This is the island of Cyprus.
This small island in the Mediterranean is probably most well known as a popular tourist
destination, with its white-sand beaches and crystal clear waters.
But the island has a somewhat troubled past, and even present as well.
Politically, the island is split between the Republic of Cyprus, a member of the UN and
the EU, and Northern Cyprus, a self-declared Turkish republic, recognised only by Turkey
itself, viewed as occupied territory by the rest of the international community.
The island of Cyprus is politically, ethnically, and physically split through the middle due
its troubled past.
A United Nations peacekeeping force has been operating in Cyprus for more than 50 years,
with barriers separating the two communities that once shared the island.
So why is an island that would seem so tranquil...
so divided?
How exactly did it end up like this?
Well, the island became like this due to the dramatic events of 1974, but we need to look
a bit further back in the island’s history to fully understand of the context behind
these events.
In 1571, the island was conquered by the Ottoman Empire, and for the first time in thousands
of years, the island’s demographics were changed, from a predominantly Greek population,
to a Greek majority with a significant Turkish minority.
Cyprus was part of the Ottoman Empire for centuries.
Treatment of the Greek Cypriots varied significantly during this time, and there were numerous
uprisings against Ottoman rule.
The Greeks and the Turks rarely lived together in harmony.
In the 1820s, Greece (also under Ottoman rule) fought a successful war for independence.
The Cypriots revolted at the same time but their revolt was crushed by the Ottomans.
In the year 1878, Cyprus came under British administration in secret treaty with the Ottomans,
in which the British would protect their territorial sovereignty from Russia, while securing themselves
a strategic position to defend their trade routes to India through the Suez Canal.
The Ottomans maintained sovereignty over the island, but it was placed under British administration.
In WWI however, the British and Ottoman Empires found themselves on opposing sides, and so
the island was annexed by Great Britain.
Now ever since the independence of Greece, the vast majority of Greek-Cypriots had been
calling for what’s known as “enosis” - union with Greece.
After WWII, it became increasingly difficult for Great Britain to morally justify their
extensive empire.
All of their colonies that had fought alongside them to fight for the freedom of the world,
now wanted freedom for themselves.
The British Empire did of course go through an extensive period of decolonisation, but
with Cyprus, there was a problem.
The island has been described as an “unsinkable aircraft carrier”, and geographically speaking,
it was just too valuable to give up.
From Cyprus, the Royal Air Force could reach three different continents with ease.
Cyprus is just 100 miles from the Middle East, and the Suez Canal is just 200 nautical miles
to the south.
Now, while the Greek majority of Cyprus often rebelled against British rule, the Turkish
minority were... relatively content with it.
The Turkish-Cypriots absolutely did not want enosis.
In the first decade after the second world war, the British tried to offer Cyprus self-government,
without actually giving up any sovereignty.
In 1950, a man who would become known in Cyprus as the “Father of the Nation” was elected
as its leader - Archbishop Makarios III.
Of course, this didn’t satisfy the Greek-Cypriots, and the desire for enosis grew stronger…
and more violent.
In 1955, a nationalist guerrilla organisation, called EOKA, was formed to end British rule
in Cyprus, with the ultimate goal being union with Greece.
The main figurehead behind the enosis campaign was Colonel George Grivas, a Cyprus-born WWII
veteran of the Greek Army.
In the late 1950’s, the British declared a state of emergency on the island of Cyprus
as the anti-colonial violence escalated.
In 1958, a rival organisation in opposition to EOKA was formed, the TMT, or the Turkish
Resistance Organisation, formed by the Turkish-Cypriot minority.
Their ultimate goal was the partition of the island, or “taksim”.
The two communities generally lived in quite segregated neighbourhoods, and the Turkish
minority of Cyprus wanted the island to be politically divided.
So the Greeks of Cyprus wanted to join Greece, and the Turks wanted to partition the island.
In the end, they got what nobody wanted: independence.
The president of the republic was to be Greek, and the vice president Turkish.
The president was Archbishop Makarios… who was actually exiled to the Seychelles in 1957
for his promotion of enosis, but was allowed to return.
