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[Get Real!]

Keeping the Peace in the Cyprus Crisis of 1963-64 by Alan James; Palgrave, 2002
page 71


Meanwhile, many Turkish Cypriots had been taking steps to provide themselves with greater security by moving from mixed to nearby Turkish Cypriot villages, or to areas where their community was trying to create something in the nature of defensible enclaves. One report said that about 42 out of the 102 mixed villages in Cyprus had thus been evacuated. 75 Two of the largest Turkish Cypriot enclaves were northern Nicosia, and an area stretching northwards from just beyond Nicosia to the mountain range which lay above the coastal town of Kyrenia. Movement along the road between the two towns was controlled by the contingent of the Turkish Army in Cyprus, which had moved out of its Nicosia barracks for this purpose. Following the Turkish Cypriot members withdrawal (or, as they would say, exclusion) from the Government of Cyprus at the start of the crisis, a separate Turkish Cypriot administration was in the process of being set up to manage the areas under their control.

[Get Real!]

Two NATO Allies at the Threshold of War: Cyprus, a Firsthand Account of Crisis Management, 1965-1968 by Parker T. Hart; Duke University Press, 1990

page 39


The first clash took place without casualties on May 2, 1964, when Turkish Cypriots at Ayios Theodhoros lit bonfires to celebrate the annual Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice (Kurban Bayram) and fired off blanks. Misunderstood on the Greek side, this developed into an exchange of shooting which did not last. On June 15, 1964, a second and more serious incident was narrowly averted by the UNFICYP, which was able to persuade a detachment of the Turkish Cypriot Gendarmerie to withdraw from hill positions overlooking Ayios Theodhoros that threatened free passage by its Greek population.

From here the record is silent until December 1966, when there were three cases of Turkish Cypriot interference with freedom of movement, two involving Greek Cypriot Police and one a National Guard vehicle. In January 1967, Turkish Cypriots removed road signs at Kophinou bearing the usual English transliterations of Greek place-names and re-erected them with Turkish versions.

The Turkish Fighters Organization ( TMT) began to initiate local actions stemming from island-wide political bargaining or in retaliation for harassment of Turkish Cypriot buses at Famagusta. They exploited their command of Kophinou's strategic location just north of Ayios Theodhoros, astride the main junction of the Nicosia and Larnaca road links with Limassol. In Kophinou, Turkish Cypriots well outnumbered Greeks, 710 to 18.

Under a mainland Turk officer with the nom de guerre "Mehmet," sent from Turkey outside treaty limits to maintain discipline in the TMT but proving to be a hothead, Turks demanded that bus destination signs carry the appropriate Turkish, not Greek names. The National Guard, backed by mainland Greek officers and men introduced into Cyprus far beyond treaty limits, then moved into the area to neutralize this challenge to vital communications. After a few days of standoff, UNFICYP was able to restore the status quo. However, General Grivas, not noted for his coolheadedness, ordered a battalion of Greeks supported by armored cars to Skarinou, where it remained despite UNFICYP objections that it was unnecessary. UNFICYP then increased its own presence between the opposing forces and negotiated freedom of movement.



page 41


UNFICYP, with a sharp reaction behind it from the Greek Cypriot government, informed the Turkish Cypriot leadership that patrols must be allowed to pass. To make the point stick, on September 16 a patrol from Skarinou was escorted by the UNFICYP. On its way south it encountered a road block, which it removed; on the return north, farm vehicles and tractors fully barred passage. Major Charles Huxtable, UNFICYP escort commander, had his men remove the obstacles, but under the order of "Mehmet," he and his company sergeant were pushed, kicked, and spat at by TMT elements. It required strong representations by UNFICYP with Turkish Cypriot leaders and the Turkish Embassy in Nicosia to get the road reopened. Soon afterward "Mehmet" assaulted Huxtable near Kophinou and threatened to kill him. "Mehmet" was then relieved of his command by Ankara and ordered back to Turkey.

It was always clear to the U.S. embassy in Ankara that the basic reasons for TMT intransigeance and troublemaking at Kophinou and Ayios Theodhoros lay in the widespread intercommunal challenge and violent response that had prevailed on the island since December 1963.

[Get Real!]

Cyprus: The Impact of Diverse Nationalism on a State by Halil Ibrahim Salih; University of Alabama Press, 1978

page 9

The Turkish Cypriots were opposed to the EOKA operations and joined British law-enforcing operations in attempts to crush the guerrilla movement.
At first, the objective of EOKA was to leave the Turkish Cypriots alone and to concentrate on the British; however, when the Turkish Cypriots joined hands with the British in hunting down the guerrillas, they also became targets. The Turkish Cypriots created their own underground organization, known as VOLKAN ("volcano"); and later it changed its name to TMT ("Turkish Resistance Organization") or TMT. TMT was able to organize a united front against the EOKA forces, but it never did become as organized or as disciplined as the groups under Grivas.


