Cyprus-Forum.com

[BirKibrisli]

Okey folks...I will try to rescue my posts from the other thread and continue on with the narrative..The deal is the same...If you want to add or substract anything from my writings please feel free. But make sure you argue from a position of informed opinion,not from subjective,emotional thought. I stand to be corrected on everything I say.
But you need to come up with proof if you are challenging my version of the events. Personal insults will not be taken seriously. In fact they will be proof that you are talking through your hats...

[BirKibrisli]

This island was home mainly to two ethnically distinct communities.
The largest one was called Greek Cypriots (82%) and the smaller one Turkish Cypriots(18%). These figures were approximations as there were other Cypriots of other backgrounds like Armenian,Jewish,Maronite,and Latin who called Cyprus home too...But it was the former two communities who played the main roles in what came to be known as the Cyprus Problem. So we will concentrate on them for the purpose of this exercise...

It is generally considered that the Greeks came to Cyprus approximately 2000 years before Christ.First it was mainly Achaean-Mycenaean Greeks,then Greeks from other cities arrived over time to complete the Greek colonisation of Cyprus... The TCs were mainly the descendants of the Ottoman forces which occupied Cyprus from 1571 to 1878. Many Venetians and some Greeks concerted to Islam over this time (mainly to avoid heavy taxes),and there were enough intermarriages to result in a Unique Cypriot gene pool by the end of the 20th Century...


In 1878 Cyprus fell into British hands. "In 1878 at the time of the Congress of Berlin, Turkey, retaining nominal sovereignty, gave the island over to British administration as an assembly base for the rapid deployment force which Britain was supposed to have at the ready to deter further Russian penetration of the Ottoman Empire" ...So says the Cyprus Conflict website...

It also says this :"when the first British High Commissioner, Sir Garnet Wolseley, arrived at the Cypriot port of Larnaca, he was greeted by Kiprianos, Bishop of Kition, with the message: 'We accept the change of Government inasmuch as we trust that Great Britain will help Cyprus, as it did the Ionian islands, to be united with Mother Greece, with which it is nationally connected.' Every subsequent High Commissioner became accustomed to hearing the petition for enosis on ceremonial occasions. In 1912 the Greek Cypriot members of the Legislative Council resigned en bloc to campaign for this purpose. For a fleeting moment in 1915 Britain was willing to fulfill these hopes in return for a quick entry of Greece into the war; the offer was withdrawn when Greece declined."


So far so good?

Lets jump-cut to 1954...We are at the UN and Greece has just applied for the recognition of the rights of GCs to self-determination, allowing for Enosis to happen...

Alarmed by this the TCs sent a committee to Ankara to meet with Adnan Menderes,PM..The delegation is led by Mr Faiz kaymak, the Head of Federation of Turkish Cypriot Associations,and included two lawyers,Ahmet Mithat Berberoglu and Ahmet Zaim..

On the 15 September 1954 the delegation meet the Turkish PM at Florya palace...FAiz kaymak himself describes the talks in his 1968 book "How Did TCs find themselves in this Situation" :

" We talked for one-and -half hours about the political situation in Cyprus,the fears of the TCs,and Turkey's opinion on the matter...At one point The Prime Minister took a sheet of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. 'here...read this...it's from the US...You have nothing to fear,there will be NO ENOSIS...Greece might be making demands at the UN,but the US has promised me,THERE WILL BE NO ENOSIS'...

"The next day we met with Turkish President,Celal Bayar...He had this advice for us -' You must demand that the British rule continues in Cyprus... You have to support the British or they are headed for a fall '...

In a previous meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister,Fuat Koprulu,the delegation got a message which was most disturbing : " It is Turkey's principle not to interfere in other nations' internal affairs...Since Cyprus is a British colony we have no policy or claim on her..."

The TC delegation was dismayed. They were leaving for England the next day,and they decided to take direct action. They visited the influential editor of the Hurriyet Newspaper,Sedat Semavi,and told him about Fuat Koprulu's statement...The next day the delegations fears and dilemma were front page news all over Turkey...