The Republic of Cyprus became a country in 1960, but it wasn’t really a fully independent
country.
Three other countries still had a huge say in what went on on the island, the three ‘guarantors’
of Cyprus that signed the very treaties that gave the country its independence: Greece,
Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
Also they didn’t even have control of the whole island, the British held onto the land
around their military bases.
The treaties of Cypriot independence banned the country from entering into a union with
another country (i.e. no enosis), and each of the three guarantors had the right to intervene
in Cypriot affairs to maintain the status quo.
In 1963, president Makarios made a number of proposals for constitutional changes, ostensibly
due to governmental dysfunction, that would remove many of the rights of the Turkish minority.
This led to an eruption of ethnic violence between the Greeks and the Turks.
Many of the hardliner EOKA sought to rid the island of “undesirables”, i.e. the Turks.
The violence peaked in December in what became known as “Bloody Christmas”, in which
there were hundreds of casualties on both sides.
Thousands of Turkish-Cypriots were run out of their villages, with many leaving the island
altogether, and hundreds more were taken hostage.
In 1964, a UN resolution was passed to deploy a peacekeeping force to Cyprus, as the island
was on the brink of an all-out civil war, or worse still…
potential war between two NATO members, Greece and Turkey.
Despite the UN force, the violence did not stop.
The two communities had to be physically separated in the nation’s capital city, Nicosia, as
British soldiers erected barriers.
Now at this point I’d like to pause for a second to mention another country that was
heavily involved in the Cyprus dispute throughout the 60s and 70s, just… not publicly.
The United States was very much involved in Cypriot affairs, the CIA operated extensively
throughout the island, and the US would often try to covertly ‘pull the strings’ to
get their desired outcome.
Since it was becoming obvious that the 1960 solution was not working, London and Washington
secretly agreed that a potential way to solve the impasse would be partition of the island.
They began to develop a back-up plan to encourage Turkey to invade Cyprus and take control of
a pre-liniated portion of the island.
The invasion didn’t happen…
at least, not yet.
But this begs the question…
why?
Why would the UK and US want to partition the island?
Well, this was the 1960s, the height of the Cold War.
Having a strong Turkish presence on the island would at least prevent the country of Cyprus
from falling into the Soviet zone of influence.
The Cypriot president had already caused some controversy by making some connections with
Eastern Bloc nations.
Having an ally of the Soviets so close to NATO’s southern flank would have been disastrous,
especially for Turkey, but for NATO as a whole too.
Turkey was an extremely important ally of the US, they were quite literally the border
between east and west.
In 1967, the Greek government was taken over by a far-right military junta in a coup d'état,
ousting the democratically elected prime minister.
Now, the president of Cyprus had been a strong advocate of enosis, but he certainly didn’t
want a union with a military dictatorship in Athens.
This caused massive disagreements between himself and George Grivas, still leading the
fight for enosis.
Over the next few years, Makarios would be the target of five assassination attempts,
as the Greek-Cypriot hardliners tried to overthrow his leadership, as he was unwilling to pursue
union with Greece.
In 1974, Cypriot Intelligence discovered a plan to overthrow the President.
This time though, it wasn’t from the Greek-Cypriots, but from Athens.
Yet another military junta had taken over in a counter-coup, and now they had their
eyes set on Cyprus.
The coup was successfully carried out by the Cyprus National Guard.
With the help of the RAF, Archbishop Makarios was flown to London for his safety.
He was replaced by Nikos Sampson, former member of an EOKA execution squad, who fought against
British rule in the 1950s.
The United States were quietly content that Makarios was out of the picture due to his,
somewhat tenuous, links to communism.
It was later revealed that the CIA was well aware of the plot to overthrow the government,
but nothing was done to stop it.
Turkey was understandably furious with the coup, and made clear their invention to invade
Cyprus.
Turkey cited Article 4 of the Treaty of Guarantee, which states that “each of the three guaranteeing
Powers reserves the right to take action with the sole aim of re-establishing the state
of affairs created by the present Treaty”.
5 days after the coup, Turkish troops landed in Cyprus.
The initial invasion only lasted 2 days, as an emergency UN Security Council meeting called
for a ceasefire.
