Half a century after Cyprus’ independence from Great Britain in 1960, the Cyprus question is still unresolved. The island remains divided between the internationally recognized Greek-Cypriot Republic of Cyprus and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus where 40,000 Turkish troops are stationed, since Turkey’s invasion in the summer of 1974. Cyprus became an Ottoman dominion in 1571 and passed to Great Britain with the Congress of Berlin in 1878, in exchange for London’s help in annulling the San Stefano Treaty and keeping Macedonia in Ottoman hands. Under the British, Greek-Cypriots prospered but remained committed to the unification with Greece, following the example of Crete.
In 1931 Greek-Cypriots revolted but were left unaided by Greece, which was recovering from the Asia Minor catastrophe and did not want to upset its relationship with Britain at a time of rising Italian revisionism in the Mediterranean. The British easily suppressed the revolt, exiled Greek-Cypriot leaders, and marginalized the bourgeois nationalists, leaving the church as the main political representative of the Greek-Cypriot community. Following World War II, against a rising communist party, the church, headed by the newly appointed, young, ambitious, and charismatic Archbishop Makarios, seized the leadership of the anticolonial struggle. With Greek public opinion on Makarios’ side, the Greek government, after much initial hesitation, brought the matter to the United Nations General Assembly in 1954, where the Greek position was soundly defeated, having failed to secure the support of the United States. Makarios turned to Georgios Grivas, a military officer with strong nationalist and anticommunist views, who organized the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (NOCF; Ethniki Organosi Kyprion Agoniston, EOKA) to fight the British. NOCF/EOKA’s campaign started in April 1955 and was met with violence by the British and the increasingly assertive Turkish-Cypriots. Makarios was exiled to the Seychelles but it was evident that British rule was coming to an end. The United States pressed for a diplomatic solution as the unrest threatened the unity of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Western alliance in the crucial area of the eastern Mediterranean, where the Soviet Union began antagonizing Western interests through the support of Arab nationalism. However, the Greek-Cypriots failed to secure their primary goal of Cyprus’ unification with Greece. Faced with the unyielding opposition of Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriots, British manipulation, and Greece’s foreign dependence and military weakness, a compromise was reached among the governments of Britain, Greece, and Turkey first in Zurich and then in London that, in 1960, granted Cyprus its independence, guaranteed by the three countries, and provided enhanced political rights to the Turkish-Cypriots.
Makarios was elected president of the new Republic of Cyprus but was forced to share power with his Turkish-Cypriot vice president. Amid rising frustration among many Greek-Cypriots and against the advice of the Greek government, in November 1963, Makarios suggested a constitutional revision to curtail the rights of the Turkish-Cypriots. In protest, the latter withdrew from all of the republic’s institutions and isolated themselves in limited ethnic enclaves protected, after 1964, by a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force. Twice provoked by attrocities against TurkishCypriots, Turkey threatened to invade but was restrained by the United States--first in 1964 and then in 1967. Makarios’ relations with Athens deteriorated, especially after the coup in 1967, and Washington was openly hostile to his leadership. In July 1974, the Greek junta overthrew Makarios but failed to assassinate him. This gave Turkey a good enough reason to realize what was long in the planning, a full-scale invasion of the island to secure its geostrategic interests and protect the Turkish-Cypriot community. Cyprus was violently divided, with Turkish-Cypriots remaining in the northern 36 percent of the island and the Greek-Cypriots being pushed to the southern and less developed part of the island. The international community did not recognize the partition of the island although it failed to effectively confront Turkey.
Since 1974, the Greek-Cypriot south has prospered, taking advantage of a liberal economic regime and the devastation caused by a civil war in neighboring Lebanon. More recently, the tables have turned as the Republic of Cyprus became a member of the European Union (EU) in 2004, and thus acquired a veto in Turkey’s relations with the EU. Apart from the cost to lives and properties, the size of the collateral damage to Greece and Hellenism caused by the conflict over Cyprus is difficult to underestimate. As a result, the remaining Greek communities of Turkey, especially the prosperous Istanbul (Constantinople) Greeks, were uprooted. Greece redirected valuable resources to its defense against the Turkish threat, and Greek public opinion was radicalized in ways that remain relevant to the present day. Cyprus seriously complicated the postwar efforts at domestic modernization of Greece, destroyed the GreekTurkish friendship, and poisoned Greece’s relations with its Western allies, especially the United States. The dispute gave rise to a new age of anticolonial nationalism and enhanced the electoral appeal of nationalists and populists alike, especially on the Greek left. Even the preeminent postwar Greek leader Konstantinos Karamanlis, who signed the ZurichLondon compromise in an effort to put Cyprus behind and refocus on Greece’s domestic development, saw his pre-junta administration suffer because of his reluctance to play the nationalist and anti-Western card.
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