[BirKibrisli]

It would be interesting of course to be able to search Hurriyet's archives,and find out exactly was was written,and how it was received.
But we can safely assume this was the beginning of the awakening of the Turkish public opinion regarding the "Cyprus Problem"...

The TC delegation,on a mission to derail Enosis,continues on to England where they meet the Minister for Colonies,Henry Hopkinson,on 17 September 1954.
Let's hear it from the leader of the TC delegation,Faiz Kaymak himself:

" ...Our talk with the British minister lasted for over an hour...We told him what Menderes and Bayar told us to say : 'We want the British rule in Cyprus to continue...' His reply surprised us, "It is shameful for you to say you want the colonial rule to continue in this day and age,said Minister Hopkinson," what you want to say is 'we want Cyprus returned to her previous ruler'"... We said 'fine,that's what we want'.
'I am not the one you have to say it to,' continued minister Hopkinson,'You must go to the US and say it to the Americans'...

We said we had no tickets or visas to go to the US.
He said not to worry,they would fix everything up for us..

Hence,on 24 September,1954 the TC delegation found themselves on an unexpected trip to the United States. In New York they were met by a British official to the UN and taken to the Commodore Hotel.The following day the same British official accompanied the delegation to the UN building where they met the Americans and made their wish known: They wanted Cyprus to be returned to her previous ruler,if and when the British withdrew from the island.

And on 27 September,1954,again on the advice of the British official,they met the Turkish Amabassador to UN,Selim Sarper,to request that in his coming UN address he includes a new demand by Turkey,namely that Cyprus to be returned to her previous ruler,when the British rule ends.
Mr Sarper told the delegation he could not possibly made such a demand without the authorisation of his government. Faiz Kaymak recounts how they went back and informed the British of Mr Sarper's dilemma.Soon the Turkish ambassador to UN recalls the TC delegation for urgent talks.
And Selim Sarper's official address to the UN general council now includes an unexpected new demand : At the end of British rule Cyprus must be returned to her previous ruler!

And before long Greece's official request for the right to self determination to be extended to Cypriots as One nation was defeated at the UN...

[BirKibrisli]

The date of the UN defeat was 14 December 1954...
All indications are that Greece was not particularly keen to get involved in Cypriot affairs. At the beginning at least. I believe it was Makarios and The Church which kept up a relentless political pressure on the Greek government to convince them to come to the party.

It must not have been easy for Greece to be linked with an armed struggle against the British.After all, if was the British which helped Greece achieve independence and become a nation state. The British was also instrumental in Crete becoming part of Greece. And it was the British who stopped the socialist alliance from coming to power in greece after WW2,hence delivering political power to the right wing forces.

But Greece knew the British would never give up Cyprus without a bloody struggle. I believe Makarios was personally responsible for recruiting Grivas and starting the armed struggle for independence and Enosis on 1 April 1955.

Not very many people took EOKA seriously at the beginning. Cypriots were in awe of the military power of their coloniser. They never gave EOKA a serious chance of success. But those in charge of EOKA knew what they had to do. Like every underground organisation their only real option was to spread terror in the hearts of their opponents,and fear,awe and obedience in the heart of their own people. For that blood had to be shed. And so it came to pass.

The fear inspired by the EOKA propelled the TCs to find their own underground organisation,VOLKAN,lead by Dr Kuchuk. Volkan's mission was similar to the Eoka's : To spread awe,fear and terror in the hearts of their opponents including those withing the TC commmunity. Their method of action was also similar : intimidation,violence and bloodshed. In November,1957 Volkan gave way to a more aggressive underground organisation TMT,lead by Rauf Denktash. TMT's first official statement was aimed at the TCs. It demanded complete obedience,and was accompanied by a chilling warning. "We don't want to believe that there will be traitors amongst us in this struggle,but any act of treachery will be mercilessly crushed..."

The scene was thus set for the main event. The bloody division of a people,a nation,and a country...

[BirKibrisli]

Now, What was the bird's eye view of the world at the time when Cypriots were biterly divided along ethnic lines? On one side those prepared to die and kill for Enosis,on the other side those who thought Enosis was a little bit worse than Death!!!

