Cyprus-Forum.com

[Paphitis]

And Paphitis sends his regards to Turkish Cypriot Leader Talat.

[halil]

British occupation of Cyprus brought the Greek Cypriots freedom from Turkish rule, which they might otherwise never have had , even with the help of Greece. It also brought them greater security and personal liberty. None of these benefits, however, could offset the three main grievances of the Greek Cypriots under British rule. The first being that an annual tribute, fixed at £92,799 was paid to Turkey for the lease, which the islanders had to pay back to Britain. The second was that Britain refused to grant the island a representative assembly. A legislative council of 12, (nine Greeks, three Turks)and 6 members appointed by the High Commissioner was set up in 1882. But the High Commissioner had the casting vote which he used to block every Greek demand. Above all Greek Cypriots were aggrieved by British reaction to their demand for Enosis

above notes are from British sources............

[halil]

And Paphitis sends his regards to Turkish Cypriot Leader Talat.

up yours !

latter on don't start for crying !

Crying is only your solution ...................

[Paphitis]

British occupation of Cyprus brought the Greek Cypriots freedom from Turkish rule, which they might otherwise never have had , even with the help of Greece. It also brought them greater security and personal liberty. None of these benefits, however, could offset the three main grievances of the Greek Cypriots under British rule. The first being that an annual tribute, fixed at £92,799 was paid to Turkey for the lease, which the islanders had to pay back to Britain. The second was that Britain refused to grant the island a representative assembly. A legislative council of 12, (nine Greeks, three Turks)and 6 members appointed by the High Commissioner was set up in 1882. But the High Commissioner had the casting vote which he used to block every Greek demand. Above all Greek Cypriots were aggrieved by British reaction to their demand for Enosis

above notes are from British sources............

And that is why the struggle for self determination bagan on 1st of April, 1955.

Halil, if I did not know any better, I would think that you are on my side.

[halil]

Although Cyprus was not declared a Crown colony until 1925, it was administered as such from 1880 onwards. But unlike other colonies, most of them less well developed, Cyprus was barred from aspiring towards eventual self-government and independence.
The outbreak of the First World War seemed to many Greek Cypriots to provide a grand opportunity for the realisation of their ideal. Cyprus was formally annexed by Britain on November 5, 1914, the same day it declared war on Turkey. A year later Britain tried to tempt Greece into joining the Allies by dangling the bait of Cyprus. But Greece refused the bait and was finally drawn into the war on the side of the Allies in 1917, there was no longer any need for the inducement.
Greek Cypriots were optimistic, however, that at the post war peace conference their island would be given the right to national self determination. But a Greek Cypriot delegation lobbied at Versailles for Enosis in vain. For both reek and British governments the question of Cyprus’s future was overshadowed by the titanic struggle developing in Asia Minor between Greek Hellenists led by the Greek Prime Minister, Eleutherios Venizelos, and supported by the British Prime minister, Lloyd George, and renascent Turkish nationalists under Kemal Ataturk. The Greeks were routed and the crisis was resolved in July 1923, by the Treaty of Lausanne. There was a vast exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. The treaty included Turkish recognition of Britain’s sovereignty over the island.
The signatories to the Lausanne Treaty wrote an end to both the Ottoman Empire and the pan-Hellenic dream. But they also left Cyprus as the last unsettled territorial issue in the centuries-old struggle between Greeks and Turks.

[halil]

In 1925, Britain made Cyprus a Crown colony, clearly demonstrating that the future of the island was entirely in her hands. The results of British rule were by no means discreditable. The large increase in the budget for justice led, for example, to a decline in cases of personal violence. Sanitation was vastly improved. Locusts, a recurring local menace, were brought under control. By 949 malaria had been extinguished and leprosy was almost wiped out, so that the island enjoyed one of the lowest mortality rates in the world. The island also derived great benefits from an administrative system that operated efficiently without destroying local cultural traditions.
It was, therefore, difficult for the British to understand why the Greek Cypriots should wish to exchange their easy freedoms under a uncorrupt British administration for the dubiou privileges of military service, high taxes and inefficient administration under the Athens government 500 miles away. But nationalist sentiment cannot be measured by such things. “The Greekness of the Cypriots,” commented Sir Ronald Storrs, the island’s governor from 1926 to 1932, “is in my opinion undisputable.”