page 10

The TMT members did undergo some military training in Turkey, and money and arms were also supplied by the Turkish government. Under the leadership of Dr. Fazil Küçük, the Cypriot Turkish party was organized all over the island and among the Turkish Cypriots on the mainland. The conflict on the island was no longer between the British colonial government and the Cypriots but had shifted to a confrontation of the two major ethnic groups.


page 111

As the EOKA guerrilla warfare intensified against the British colonial administration in all parts of the island, the tension between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots escalated, and civil war seemed imminent. The Turkish Cypriots organized their own underground movement called Volkan (Volcano); later it was named the Türk Müdafaa Teşkilate (Turkish Resistance Movement) or TMT. The objective of TMT was to protect Turkish Cypriots and deter those who challenged the guidance of their leaders. The EOKA members were also antagonized by the willingness of certain Turkish Cypriots to assist the British forces in the interrogation of the captured guerrilla members and to join the sweeping operations in tracking down the terrorists. A number of Turkish Cypriots lost their lives in serving the British colonial government.

[Get Real!]

Eu Accession Dynamics and Conflict Resolution: Catalysing Peace Or Consolidating Partition in Cyprus By Nathalie Tocci
(p.46)

.............If the British were to leave Cyprus, the island should be relumed to Turkey and should under no circumstance be annexed to Greece.
This spontaneous rejection nurtured by the British led to a British-Turkish Cypriot front against EOKA in the mid-1950s. In 1956 the Turkish Cypriots began countering EOKA through VOLKAN and then in 1957 the TMT (Turk Mukavemet Teskilati).
These groups cooperated with British forces in resisting enosis. As a consequence, the Turkish Cypriots were automatically transformed into the enemies of the Greek Cypriot cause.
Active Turkish political interest in Cyprus began in 1955. This was partly a response to external events, namely EOKA violence and the UN debate on Cyprus. But domestic factors also encouraged Turkey's attention. By the mid-1950s, Turkish Prime Minister Adrian Menderes was beginning to face serious economic problems, with a significant slowdown in growth, rising internal and external imbalances and inflationary pressures. Aiming to distract public attention from internal problems, Menderes turned to the external realm. The government stepped up its nationalist rhetoric on Cyprus. Initially, in the early and mid-1950s Turkey supported a retention of British rule. However, by 1957 Turkey formulated its own counter-position to enosis: taksim or partition of the island into Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot zones.

[Get Real!]

Cyprus and International Peacemaking By Farid Mirbagheri p. 48


The separation of the two communities has remained a contentious issue ever since the 1963 crisis began. The Turkish Cypriots claim that they were driven out of their homes by the Greek Cypriots and were therefore forced to take refuse in the enclaves. The Greek Cypriots. on the other hand, claim that the Turkish Cypriots imposed isolation on themselves to convince the world that the two could no longer live together in harmony.

All the evidence points towards the validity of the Greek Cypriots' claim:
an official Turkish Cypriot document leaked to the Greek Cypriois stated that :

"a fine of £25 or other severe punishment, and one month imprisonment or whipping' would be imposed on Turks residing in the enclaves who entered Greek areas without special permit, or who did so (permit or no permit) for the purpose of visiting Greek courts, hospitals or other state institutions, or nor business with Greeks or friendly association with Greeks, or merely for a walk or for amusement.

In a report to the UN on 11 March l965 U Thant -stated: '

The Turkish Cypriot policy of self-isolation has led the community in the opposite direction from normality.'

[Get Real!]

Mediating in Cyprus: The Cypriot Communities and the United Nations By Oliver P. Richmond p.79


The result of the escalation of violence was that the Turkish Cyprints' semi-voluntary withdrawal to enclaves became permanent, these areas being beyond the control of the government. This was both for their security and because they were under pressure from hard-liners within the community to withdraw from any cooperation with the Greek Cypriot side.

This implied that the Turkish Cypriote also wanted to change the I960 constitution and effect greater political and practical separation, despite the fact thai later they would call for a reversion to the constitution. The Turkish Cypriot leadership then declared that the constitution was dead, that the two sides could no longer live with each other and that partition was the only solution. Two of the enclaves provided a spark for further violence. Kokkina and Mansoura were Turkish Cypriot-dominatcd areas on the coast, close to Turkey and the Greek Cypriote feared that these points might be used to land arms from Turkey for the Turkish

[Get Real!]

they are proud of this - they are PROUD of it ...

Geriye doğru yürüyoruz...Bunların tekrarlamasını istermisin Kıbrıslı Türkler???

Such was the STUPIDITY of your people, still evident TODAY despite 40+ years of “progress”, the evidence of which is the “TRNC” which has evolved into the world’s most criminal entity, the embodiment of the average Turkish Cypriot…

[xxNilxx]

TMT WAS RESISTANCE ACTION AGAINST EOKA!

Don't deny the massacre you did..

[paliometoxo]

xxNilxx: we can play the blame game forever but nothing will change anything no matter whois righ or "wrong" just look to the future and hope things will get better for both sides in a re united cyprus

[xxNilxx]

GRivas I'm not bothered to read all your shit. You are completely brainwashed. Think what you want.