Well,the WW2 had just finished relatively a short time earlier,and the Cold War was in full swing. The British were furiously trying to increase or maintain the political influence and the benefits they had acquired after WW1. Churchill,Roosevelt,and Stalin had already agreed how the new world order would be. Eastern Europe would largely be under the Soviet Union's dominance. Greece and most of the Mediterranean region would come under the British influence.

Churchill considered Turkey too as potentially a candidate for British dominance,and managed to get the Americans to reluctantly agree to that as well. So due to some fancy footwork by Churchill Britain was set to continue her dominance over the Middle East. But the Middle East,above all,meant one thing :Oil or Petrol... And the emerging world power,the US of America,was not about to quietly dismantle her formidable war machine and return home.

The world itself was fast being divided into two camps : The Socialist and the Capitalist... And war weary Britain had neither the economic nor the military might to lead and protect the Capitalist world.That role was destined for the Americans,the new kid on NATO's block. Control of the Middle East oil fileds was essential to prop up the hungry capitalist industries. The USA had to have the lion's share. And the British had no intention of giving up any portion of that share voluntarily. This British-American rivalry,I believe,was the key to the events unfolding in Cyprus.

Without secret American support and encouragement Greece would not have allowed an armed and bloody resistance to the British rule in Cyprus.
I am inclined to believe that the real power behind the EOKA movement was indeed the USA.The motivation was to weaken the British dominance over the Middle East ,and force her to share the spoils of the middle East oil fields. Another motivation was their hope to establish American bases in Cyprus to counter the increasingly influential leftist movement led by the PEO (Cyprus Workers Federation) and the AKEL(Progressive Workers Party). American agents in Greece were openly suggesting that establishing American bases in Cyprus would be the first step in achieving ENOSIS...

[BirKibrisli]

The TC/Turkish demand for 'Cyprus to be returned to her previous rulers' was of course an ambit claim. It was invented and manipulated by the British to serve their own purposes. By 1956 however Cyprus problem had reached a new turning point...

The 15 July,1955 edition of Turkey's influential "Forum" magazine had come up with a new solution : The Partition (Taksim) of Cyprus between Turkey and Greece... On 25 February 1956,this idea was repeated in the Turkish parilament by the independent member for Manisa,Hikmet Bayur.
And on 19 July 1956,in an speech to the House of Commons,the Conservative MP Walter Elliot put the idea of partition officially on the British political agenda as "something to be seriously considered as the final solution".

The idea gained enough momentum to be reported in the Athens newspapers on 14 october 1956.And by the end of 1956 the idea was warmly embraced by the Turkish prime Minister Menderes who,not so long ago,was on record for saying that Cyprus was not a piece of cloth to be torn up any which way...

By the end of 1957,the TMT slogan "Ya Taksim Ya Olum"(Partition or Death) was painted all over Cyprus in blood-red paint.. Yet there were still people warning of the gravity of such a solution as early as January,1957. Following is a translation of the appropriate sections of a letter (translation by me-BK) to Professor Nihat Erim (later to be appointed Prime Minister by the Military) who was the Head of the committee preparing the official Turkish policy on Cyprus:

" ...Turks and Greeks of Cyprus are one indivisible people who have lived together for hundreds of years on these lands. They have ploughed fields together,worked side by side in workshops as brothers together,lived side by side together and embraced each other in towns and villages,laughed together in good times and cried together in the bad times,sharing a common fate...

"...The idea of Partition mentioned in the British Parilament recently is not only impractical but also impossible to serve as a lasting solution. Turkish and Greek Cypriots do not live separately in their exclusive areas. Such a solution would necessitate internal migration which will prove impossible to accomplish without serious ramifications...

" Our heroic nation has taken the lead role in the libertion struggle against colonialism in the Near and Middle East. This is written in gold in our own history,and it is admired by the rest of the world. It is our bigest wish to see this honorable historical tradition continue. And History has put that responsibility primarily on your own shoulders..."

