Cyprus stands today as an independent republic with an overwhelming ethnic Greek majority.
“Greek Cypriot” seems synonymous with simply “Cypriot” to many, despite other
ethnic communities still existing on the island.
But, if Greece has such strong ties to the population of the republic, why isn’t Cyprus
part of Greece?...
By the time the Venetians took control of Cyprus in the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire
was already eyeing the region.
After a series of raids, in 1570, Lala Mustafa Pasha led 60,000 Ottoman troops into Cyprus
for a full-scale invasion.
The result was disastrous for Venice, including multiple massacres despite the valiant efforts
of some of the Venetian troops and citizens.
The whole of Cyprus would soon fall to the Ottoman invaders, and Lala Mustafa Pasha would
be chosen to lead the new Ottoman possession.
Pope Pius The Fifth led the charge with the formation of the Holy League to attempt to
take back Cyprus for the Latin Christians, but nevertheless, their efforts failed.
The Ottomans would hold onto the territory and the Venetians were forced to leave entirely
in 1573.
Over the next few centuries, Cyprus’s status and governmental authority would change repeatedly,
but under the Ottoman Hands…
Under Ottoman rule, the ethnic Turkish population on the island boomed.
Something that’s relevant today, Cyprus’s population became divided on ethnic lines
as the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities worked to coexist together under Ottoman authority.
This unity was not very stable, however, and many of the ethnic Greeks within Cyprus were
in favor of Greek Independence in the 1820s as Greece fought to break free from the Ottomans.
This triggered a deadly backlash from the Turks, although, the two sides would still
live together in general harmony for a few more centuries.
The situation in Cyprus nevertheless became increasingly complicated as the Russo-Turkish
War of 1878 reached its end.
With the Congress of Berlin looming, the Ottoman Empire found itself in secret negotiations
with the British Empire, culminating in the Cyprus Convention.
Given their shared interest in pushing back against Russian expansion, the Ottomans had
been hoping for some time now that the Brits could assist them in maintaining their possession
of Cyprus.
As a result, the Ottomans voluntarily agreed to allow the British Empire to occupy and
administer the territory of Cyprus, although the Ottomans would still technically have
ownership of the island at the same time.
Immediately upon taking over command in Cyprus, the British were faced with growing nationalism
from the Greek Cypriots.
These citizens were part of a movement known as enosis, meaning, union.
Unsatisfied with the current status of their homeland, they hoped that the new British
authority would finally help them to unite Cyprus with Greece.
The Brits, however, saw no real benefit to doing so, especially because the island now
served as an important base for their own endeavors.
This, nevertheless, would face even more obstacles with the outbreak of the first world war and
the deteriorating state of the Ottoman Empire.
When the latter joined the Central Powers in 1914, Britain reacted by declaring the
full and complete annexation of the territory…
Two subsequent treaties following the end of the war, the Treaty of Sevres and the Treaty
of Lausanne, confirmed the British ownership of Cyprus.
Now, it was up to the Brits entirely whether they would hand the island over to Greece
or not.
And, predictably, they did not.
However, it wasn’t just the Greek Cypriots that the Brits had to satisfy.
The Turkish Cypriots hadn’t gone anywhere, and now, ethnic tensions were on the rise…
Under British control, the divide between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots widened.
Many of the Greeks on the island had already carried out multiple attempted uprisings against
the British authority over them, and Britain had even offered Cyprus to Greece back in
1915, but Greece refused to join the allied side in World War 1 in order to obtain the
island, thus, it remained under the Brits.
As a result, the chaos only increased as did the enosis movement .The Greek Cypriot Orthodox
Church asked for an enosis referendum from the British.
In a reversal of their earlier willingness to hand the island over to Greece, Britain
flatly denied the request, pushing the church to hold the plebiscite themselves the following
year.
A 95.7% majority voted in favor of union, although the only Cypriots who had been allowed
to vote, were the Greeks.
