The Cyprus Conflict Greece and Turkey fight for power in the Mediterranean Sea

Background of Cyprus

•Cyprus is an island 50 miles off the coast of Turkey, 500 miles from Greece

•Has been populated since 9000 B.C. with a strong Greek presence starting around the 4th century B.C.

•Conquered by Alexander the Great and ruled by roman empire until 12th century

•15th century – conquered by Ottoman Empire

•By the 19th century, Greeks on Cyprus wanted to end Turkish rule.

•1878 – Britain gains administrative control of the island, but once Turkey fights in WWI against Britain, Britain takes full control of the island as a colonial territory

•The Greeks were happy; they hoped that under Britain, power could be restored to Greece.

•Britain offered the Island to the Greeks if they would fight in the war as allies of Britain, but Greece refused, not wanting to get involved in the war.

Cyprus Divided:

Background of Greece

•Greece was under Nazi control until October 12th 1944

•At the end of WWII, the country faced a collapsing economy and an infrastructure destroyed by the allies during the war

•The Greek Communist party created the ELAS as a Greek national liberation army in Cyprus

Background of Turkey

•In 1923, the Ottoman Empire falls, giving way to the new Turkish Republic under Mustafa Kemal

•Turkey remains neutral through WWII, until joining the allies in 1945

•In 1945 a multi-party system is introduced, and the U.S. begins giving post-war aid to the country

•In 1952, Turkey joins NATO with other anti-communist countries.

The Conflict Between Greece and Turkey

•The Cyprus Dispute was a territorial dispute over an island in the eastern Mediterranean sea between Greeks and Turks living on the island

• In 1960, the island was granted independence form Britain, because the British officials could no longer deal with the rising violence from Greek nationalist Cypriots wanting the island returned to Greek power. This idea was known as “Enosis”

•George Grivas was the commander of the Greek Cypriot National Guard

•He and the Greek Nationalists believed that unification with Greece would be the only way to gain political recognition and stability

•In September of 1971, Grivas formed EOKA-B, a pro-unification organization

•When Grivas died in early 1974, the EOKA-B fell under the control of Dimitrios Loannides, the head of the Greek military junta

•The Archbishop of Cyprus, Makarios, had abandoned enosis for a policy of coexistence with the Turkish Cypriots and became president

•For this reason, Loannides and the EOKA-B wanted to overthrow Makarios and continue in the fight to return Cyprus to Greece

•The reaction of the U.S. was to send aid to Turkey during this period.

•The Soviet Union also wished for influence in the Mediterranean, and looked into control of Cyprus

The Coup

•In a coup on July 15th, 1974, Makarios was overthrown and fled to Britain.

•Nikos Sampson became the new president.

•There was chaos as Greek Nationalists attacked the Turkish minorities in the north.

•World reactions varied, many sided with the Turkish “victims” in the north

Counter-coup: Turkish Invasion•On July 20th, in response, the Turkish army

invaded the island, bombing the capitol and forcing the Greek military junta to step down

•The Turkish army occupied 37% of the north eastern part of the island to protect Turkish Cypriots

•Turkey then refused to withdraw troops and in July of 1975, they appointed Rauf Denktash as the new president until Makarios returned from exile to resume his presidency

•Makarios and Denktash arranged a settlement and in November of 1983, Turkey declared its territory in northern Cyprus the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus

•This territory was not recognized by any other nations

•The United Nations still does not recognize the northern part of the island as a republic, and the conflict is an ongoing stalemate with sporadic, isolated incidents of violence between the two groups

The Conflict Within Greece and Turkey•For both countries, the conflict was a

matter of nationalism.•Both nations had claim on the land both

historically and geographically. The Island was heavily populated by the Greeks, however, Cyprus is much closer to Turkey

The Cyprus Conflict in the Cold War•Due to ties through NATO, the U.S. sent

aid to Turkey throughout much of the conflict, fighting the EOKA-B which was created by Greece’s Communist party.

•Some alliances of the cold war applied to this conflict

•The conflict went beyond Greek and Turkish nationalism as a fight between capitalists and communists at a more global scale

• Bibliography

• "Cyprus Conflict Briefing." FlashPoints. http://www.flashpoints.info/countries-conflicts/Cyprus-web/Cyprus_briefing.html (accessed March 22, 2009).

• “Cyprus.” World Book Encyclopedia. 2008 ed. 4, Chicago: Scott Fetzer Company, 2008.

• Kinzer, Stephen. Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001.

• Kjeilen, Tore. " Turkey / History." LookLex Travel guides / Encyclopaedia . http://looklex.com/e.o/turkey.history.htm (accessed March 18, 2009).

• Lafeber, Walter. America, Russia and the Cold War 1945-2006. New York City: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2006.

• Lloyd, T. O., and Trevor Owen Lloyd. British Empire 1558-1983 (Short Oxford History of the Modern World). London: Oxford University Press, 1984.

• Pike, John. "Greek Civil War." Global Security.org. www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/greek.htm (accessed March 18, 2009).

• Sowards, Stephen W.. "Balkan politics in the Cold War years." Michigan State University Libraries. http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lect22.htm (accessed March 18, 2009).

• Stearns, Monteagle. "Stearns | Greece & Turkey: Clash of Civilizations." The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_16/warburg_II/stearns_clash.html (accessed March 18, 2009).