by Pyrpolizer » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:49 am
@ VP
The whole truth then from Cyprus conflict web site:
A veteran Turkish diplomat, looking back over the 'enormous and patient work' required to secure Turkey a 'right of say' in Cyprus, described this British statement as 'in a way, a road leading to taksim' (i.e. partition). Taksim became the slogan which was used by the increasingly militant Turkish Cypriots to counter the Greek cry of 'enosis'.
In 1957 Ku"c,u"k declared during a visit to Ankara that Turkey would claim the northern half of the island.
The Turkish Cypriots were therefore already discussing during British rule and under the pressures of the EOKA revolt, solutions--federation and partition-- which logically would require an exchange of populations on, proportionately, an immense scale (for example, the movement of more Greek Cypriots than the entire Turkish Cypriot population) to make them feasible. At first they were merely calling attention to the kinds of unwelcome issues that might be raised by the majority's persistent cry for self-determination
In 1963 the demand for changing the 13 clauses of the constitution by President Makarios is seen as the spark of the inter-communal conflict. The underground movements EOKA and TMT rekindled the mistrust increasing the tension and leading the way for a physical separation of the two communities. The UN Security Council in 1964 decided to form a UN Peace Keeping Force for Cyprus and up to this day it is still on the island. While Turkish Cypriots had to live in enclaves during this period, the inter-communal fights continued at different intervals, at different places until 1967.After this period the inter-communal relations seemed to have started to reconcile. At this time marathon meetings were held between the two leaders, Mr. Clerides and Mr. Denktash in order to find a solution to the Cyprus problem.
There was interference, and a promotion of violence, from abroad. Each side believed that it would be attacked by the other, and secretly armed accordingly. Extremists on both sides, still pursuing their pre-independence aims of enosis or taksim, became vociferous. At Christmas 1963, after a random incident of violence, there were armed attacks by a parastatal Greek-Cypriot faction (with links to the Greek/US intelligence services) against elements of the Turkish-Cypriot community. The Turkish-Cypriots reacted to what they took to be a general attack upon them: the Greek-Cypriots reacted to what they took to be a general insurrection. Inter-communal communications collapsed. Atrocities were committed. Either from harrassment, fear or political pressure the Turkish Cypriots abandoned some of the mixed villages. Nevertheless, at that stage the split was not irrevocable.
Turkish Cypriots withdrew from the government and formed enclaves within the island where they tried to establish their own administration. The Greek Cypriots saw this, along with Turkish threats of invasion and the attack of Greek Cypriot targets by the Turkish airforce in 1964, as an attempt to undermine the status of the republic and the fightings as a legitimate way to prevent the Turkish Cypriots from establishing taksim. Indeed, it seems that in those days both communities desired to unite with their respective 'motherlands'.
n summation, the general trends of the December 1963 - August 1964 period are clear. . . . Decisions were made to implement the conflicting ideas of enosis and taksim by various coercive movements. This activity created a field of violent inter-communal conflict. Violence induced a refugee movement which altered existing demographic fields. The two new fields, of armed confrontation and ethnic segregation, interacted to form fields of communally controlled territory. Subsequently a Turkish-Cypriot civil and military administration was developed to govern and protect Turk-Cypriots and the land they held. The result was the de facto partition of the Republic of Cyprus.
__________
Within the armed enclaves which the Turks created, a system of political, administrative, judicial, social and other institutions was set up, which eventually took almost all the organic characteristics of a small state. The Greeks, of course, refused to recognize it, and the Turks did not ask for recognition from other countries, if only because they knew they would not get it. But although it lacked the name of a state, what the Turkish Cypriots created was in essence a small national state, existing within defended borders, with its own Government (called after December 1967 the Turkish Cypriot Administration) public services, and even luxuries like a Football Federation and a Scouting Movement. Dr Kucuk headed the Turkish Cypriot Administration until February 1973, when he was succeeded by Mr Rauf Denktas..
From inside their armed enclaves the Turkish Cypriots developed a theory - the joint product of official policy and popular belief - that they could no longer entrust their safety to Greeks and it was therefore even more important that it had seemed earlier that they should live in separate areas, governed and policed by themselves.
As if to prove their point the Turkish leadership exerted pressure on many Turks living in Greek areas to leave their homes and properties and come to the Turkish enclaves to live as refugees. The Greek side got hold of, and published, an official Turkish document which stated that 'a fine of ,25 or other severe punishment, and one month's 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 and other State institutions, or for business with Greeks, or friendly association with Greeks, or for promenade, or amusement. U Thant, in a report presented to the UN on 11th March 1965 stated that:
The Turkish Cypriot policy of self-isolation has led the community in the opposite direction from normality. The community leadership discourages the Turkish Cypriot population from engaging in personal, commercial or other contacts with their Greek Cypriot compatriots, from applying to Government offices in administrative matters or from resettling in their home villages if they are refugees.
