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Cyprus The Emergency
On April 1, 1955, EOKA opened a campaign of violence
against
British rule in a well-coordinated series of attacks on
police,
military, and other government installations in Nicosia,
Famagusta,
Larnaca, and Limassol. In Nicosia the radio station was
blown up.
Grivas circulated his first proclamation as leader of EOKA
under
his code name Dighenis (a hero of Cypriot mythology), and
the fouryear revolutionary struggle was launched. According to
captured
EOKA documents, Cypriot communists were not to be accepted
for
membership and were enjoined to stand clear of the
struggle if they
were sincerely interested in enosis. The Turkish Cypriots
were
described as compatriots in the effort against an alien
ruler; they
too were simply asked to stand clear, to refrain from
opposition,
and to avoid any alliance with the British.
During a difficult summer of attacks and
counterattacks, the
Tripartite Conference of 1955 was convened in London in
August at
British invitation; representatives of the Greek and
Turkish
governments met with British authorities to discuss
Cyprus--a
radical departure from traditional British policy.
Heretofore the
British had considered colonial domestic matters internal
affairs
not to be discussed with foreigners. Greece accepted the
invitation
with some hesitation, because no Cypriots had been
invited, but
reluctantly decided to attend. The Turks also accepted.
The meeting
broke up in September, having accomplished nothing. The
Greeks were
dissatisfied because Cypriot self-determination (a code
word for
enosis) was not offered; the Turks because it was not
forbidden.
A bombing incident at the Turkish consulate in
Salonika,
Greece, a day before the meeting ended led to serious
rioting in
Istanbul and zmir. It was later learned that the bombing
had been
carried out by a Turk, and that the riots had been
prearranged by
the government of Turkey to bring pressure on the Greeks
and to
show the world that Turks were keenly interested in
Cyprus. The
Turkish riots got so out of hand and destroyed so much
Greek
property in Turkey that Premier Adnan Menderes called out
the army
and declared martial law. Greece reacted by withdrawing
its
representatives from the NATO headquarters in Turkey, and
relations
between the two NATO partners became quite strained.
Shortly after the abortive tripartite meeting, Field
Marshal
John Harding, chief of the British imperial general staff,
was
named governor of Cyprus and arrived on the island to
assume his
post in October 1955. Harding immediately began talks with
Makarios, describing a multimillion pound development plan
that
would be adopted contingent on acceptance of limited selfgovernment and postponement of self-determination. Harding
wanted
to leave no doubt that he was there to restore law and
order, and
Grivas wanted the new governor to realize that a get-tough
policy
was not going to have any great effect on EOKA. In
November Harding
declared a state of emergency, banning public assemblies,
introducing the death penalty for carrying a weapon, and
making
strikes illegal. British troops were put on a wartime
footing, and
about 300 British policemen were brought to the island to
replace
EOKA sympathizers purged from the local force.
Further talks between Harding and Makarios in January
1956
began favorably but degenerated into a stalemate and broke
up in
March, with each side accusing the other of bad faith and
intransigence. A few days later, Makarios was seized,
charged with
complicity in violence, and, along with the bishop of
Kyrenia and
two other priests, exiled to the Seychelles. This step
removed the
archbishop's influence on EOKA, leaving less moderate
forces in
control. The level of violence on Cyprus increased, a
general
strike was called, and Grivas had political leadership
thrust on
him by the archbishop's absence.
In July the British government appointed Lord
Radcliffe, a
jurist, to the post of commissioner for constitutional
reform.
Radcliffe's proposals, submitted in December, contained
provisions
for a balanced legislature, as in former schemes. But the
proposals
also included an option of self-determination at some
indefinite
time in the future and safeguards for the Turkish Cypriot
minority.
Turkey accepted the plan, Greece rejected it outright, and
Makarios
refused to consider it while in exile.
Makarios was allowed to leave the Seychelles in April,
but
could not return to Cyprus. In Athens he received a
tremendous
welcome. During the rest of the year, Grivas kept the
situation
boiling through various raids and attacks, Makarios went
once again
to New York to argue his case before the UN, and Harding
retired to
be replaced by Hugh Foot.
In early 1958, intercommunal strife became severe for
the first
time, and tension mounted between the governments of
Greece and
Turkey. Grivas tried to enforce an island-wide boycott of
British
goods and increased the level of sabotage attacks. In June
1958,
British prime minister Harold Macmillan proposed a
seven-year
partnership scheme of separate communal legislative bodies
and
separate municipalities, which became known as the
Macmillan Plan.
Greece and Greek Cypriots rejected it, calling it
tantamount to
partition.
The Macmillan Plan, although not accepted, led to
discussions
of the Cyprus problem between representatives of Greece
and Turkey,
beginning in December 1958. Participants for the first
time
discussed the concept of an independent Cyprus, i.e.,
neither
enosis nor partition. This new approach was stimulated by
the
understanding that Makarios was willing to discuss
independence in
exchange for abandonment of the Macmillan Plan. Subsequent
talks
between the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey, in
Zurich in
February 1959, yielded a compromise agreement supporting
independence. Thus were laid the foundations of the
Republic of
Cyprus. The scene then shifted to London, where the Greek
and
Turkish representatives were joined by representatives of
the Greek
Cypriots, the Turkish Cypriots, and the British. In London
Makarios
raised certain objections to the agreements, but, failing
to get
Greek backing, he accepted the position papers. The
Zurich-London
agreements which were ratified by the official
participants of the
London Conference and became the basis for the Cyprus
constitution
of 1960 were: the Treaty of Establishment, the Treaty of
Guarantee,
and the Treaty of Alliance.
Data as of January 1991
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