Signed
Administrator
Turkish Cypriot Branch
AKEL

[BirKibrisli]

The TC members of AKEL were not alone in opposing the emerging policy of Partition. Another prominent TC who strongly opposed Partition was Dr Ihsan Ali. Originally from Paphos,Dr Ali first became prominent as the representative on the KATAK (the first serious TC political association established in 1943). He was a well-liked local doctor with plenty of integrity who,in 1953, was elected as a councillor on the Paphos Municipal Council. In an interview given to a foreign journalist in 1960 he had this to say:

" I was the first TC politician to speak openly against Partition. I was saying,' gentlemen, the talks are heading towards Taksim. This is a dirty trick by the imperialists. Partition is a diabolical solution.'

"When I realised the colonial power was intend on dividing the Turkish and Greek Cypriots,I resigned from my position. In March,1958 Denktash,who had become the leader of TMT, invited me to work and cooperate with him. I refused because I knew in which direction Denktash's terrorist plans were heading. They were heading towards brother killing brother..." (Schmidt, Auf der Suche nach Aphrodite,Leipzig,1966,p.246)

[denizaksulu]

Okey folks...I will try to rescue my posts from the other thread and continue on with the narrative..The deal is the same...If you want to add or substract anything from my writings please feel free. But make sure you argue from a position of informed opinion,not from subjective,emotional thought. I stand to be corrected on everything I say.
But you need to come up with proof if you are challenging my version of the events. Personal insults will not be taken seriously. In fact they will be proof that you are talking through your hats...

Thank God/Allah or the Almighty. What took you so long. Yes, I got it, 'away from your PC' again. A very welcome back and your thread needed rescuing. I hope people will take note.

[BirKibrisli]

As I mentioned earlier,in its first official statement made on 29 November,1957 the TMT called on all Turkish Cypriots to show total obedience to TMT directions. Dissenters and traitors "will be mercilessly crushed" was the accompanying chilling warning...

The first direct action attributed to the TMT was what came to be known as "the 27-28 January incidents"... Allow me to put this scene in proper perspective for you...By the end of 1957,the idea of Partition (Taksim) was being discussed between England,Turkey,Greece,and the USA in secret or semi-official talks. The EOKA was speeding up its terror campaign against the British and some leftist GC targets. Sir Hugh Foot had just replaced field Marshall Harding as the Governor. On 5 December,1957 3 Turkish Cypriots were killed near Paphos,and the British authorities were quick to point the finger at the EOKA.(It was later discovered that the killings were non-political,having to do with personal grievances.) In Nicosia the TCs took it upon themselves to attack the GC sector and set some shops and buildings on fire. On 12 December 1957 Greece had a small victory at the UN,when a resolution was passed to accept a Greek proposal which left the door open for future action on the self-determination right of Cypriots as a whole. The new governor,Sir Hugh Foot,had announced his own plans for Cyprus which involved not partition but a form of self-government. And on 26 January,1958 the British Foreign Minister Lloyd accompanied Sir Hugh to Ankara to discuss his self-determination proposals. Despite Turkish insistent on immediate Partition of the island,the British had stood firm on Sir Hugh's self-government idea,which would allow the Greek and Turkish Cypriots to go on living together for the foreseeable future...

So,on 27 January,1958, organised by the TMT,Turkish Cypriots came out in large numbers in Nicosia's Sarayonu Square to demand their final solution : Partition or Death... People from all walks of life including trade unions,small business organisations,farmers groups,and school students begun a noisy demonstration...Shouting slogans against Sir Hugh Foot they attacked armed British soldiers with sticks,stones,and broken bottles.
This was the first time the Turkish Cypriots were protesting against the British in Cyprus. In the ensuing melee 2 TCs (one a woman) were ran over and killed by a British army truck.The following day 3 young male TCs were killed instantly when their car was fired upon by British soldiers near the Kyrenia gate.On the same day (28 January,1958)in similar incidents in Famagusta 2 more TCs were killed. The unexpected clash between the British authorities and the TCs moved a former governor of Cyprus,Lord Winster,to observe, "Great Britain is paying the price for encouraging the idiotic Turkish/TC policy of Partition..." (Manchester Guardian,7 February 1958)...

