Pyrpolizer wrote:Although Bir provided a very honest and detailed information to the best of his knowledge about TMT I personally have a different opinion for both the Eoka and the TMT.
he truth is that no armed organization is angelic. They need informers, they need cold blood murderers, they need merciless people, they need to do "illegal" actions, they need to have connections with the underground world. Otherwise they will fail. They also need to expose a noble face to get support. In most cases those organizations however serve double if not tripple purposes.
Our Eoka's exposure of noble cause was of course the liberation struggle for freedom from British. With this " noble" cause Eoka gained support and respect from the average GC.
But there was also a second cause: Enosis/Union with Greece.
On the other hand the causes of TMT were not clear from the beginning. There is a very good reason for that. TMT was not created as a reaction for Eokas formation per se. This is a widespread myth among the TCs. it was created to handle the situation IN THE EVENTUALITY OF THE BRITISH HAVING TO LEAVE for whatever reason whatsoever. It could be Eoka, it could be people rioting, it could be passive resistence, it could be anything.
In my opinion Turkey and their TC collaborators had only one cause in mind in case the British would leave. Taksim i. e take a part of Cyprus for themselves. They would never stomach be a minority among people who were rulers before. It didn’t matter for them if the GCs would have Enosis or not, what mattered was to get a part of Cyprus for themselves.
TMT was thus created on a "wait and see" status. The first thing it obviously had to do is become a defence organization providing some basic defence to TCs in case the Eokas would extend their attacks against the TC community., This defence image also served as their "noble" cause with which they gained support and respect from the average TC.
The attacks of course never happened. The Eokas kept on fighting the British. It became apparent that sooner or later the British would leave. , so TMT spurt out loud and clear her real cause. Taksim!
Then the 1960 agreements came that tried to mend the situation. On one hand they had the GC demand for Enosis, on the other the TC demand to have taksim but also be rulers as they were before.
Imo the British tried their best to mend the situation with the 1960 agreements. With that they barred Enosis and Taksim, but they also did the mistake of providing us an unworkable constitution, with separatist elements all over, and also overinflated priviledges to the TC community (for them to feel masters like before) .
Very interesting post.
During an uprising there can be only one slogan:
You are either with us or with the enemy.
At this time, ENOSIS has nothing to do with the struggle for freedom. We were fighting to free Cyprus, regardless... just kick the Brits out.
The TCs let us "walk the dog" alone while they were kissing the enemy's ass to achieve taskim. The enemy assign TC "police" to snitch on us. Divide & conquer as usual, standard practice of the Brits, used all over their colonies, but this time it backfired on them.
A dirty business, resulting in EOKA end up fighting 2 fronts... while TMT was plotting against us for personal gain... "freeloaders" really. TMT figured, when the Brits put down the rebellion, the TCs stay "innocent". Supposedly, their neutrality would keep them out of trouble and end up as the British favorite side when the hostilities ended. Thus the intimidation and murders to contain the TC population from taking action against us or the Brits.
All that because TMT never believed the Brits would be defeated.
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