The vote had no effect on Britain’s stance either as they doubled down on their opposition
to the movement;
Britain was increasingly utilizing Cyprus for strategic military and influential positions
and simply had less and less of a reason to give it up.
And all while this was going on, the Turkish Cypriots were essentially left neglected as
they had no desire to join Greece, yet weren’t particularly fond of the Brits either.
All of this eventually culminated in a new plan for the Brits to hand off responsibility
while, hopefully, staying on good enough terms with both sides to maintain their presence
on the island - and this new plan meant one thing: independence for Cyprus…
On August 16, 1960, Cyprus was granted independence from the British Empire.
Cyprus, Greece, and Turkey all agreed that the island would not join either nation, nor
be partitioned, and it seemed to the Brits that a solution had been found.
This, of course, could not be further from the truth.
Independence was not a fix for many Greek Cypriots.
With the formation of the Republic of Cyprus, and Archbishop Makarios III elected as its
first president, the push for enosis only turned many citizens against their own government
for allowing Cyprus to become independent.
The newly formed pro-union paramilitary group, EOKA-B, took particular umbrage to the decision
and kicked ethnic and anti-government violence up to a new level in response.
This eventually snowballed into a pro-union military coup that successfully ousted Makarios
and replaced him with Nikos Sampson.
Of course, the Turkish Cypriots did not take lightly to this event as they had already
struggled to ensure their rights be respected as is.
Unsettled and eager to bring about a real solution, Rauf Denktas, a Turkish Cypriot
leader, looked to their former authorities in both the United Kingdom and Turkey for
aid.
The Brits were strongly against getting involved once more, but Turkey was quick to offer assistance
in the form of a military invasion…
On July 20, 1974, Turkish troops entered Cyprus.
The justification was that, as an intended Guaranteer of the island, it was their duty
to protect the republic’s sovereignty.
However, shortly after arriving, the Turkish troops pushed from the Northern coast inward
and managed to capture roughly 3% of Cyprus’s territory in a matter of days.
The United Nations Security Council responded by calling for a ceasefire and the adoption
of Resolution 353, but this did close to nothing.
With Greece supporting the Greek Cypriots and Turkey behind the Turks, neither side
was ready to lay down their arms.
Still, the political situation in both Greece and Cyprus was rapidly changing and by July
25, a new first round of peace talks would begin in Geneva, Switzerland.
The talks were intended to result in the withdrawal of Greeks from the Turkish side of the island
and for Turkey to halt its expansion.
This was supposed to be followed by s second round of talks in August, but the follow-up
negotiations ended up proving counterproductive, and on August 14, Turkey relaunched its invasion.
By the end, Cyprus was in turmoil and Turkey was occupying nearly 40% of the republic.
Turkish and Greek Cypriots on either side of the occupation line were now in a difficult
situation and many would be forced to relocate to the other side in order to ensure their
safety and rights.
Turkey had now breached their rights under the Treaty of Guarantee by no longer enforcing
Cyprus’s united, sovereign status and integrity.
Instead, on November 15, 1983, Turkey declared the occupied portion of Cyprus to be the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus, an independent entity from the Republic of Cyprus.
This, predictably, was also condemned by the United Nations and the rest of its members
opposed recognizing this as a legal or real partition.
Nevertheless, 4 decades later, Cyprus remains divided…
So, why isn’t Cyprus part of Greece?
Well, not for a lack of trying.
The Greek Cypriots would have been satisfied with such a union, to say the least.
However, the Turkish Cypriots were not in support of the union.
The British, on the other hand, generally opposed the union aside from the brief backing
of it after the outbreak of World War One.
If Greece and Cyrpus had united, there would have likely been continuous tensions and even
violence with the Turkish minority, and potentially the Brits, who hoped to maintain their military
bases on the island even after granting it independence.
Furthermore, at the time of the Turkish invasion, Greece’s contemporary military junta was
falling apart, and its democratic successor knew that a full-scale war with Turkey would
not bode well.
This kept Greece from doing as Turkey did - simply attempting to take the island by
force.