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Cyprus THE CYPRUS CONFLICT
The Struggle for Independence
The roots of the Cyprus conflict lie in the striving of
the
Greek Cypriot majority for unification, or enosis, with
Greece, an
idea that emerged during the Greek War of Independence in
the 1820s
and developed under British colonial rule
(see British Rule
, ch.
1). Popular sentiment for enosis, joined with resentment
of British
tax policies, ignited in 1931 in a brief but widespread
uprising,
during which the British Government House in Nicosia was
burned; 6
Cypriots were killed and 2,000 arrested by British
authorities.
From then on enosis strengthened its appeal in the Greek
Cypriot
community; however, a clampdown on Cypriot political
activity and
the exigencies of World War II precluded any violent
manifestation
for twenty-four years.
The barely suppressed desire for enosis erupted, on
April 1,
1955, when bombs destroyed the transmitter of the Cyprus
broadcasting station and exploded at British Army and
police
installations in Nicosia, Limassol, Famagusta, and
Larnaca. The
explosions signaled the beginning of a guerrilla war
against the
British colonial administration that was to continue for
four years
and claim some 600 lives. The Greek Cypriots fought under
the
banner of the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters
(Ethniki
Organosis Kyprion Agoniston--EOKA), led by Colonel (later
General)
George Grivas. Although EOKA included only a few hundred
active
guerrillas, it enjoyed wide support in the Greek Cypriot
community
and was able to tie down about 10,000 British soldiers.
However, when EOKA called a cease-fire in March 1959,
after the
signing in February of the agreements that led to Cypriot
independence, it could claim only partial success. The
Cypriot tie
to Britain was broken sooner than it would have been
without the
guerrilla struggle, but EOKA's goal of enosis remained
unmet.
For members of the Turkish Cypriot minority, who
regarded
Turkey as their motherland, enosis would have meant
becoming a much
smaller minority within the Greek nation. In the
mid-1059s, Turkish
Cypriots responded to the growth of EOKA with the
formation of
their own paramilitary organization, Volkan (volcano),
which later
became the Turkish Resistance Organization (Türk Mukavemet
Teskilātu--TMT). British authorities also armed a
paramilitary
police force composed entirely of Turkish Cypriots, the
Mobile
Reserve, to help in combat terrorism. The intense
intercommunal
violence of 1958 implanted a bitterness in both ethnic
communities
and foreshadowed postindependence strife that would tear
the young
nation apart.
Three interrelated treaties in February 1959, and the
subsequent adoption of a constitution, resulted in
Cyprus's gaining
its independence on August 19, 1960. Under the Treaty of
Establishment, Britain retained sovereign rights over two
areas to
be used as military bases. The Treaty of Alliance
stipulated that
contingents of 950 Greek troops and 650 Turkish troops
were to
provide for the defense of the island and train a new
Cypriot army.
Under the Treaty of Guarantee, in the event of a threat to
the
established political arrangements of Cyprus, the treaty's
signatories, Greece, Turkey, and Britain, were to consult
on
appropriate measures to safeguard or restore them; the
signatories
were granted the right to intervene together or, if
concerted
action proved impossible, to act unilaterally to uphold
the
settlement. These elaborate arrangements came to provide
the
pretexts for repeated foreign intervention that severely
undermined
Cypriot security, and for Turkey's unilateral military
action in
1974, which led to the de facto partition of the island.
Data as of January 1991
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