[halil]

just after the First World War was followed by a Greek Cypriot boycott of elections for the legislative council and local authorities in the island. In 1931 Greek Cypriot frustration erupted in violence. After the elections of that year - which the Greek Cypriots did contest - the Enotists strengthened their position on the legislative council and Nicodemus, the Bishop of Citium, issued an uncompromising Enotist manifesto urging that no obedience was due to the laws of a foreign ruler. Three days later Nicodemus made a speech inciting Cypriots to break the laws. The following evening - October 21 - rioting started in Nicosia. Dyonysios Kykkiotis, a chief priest, kissed the Greek flag, declared Enosis, and led the rioters to Government house, where they smashed windows and then threw in combustible materials, burning the building to the ground.
The rioting was halted with the arrival of two Royal Navy ships and the landing of troops from Egypt. The governor, Sir Ronal Storrs, then deported ten ringleaders, without warning, including Nicodemus and the Bishop of Kyrenia and two elected members of the legislative council. Six Cypriots had been killed and 30 wounded. The repression which followed was disproportionately severe. Two thousand islanders were imprisoned, the Greek Cypriots had to pay £66,000 for property destroyed in the main towns and 70 villages, the constitution was suspended, political parties were outlawed, the Press was censored, and the Governor ruled by decree.

[Paphitis]

Although Cyprus was not declared a Crown colony until 1925, it was administered as such from 1880 onwards. But unlike other colonies, most of them less well developed, Cyprus was barred from aspiring towards eventual self-government and independence.The outbreak of the First World War seemed to many Greek Cypriots to provide a grand opportunity for the realisation of their ideal. Cyprus was formally annexed by Britain on November 5, 1914, the same day it declared war on Turkey. A year later Britain tried to tempt Greece into joining the Allies by dangling the bait of Cyprus. But Greece refused the bait and was finally drawn into the war on the side of the Allies in 1917, there was no longer any need for the inducement.
Greek Cypriots were optimistic, however, that at the post war peace conference their island would be given the right to national self determination. But a Greek Cypriot delegation lobbied at Versailles for Enosis in vain. For both reek and British governments the question of Cyprus’s future was overshadowed by the titanic struggle developing in Asia Minor between Greek Hellenists led by the Greek Prime Minister, Eleutherios Venizelos, and supported by the British Prime minister, Lloyd George, and renascent Turkish nationalists under Kemal Ataturk. The Greeks were routed and the crisis was resolved in July 1923, by the Treaty of Lausanne. There was a vast exchange of populations between Greece and Turkey. The treaty included Turkish recognition of Britain’s sovereignty over the island.
The signatories to the Lausanne Treaty wrote an end to both the Ottoman Empire and the pan-Hellenic dream. But they also left Cyprus as the last unsettled territorial issue in the centuries-old struggle between Greeks and Turks.

Thanks again Halil.

[Magnus]

Welcome to karaoke night at the Starlight Ballroom! Let's have a round of applause for our special guests!




'Cause your kisses lift me higher
Like the sweet song of a choir
You light my morning sky
With burning love
Im just a hunk, a hunk of burning love
Just a hunk, a hunk of burning love...'





'Our D.I.V.O.R.C.E becomes final today
Me and little J.O.E will be goin' away
I love you both and it will be pure H.E double L for me
Oh, I wish that we could stop this D.I.V.O.R.C.E.'

[halil]