Turkey had captured about 3% of Cypriot territory.
Both military dictatorships, in Cyprus and in Greece, fell apart due to the invasion.
Sampson resigned just 3 days after the invasion began.
Mediation talks in Geneva between the three guarantor powers tried to solve the situation
diplomatically, and avoid any further casualties, but the talks became deadlocked.
Now at this point, the international community and public opinion were largely sympathetic
towards Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriots.
The Cypriot government had been taken over by a coup with the intention of joining with
Greece against the will of the Turkish minority.
However, from 14th of August onwards, things quickly changed.
Turkey launched its second invasion of Cyprus - Operation Attila Two.
This time, it was a full-scale invasion against a much weaker opponent.
The fatality numbers reached into the thousands, and about 200,000 Greek Cypriots were forced
to abandon their homes.
Several Turkish-Cypriot community villages were raided by the Greek-Cypriot extremist
organisation EOKA-B as a response to the invasion, with more than 200 civilian casualties in
the first day of the invasion.
By the end of the invasion, Turkey had taken control of about 37% of the island of Cyprus.
This territory made up approximately 70% of the total gross domestic product of the Republic
of Cyprus.
General sympathy and understanding swifty turned to almost universal condemnation.
The Treaty of Guarantee gave Turkey the right to intervene in Cyprus, but the treaty was
made for the purpose of guaranteeing the independence, territorial integrity, and security of Cyprus…
but in the end, Turkey did the exact opposite.
They forcibly took control of a large portion of the island, causing a de facto partition
of the country.
When looking at how Cyprus became divided, one can’t help but wonder…
how was this allowed to happen?
How was a NATO member allowed to launch a full-scale invasion against another sovereign
state?
Greece demanded to know why no action was taken to stop Turkey.
Realistically the only country that would have been able to stop the invasion was the
United States, but the man who was single-handedly in charge of US foreign policy with regards
to Cyprus, Henry Kissinger, chose not to intervene.
In fact, it was quite the opposite: he encouraged the invasion.
There had been talks of the British pulling out of Cyprus altogether in a round of defense
cuts, and Kissinger was worried about having absolutely no NATO presence on the island.
Turkey occupying a large part of the island would ensure a NATO presence, and prevent
Cyprus from falling into the Soviet sphere of influence, so Kissinger was happy to let
the invasion run its course.
After the conflict was over, the UN organised the transfer of 51,000 Turkish-Cypriots from
the south to the north, as the island became ethnically split.
In addition, Turkey proceeded to encourage thousands of Turkish citizens from Anatolia
to settle in northern Cyprus, despite this being in direct violation of article 49 of
the Geneva Convention.
In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus was proclaimed, and has received absolutely
no international recognition expect from Turkey itself.
In many ways, Cyprus is a victim of its own geography.
Its violent past was partly caused by the island’s strategic position in the world
of geopolitics.
Of course, the underlying reason for the violence was the inter-ethnic conflict between the
Greeks and the Turks of the island, but this was often willfully ignored or even exacerbated
by the West if it were in NATO’s best interest.
Even to this day there are tens of thousands of Cypriots still hopeful that some day they
will be able to return to their homes from which they were displaced.
Cyprus joined the EU as a divided island in 2004, three decades after the invasion, and
many were hopeful that this would help solve the dispute.
In the same year there had been a referendum on a plan to reunite Cyprus which ultimately
failed, however there does seem to be a genuine desire among Cypriot citizens to solve the
dispute once and for all.
It’s hard to predict what will happen next, only time will tell what the future holds
for Cyprus.
This video is brought to you by Squarespace.
If you’re ever in need of a website, domain, or online store, look no further than Squarespace.
With Squarespace you can showcase your work, publish your content, sell products or services,
promote events or projects, or turn that idea you have into a website.
With all the tools you’ll need to create beautiful website, head to Squarespace.com/wonderwhy
for a free trial and when you’re ready to launch, use the offer code WONDERWHY to save
10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
A huge thank you to Squarespace for their continued support of this channel.
I really hope you enjoyed this video, and thank you so much for watching.