As well as the 7 deaths,70 people were injured including women and children.In his memoirs published in the Soz newspaper, Teacher and Journalist Arif Hasan Tahsin reports an incident told him by a nurse,Sevim Ulfet : " There were dead and wounded people everywhere at the hospital that day. I spotted Rauf Denktash who had come to visit the wounded.'For Allah's sake stop this violence,' I said to Denktash, 'enough is enough'...
'We need these deaths to make the world hear our voice,' Denktash answered. I exploded,' Then why don't you and Dr Kuchuk go out there and get yourselves killed. That would really make the world stop and listen!'" (Soz Newspaper,2 December,1982)

That must've been one of the few times in his life Denktash was lost for words...

[denizaksulu]

This island was home mainly to two ethnically distinct communities.
The largest one was called Greek Cypriots (82%) and the smaller one Turkish Cypriots(18%). These figures were approximations as there were other Cypriots of other backgrounds like Armenian,Jewish,Maronite,and Latin who called Cyprus home too...But it was the former two communities who played the main roles in what came to be known as the Cyprus Problem. So we will concentrate on them for the purpose of this exercise...

It is generally considered that the Greeks came to Cyprus approximately 2000 years before Christ.First it was mainly Achaean-Mycenaean Greeks,then Greeks from other cities arrived over time to complete the Greek colonisation of Cyprus... The TCs were mainly the descendants of the Ottoman forces which occupied Cyprus from 1571 to 1878. Many Venetians and some Greeks concerted to Islam over this time (mainly to avoid heavy taxes),and there were enough intermarriages to result in a Unique Cypriot gene pool by the end of the 20th Century...


In 1878 Cyprus fell into British hands. "In 1878 at the time of the Congress of Berlin, Turkey, retaining nominal sovereignty, gave the island over to British administration as an assembly base for the rapid deployment force which Britain was supposed to have at the ready to deter further Russian penetration of the Ottoman Empire" ...So says the Cyprus Conflict website...

It also says this :"when the first British High Commissioner, Sir Garnet Wolseley, arrived at the Cypriot port of Larnaca, he was greeted by Kiprianos, Bishop of Kition, with the message: 'We accept the change of Government inasmuch as we trust that Great Britain will help Cyprus, as it did the Ionian islands, to be united with Mother Greece, with which it is nationally connected.' Every subsequent High Commissioner became accustomed to hearing the petition for enosis on ceremonial occasions. In 1912 the Greek Cypriot members of the Legislative Council resigned en bloc to campaign for this purpose. For a fleeting moment in 1915 Britain was willing to fulfill these hopes in return for a quick entry of Greece into the war; the offer was withdrawn when Greece declined."


So far so good?

Lets jump-cut to 1954...We are at the UN and Greece has just applied for the recognition of the rights of GCs to self-determination, allowing for Enosis to happen...
Alarmed by this the TCs sent a committee to Ankara to meet with Adnan Menderes,PM..The delegation is led by Mr Faiz kaymak, the Head of Federation of Turkish Cypriot Associations,and included two lawyers,Ahmet Mithat Berberoglu and Ahmet Zaim..

On the 15 September 1954 the delegation meet the Turkish PM at Florya palace...FAiz kaymak himself describes the talks in his 1968 book "How Did TCs find themselves in this Situation" :

" We talked for one-and -half hours about the political situation in Cyprus,the fears of the TCs,and Turkey's opinion on the matter...At one point The Prime Minister took a sheet of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. 'here...read this...it's from the US...You have nothing to fear,there will be NO ENOSIS...Greece might be making demands at the UN,but the US has promised me,THERE WILL BE NO ENOSIS'...

"The next day we met with Turkish President,Celal Bayar...He had this advice for us -' You must demand that the British rule continues in Cyprus... You have to support the British or they are headed for a fall '...

In a previous meeting with the Turkish Foreign Minister,Fuat Koprulu,the delegation got a message which was most disturbing : " It is Turkey's principle not to interfere in other nations' internal affairs...Since Cyprus is a British colony we have no policy or claim on her..."

The TC delegation was dismayed. They were leaving for England the next day,and they decided to take direct action. They visited the influential editor of the Hurriyet Newspaper,Sedat Semavi,and told him about Fuat Koprulu's statement...The next day the delegations fears and dilemma were front page news all over Turkey...

A too big jump. I would have mentioned Lausanne (Lozan), where Turkey washed its hands of Cyprus.