It was under this authoritarian rule that Cyprus entered the Second World War. This demonstrated, as the First World War had done, the island’s limited importance as a military base compared with those available to Britain on the Middle East mainland. The German drive to the Levant through Greece and Crete was checked before it seriously threatened Cyprus , though the island provided a base for Allied commando raids on German and Italian occupied islands in the region, and 30,000 Cypriots served bravely in the British forces. The war also brought an economic boom to Cyprus, and Britain’s alliance with Greece, while Turkey remained neutral, improved relations between British officials and Greek Cypriots.
In 1941 the ban on political parties on he island as lifted and Greek Cypriots organised themselves in two groups: the Communist -controlled A.K.E.L and the K.E.K. (Cypriot National Party) a right-wing party in favour of Enosis. The Turkish minority was represented chiefly by the Turkish National Party
Many Greek Cypriots believed that their own and Greece’s wartime record and Allied declarations , such as the Atlantic Charter of 1941, in favour of national self-determination, would compel Britain to give her blessing to Enosis. But similar hopes had been dashed in 1918, and a Greek-Cypriot deputation which went to London in 1946, to press the familiar demand received the familiar reply.
The British Government, while reaffirming that there could be no change in Cyprus’s status as a Crown colony, did, however, offer some concessions to the Greek Cypriots. The leaders who had been exiled in 1931 were allowed to return to the island and in 1948 the new Governor, Lord Winster, presented fresh constitutional proposals. These envisaged an elected legislature in which the Greek Cypriots could win an effective majority. These proposals pleased no one.
Makarios
The failure of the 1948 proposals led to a new and much grimmer phase in British-Cypriot relations and the 1950’s were to be a decade of intense and bitter political conflict in Cyprus. Ironically, the Greek Cypriot struggle against the British began to gather momentum at a time when Britain was ending her predominant role elsewhere in the region. Economically weakened by the Second World War, she was no longer able to sustain extensive overseas commitments and her withdrawal from India in 1947 removed an essential reason for her control of communications in the Middle East and one of the chief instruments for doing so, the Indian Army. Britain was also forced, in 1947 to relinquish her role as protector of Greece and Turkey to the United States.
There were still reasons however for British governments to persuade themselves that they ought to hold on to Cyprus. Turkey emerged as a bastion of the Western Alliance,eventually providing the vital link between the N.A.T.O.and the C.E.N.T.O. Groupings, and there was a determination not to offend her by handing Cyprus over to the Greeks. The British were also anxious to preserve Middle East oil supplies and to fend off Soviet military or political penetration. But the British withdrawal from Palestine in 1948 left Cyprus as the only territory in the eastern Mediterranean under British sovereignty. Elsewhere - in Egypt, Iraq and Jordan - the British military presence depended upon treaties which were the objects of increasing nationalist resentment.
Two men - a cleric and an army colonel - forged the instrument of Britain’s defeat. The Cleric - Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus - was born Michael Mouskos in 1913. The son of a poor shepherd, he came from the tiny inland village of Pano Panayia and as almost 8 before he travelled as far as the coast. After ordination as a priest in 1946, he won one of ten scholarships offered by the World Council of Churches and left Cyprus for the Methodist Theological College at the University of Boston. It was then that he began to earn his reputation as an ardent advocate of Enosis. He also met rich American Greeks who were later to help finance his campaigns in Cyprus. In 1950 he was elected Archbishop of Cyprus at the age of 37.
The army colonel - George Grivas - 15 years older than Makarios was born in 1898 at Trikomo. At the age of 18 he enrolled in the Greek Military Academy in Athens. When Italy invaded Greece in 1940, he became chief of staff to the 2nd Athens division and was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel. By the late 1940’ Grivas’s thoughts were turning to Cyprus. A fanatical Enotist and Greek nationalist, he was already laying plans for a guerrilla campaign to drive the British out of the island. In July 1951, he and Makarios met for the first time, in Cyprus, and discussed the best means of promoting the cause of Enosis. At first, Makarios was wary of committing himself to armed action, but by early 1952 he had agreed to become chairman of a revolutionary committee established by Grivas in Athens. Makarios’s decision may have been influenced by the intransigent line taken by the British Foreign Secretary, Anthony Eden, at a meeting with the Greek Foreign Under-Secretary, Evangelos Averoff in November 1951.
The British attitude was uncompromisingly restated by a government spokesman in the House of Commons on July 28, 1954, Eden announced that, under pressure from the Egyptian President Gamal Abdal Nasser, Britain had agreed to evacuate the Suez Canal base and would be transferring her Middle East military headquarters to Cyprus. Henry Hopkinson, Minister of State for the Colonies, added that there were “certain territories in the Commonwealth which, owing to their particular circumstances, can never expect to be fully independent.” Rebuffed by Britain and pressured by Grivas, the reek government now decided to take the matter to the United Nations. At the Autumn session of 1954, Greece introduced a resolution calling for self-determination for Cyprus.
The British case was stated by Selwyn Lloyd, Minister of State at the Foreign Office. “Cyprus,” he said “was needed by Britain to fulfil her treaty obligations to Arab states, to N.A.T.O. And the the United Nations.” “There is no acceptable alternative in the circumstances to sovereignty.”