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Cyprus Conflict Within the Greek Cypriot Community, 1967-74
During the next seven years, events in Cyprus were
shaped by
the differences over enosis that arose between Makarios
and the
military government that was installed in Greece after a
coup
d'état in 1967. Convinced of Turkey's willingness to use
its
superior force to prevent enosis, Makarios began to seek
support
among Greek Cypriots--especially those in the communist
party--who
rejected enosis, at least for the near future, in favor of
an
independent, nonaligned Cyprus
(see Political Dynamics
, ch. 4).
Because Makarios had decided enosis was no longer possible
in the
short term, more adamant pro-enosis Cypriot groups and
anticommunist Greek officers, both of which infiltrated
the
National Guard during the late 1960s and early 1970s,
would subvert
his government increasingly after 1967 and finally
overthrow him in
1974.
Makarios failed in his efforts to limit the autonomy of
the
National Guard, which, under the influence of right-wing
Greek
officers, remained attached to enosis and bitterly opposed
to
Makarios's political association with the communist party.
Compulsory military service for all Greek Cypriot
males--for a
period that increased from six months to two years during
the
1960s--allowed the arming and training of a great number
of men,
many of whom subsequently took up arms against the
government.
Between 1969 and 1971, several groups embarked on a
renewed
terrorist campaign for enosis. Grivas returned
clandestinely to
Cyprus sometime in the late summer or early fall of 1971
and set up
a new guerilla organization, the national Organizaiton of
Cypriot
Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agonistm B--EOKA B).
Most
members of the terrorist movement held regular jobs in the
Greek
Cypriot community; half were police officials and members
of the
National Guard.
There was also considerable evidence of support of EOKA
B
activities by the Greek junta, whose hostility to Makarios
became
increasingly apparent during the early 1970s. The junta
was
believed to be involved in several attempts on the life of
President Makarios. In March 1970, Makarios narrowly
escaped death
when his helicopter was shot down. Makarios walked away
from the
crash, but his pilot was killed. Former minister of the
interior
Polykarpos Georkajis, in contact with local right-wing
groups and
the junta in Athens, was thought to be implicated, and was
assassinated shortly afterward. A paramilitary
presidential guard
loyal to Makarios, called the Tactical Police Reserve, was
organized in 1972. Consisting of fewer than 1,000 men, the
Tactical
Police Reserve succeeded in arresting large numbers of
EOKA B
guerrillas. In a further attempt to bring subversive
forces under
control, Makarios dismissed many National Guard and police
officers
suspected of EOKA B activity.
With the death of Grivas from a heart attack in January
1974,
EOKA B came more directly under the control of the
military junta
in Athens, which, after a change of leadership, was even
more
hostile to Makarios. The archbishop, however, saw the
Greekofficered National Guard as a more serious threat to his
government
than EOKA B. In a letter to the Greek president in early
July, he
accused the junta of attempting to subvert the government
of Cyprus
through the Greek officers of the National Guard, who in
turn
supported the terrorist activities of EOKA B. Makarion
demanded
immediate removal of the 650 Greek officers staffing the
National
Guard and their replacement by 100 instructors who would
help
reorganize the Greek Cypriot force.
The reply to the Makarios challenge came on July 15 in
the form
of a coup d'état led by Greek officers in the National
Guard, under
orders from Athens. The fierce fighting that broke out
resulted in
casualties estimated at over 500, but the lightly armed
Tactical
Police Reserve and irregular pro-Makarios units were no
match for
the heavily armed National Guardsmen and the EOKA B
irregulars.
Narrowly escaping capture when the presidential palace was
bombarded, Makarios was flown to London from the Sovereyn
Base Area
at Akrotiri. Former EOKA gunman and convicted murderer
Nicos
Sampson, notorious for his brutality in the 1950s and
1960s, was
proclaimed president. As Makarios had foreseen, but the
Greek
military leaders did not, Turkey reacted forcibly to the
coup by
landing a large number of troops on the northern coast of
Cyprus.
As a result, both the insurrectionary government in Cyprus
and the
military dictatorship in Greece fell from power.
Data as of January 1991
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