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Cyprus Political Developments after the Crisis of 1967
Seizing the opportune moment after the crisis had
ended, in
late December 1967 Turkish Cypriot leaders announced the
establishment of a "transitional administration" to govern their
community's
affairs "until such time as the provisions of the
Constitution of
1960 have been fully implemented." The body's president
was Fazil
Küçük, vice-president of the republic; the body's
vice-president
was Rauf Denktas, president of the Turkish Cypriot
Communal
Chamber. Nineteen governing articles, called the Basic
Principles,
were announced, and the provisional administration
organized itself
along lines that were similar to a cabinet. The
provisional
administration also formed a legislative assembly composed
of the
Turkish Cypriot members-in-absentia of the republic's
House of
Representatives and the members of the Turkish Cypriot
Communal
Chamber. The provisional administration did not state that
the
Communal Chamber was being abolished. Nor did it seek
recognition
as a government. Such actions would have been contrary to
the
provisions of the constitution and the Zurich-London
agreements,
and the Turkish Cypriots as well as the Turks scrupulously
avoided
any such abrogation. The Greek Cypriots immediately
concluded that
the formation of governing bodies was in preparation for
partition.
U Thant was also critical of the new organizations.
President Makarios, seeking a fresh mandate from his
constituency, announced in January 1968 that elections
would be
held during February. Küçük, determined to adhere to the
constitution, then announced that elections for vice
president
would also be held. Elections were subsequently held in
the Turkish
Cypriot community, which the Greek Cypriot government
considered
invalid; Küçük was returned to office unopposed. Two weeks
later,
Makarios received 220,911 votes (about 96 percent), and
his
opponent, Takis Evdokas, running on a straight enosis
platform,
received 8,577 votes. Even though there were 16,215
abstentions,
Makarios's overwhelming victory was seen as a massive
endorsement
of his personal leadership and of an independent Cyprus.
At his
investiture, the president stated that the Cyprus problem
could not
be solved by force, but had to be worked out within the
framework
of the UN. He also said that he and his followers wanted
to live
peacefully in a unitary state where all citizens enjoyed
equal
rights. Some Cypriots opposed Makarios's conciliatory
stance, and
there would be an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him
in 1970.
In mid-1968 intercommunal talks under UN auspices began
in
Beirut. Glafkos Clerides, president of the House of
Representatives, and Rauf Denktas were involved in the
first stages
of these talks, which lasted until 1974. Although many
points of
agreement were arrived at, no lasting agreements were
reached.
Turkish Cypriot proposals emphasized the importance of the
local
government of each ethnic community at the expense of the
central
government, while the Greek Cypriot negotiating teams
stressed the
dominance of the central authorities over local
administration.
In the parliamentary elections that took place on July
5, 1970,
fifteen seats went to the Unified Democratic Party
(Eniaion), nine
to AKEL, seven to the Progressive Coalition, two to the
socialist
coalition, and two to the Independents. The enosis
opposition did
not capture any seats. Eniaion, led by Clerides and based
on an
urban constituency, was a moderate party of the right that
generally supported Makarios. The Progressive Coalition
had an
ideological base almost the same as Eniaion's, but was
based in the
rural areas. The socialist group was led by Vassos
Lyssarides,
personal physician to Makarios; its two seats in the House
of
Representatives did not reflect its significant influence
in
Cypriot affairs and the personal power of its leader. The
Independents were a left-wing noncommunist group similar
to EDEK
but lacking its dynamic leadership. The fifteen seats
reserved for
Turkish Cypriots went to followers of Denktas.
In the early 1970s, Cyprus was in fact a partitioned
country.
Makarios was the president of the republic, but his
authority did
not extend into the Turkish enclaves. The House of
Representatives
sat as the legislature, but only the thirty-five Greek
Cypriot
seats were functioning as part of a central government. De
facto,
the partition sought for years by Turks and Turkish
Cypriots
existed, but intercommunal strife had not ended.
In the summer of 1971, tension built up between the two
communities, and incidents became more numerous. Sometime
in the
late summer or early fall, Grivas (who had attacked
Makarios as a
traitor in an Athens newspaper) returned secretly to the
island and
began to rebuild his guerrilla organization, which became
known as
the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki
Organosis
Kyprion Agonistan B--EOKA B). Three new newspapers
advocating
enosis were also established at the same time. All of
these
activities were funded by the military junta that
controlled
Greece. The junta probably would have agreed to some form
of
partition similar to the Acheson Plan to settle the Cyprus
question, but at the time the overthrow of Makarios was
the primary
objective, and the junta backed Grivas toward that end.
Grivas,
from hiding, directed terrorist attacks and propaganda
assaults
that shook the Makarios government, but the president
remained a
powerful, popular leader.
In January 1972, a new crisis rekindled intercommunal
tensions
when an Athens newspaper reported that the Makarios
government had
received a shipment of Czechoslovakian arms. The guns were
intended
for Makarios's own elite guard; the Greek government,
hoping to
overthrow Makarios through Grivas, EOKA B, and the
National Guard,
objected to the import of the arms. The authorities in
Ankara were
more than willing to join Athens in such a protest, and
both
governments demanded that the Czechoslovakian munitions be
turned
over to UNFICYP. Makarios was eventually forced to comply.
Relations between Nicosia and Athens were at such a low
ebb
that the colonels of the Greek junta, recognizing that
they had
Makarios in a perilous position, issued an ultimatum for
him to
reform his government and rid it of ministers who had been
critical
of the junta. The colonels, however, had not reckoned with
the
phenomenal popularity of the archbishop, and once again
mass
demonstrations proved that Makarios had the people behind
him. In
the end, however, Makarios bowed to Greek pressure and
reshuffled
the cabinet.
Working against Makarios was the fact that most
officers of the
Cypriot National Guard were Greek regulars who supported
the junta
and its desire to remove him from office and achieve some
degree of
enosis. Grivas was also a threat to the archbishop. He
remained
powerful and to some extent was independent of the junta
that had
permitted his return to Cyprus. While the Greek colonels
were at
times prepared to make a deal with Turkey about Cyprus,
Grivas was
ferociously opposed to any arrangement that did not lead
to
complete enosis.
In the spring of 1972, Makarios faced an attack from
another
quarter. The three bishops of the Church of Cyprus
demanded that he
resign as president, because his temporal duties violated
canon
law. Moving astutely, Markarios foiled the three bishops
and had
them defrocked in the summer of 1973. Before choosing
their
replacements, he increased the number of bishoprics to
five,
thereby reducing the power of individual bishops.
Grivas and his one-track pursuit of enosis through
terrorism
had become an embarrassment to the Greek Cypriot
government, as
well as to the Greek government that had sponsored his
return to
the island. His fame and popularity in both countries,
however,
prevented his removal. That problem was solved on January
27, 1974,
when the general died of a heart attack. Makarios granted
his
followers an amnesty, hoping that EOKA B would disappear
after the
death of its leader. Terrorism continued, however, and the
100,000
mourners who attended Grivas's funeral indicated the
enduring
popularity of his political aims.
Data as of January 1991
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