Greece again deferring to NATO
interests.
Relations deteriorated further when the military seized
power
in Athens in 1967. Makarios was anathema to the staunchly
anticommunist regime in Greece. His flirtation with
Eastern Europe
and Third World nations, his refusal to stem criticism of
the
dictatorship, and his charismatic appeal to Greeks
everywhere were
major concerns of the new Greek leadership. The
infiltration of
Greek soldiers from the mainland, in excess of levels
approved in
the Treaty of Alliance, became a threat almost equal to
that from
the Turkish mainland. By the early 1970s the rift between
the
Athens junta and the Makarios government had become open.
Athens
allegedly financed operations of anti-Makarios
organizations and
newspapers and was widely thought responsible for attempts
on
Makarios's life. Pressures mounted, and in July 1974,
after
Makarios openly challenged the junta's interference, the
Cypriot
National Guard, led by Greek officers, staged a coup that
ultimately resulted in Turkish intervention and the
junta's demise.
With the 1974 restoration of civilian government in
Athens and
the environment of crisis in the Greek-controlled part of
the
island after the Turkish intervention, relations between
the
republic and the government in Greece were restored to
normal, and
closer coordination of foreign policy began, particularly
focused
on winning support for resolutions in international
organizations
and from Greeks abroad. Greece gave full public support to
policies
adopted by the republic and pledged not to interfere in
domestic
Cypriot politics. The two governments agreed that Greek
Cypriot
participation in settlement efforts was essential and
tried to
uncouple the Cyprus issue from other Greek-Turkish
disputes, such
as those about territorial rights in the Aegean Sea.
Differences remained over the two governments'
priorities.
Greek prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis was said to
favor a
more moderate and conciliatory stand on Cyprus than either
Makarios
or Kyprianou, both of whom advocated a "long struggle" in
the face
of what they perceived as Turkish intransigence. The Greek
government was also eager to return to NATO, which it did
in 1981,
and to reduce tensions with Turkey. In addition, the
tripartite
American-British-Canadian plan (the ABC plan) of 1978 won
Greece's
approval, although it was rejected by Greek Cypriots as a
framework
for negotiations.
When Greeks elected the socialist government of Andreas
Papandreou to office in 1981, the foreign policy of Greece
shifted.
Less inclined to demonstrate Greece's loyalty to NATO and
other
Western institutions, Papandreou sought to
"internationalize" the
Cyprus settlement effort, and took a more confrontational
approach
to bilateral differences with Turkey. This led to a new,
and
sometimes uneasy, division of labor between Greece and the
republic, with the latter engaged in intercommunal talks
and the
former raising the Turkish troop issue in NATO and other
international forums. Cyprus was relinked to bilateral
GreekTurkish problems, insofar as Papandreou insisted that
relations
between the two NATO allies could not improve until the
Cyprus
problem was solved and Turkish troops withdrawn. This
policy was
temporarily suspended in early 1988, when Papandreou and
Turkish
prime minister Özal conducted talks known as the Davos
process,
aimed at improving ties through Aegean confidence-building
measures. The process was stalled in late 1988 by
political and
health problems of the Greek premier. For most of 1989 and
early
1990, Greece was ruled by interim governments that took no
new
foreign policy initiatives, although the 1988 election of
the
activist George Vassiliou in Cyprus gave some new vigor
and
interest to the frequent consultations in Athens between
the two
governments.
In April 1990 Greeks returned to power the centrist New
Democracy Party, and the new prime minister, veteran
politician
Constantinos Mitsotakis, pledged to renew Greece's efforts
to solve
the Cyprus problem. The two governments formed a joint
committee,
administered by their foreign ministries, to share
information and
coordinate policies, and thus avoid the strains that had
arisen
from divergent approaches to the Cyprus problem.
Data as of January 1991
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