Ottoman and British rule In 1571 the mostly Greek-populated island of Cyprus was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire, following the
Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573). After 300 years of Ottoman rule the island and its population was leased to Britain by the
Cyprus Convention, an agreement reached during the
Congress of Berlin in 1878 between the
United Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire. On 5 November 1914, in response to the Ottoman Empire's entry into the
First World War on the side of the
Central Powers, the United Kingdom formally declared Cyprus (together with
Egypt and Sudan) a protectorate of the British Empire Article 21 of the treaty gave Turkish nationals ordinarily resident in Cyprus the choice of leaving the island within 2 years or to remain as British subjects. Greek and Turkish Cypriots lived quietly side by side for many years. Formal education was perhaps the most important as it affected Cypriots during childhood and youth; education has been a main vehicle of transferring inter-communal hostility. British colonial policies, such as the known principle of "
divide and rule", promoted ethnic polarisation as a strategy to reduce the threat to colonial control. For example, when
Greek Cypriots rebelled in the 1950s, the
Colonial Office expanded the size of the
Auxiliary Police and in September 1955, established the Special Mobile Reserve which was made up exclusively of
Turkish Cypriots, to combat
EOKA.
1950s In the early 1950s, a Greek nationalist group was formed called the
Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston (
EOKA, or "National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters"). Their objective was to break free from the British first, and then to integrate the island with Greece. EOKA wished to remove all obstacles from their path to independence, or union with Greece. The first secret talks for EOKA, as a
nationalist organisation established to integrate the island with Greece, were started under the chairmanship of Archbishop
Makarios III in
Athens on 2 July 1952. In the aftermath of these meetings a "Council of Revolution" was established on 7 March 1953. In early 1954 secret weaponry shipments to Cyprus started with the knowledge of the
Greek government. Lt.
Georgios Grivas "Digenis", formerly an officer in the Greek army, covertly disembarked on the island on 9 November 1954 and EOKA's campaign against the British forces began to grow. The first Turk to be killed by EOKA on 21 June 1955 was a policeman. EOKA also killed Greek Cypriot leftist members of the KKK (Cyprus Communist Party). After the September 1955
Istanbul Pogrom, EOKA started its activity against Turkish Cypriots. A year later EOKA revived its attempts to achieve the union of Cyprus with Greece. Turkish Cypriots were recruited into the police by the British forces to fight against Greek Cypriots, but EOKA initially did not want to open up a second front against Turkish Cypriots. However, in January 1957, EOKA forces began targeting and killing Turkish Cypriot police deliberately to provoke Turkish Cypriot riots in
Nicosia, which diverted the British army's attention away from their positions in the mountains. In the riots, at least one Greek Cypriot was killed, which was presented by the Greek Cypriot leadership as an act of Turkish aggression. The
Turkish Resistance Organisation (TMT,
Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı) was formed initially as a local initiative to prevent the union with Greece which was viewed by Turkish Cypriots as an existential threat due to the exodus of
Cretan Turks from
Crete once the union with Greece was achieved. It was later supported and organised directly by the Turkish government, and the TMT declared war on the Greek Cypriot rebels as well. On 12 June 1958, eight Greek Cypriot men from
Kondemenos village, who were arrested by the British police as part of an armed group suspected of preparing an attack against the Turkish Cypriot quarter of
Skylloura, were killed by the TMT near the Turkish Cypriot populated village of
Gönyeli, after being dropped off there by the British authorities. TMT also blew up the offices of the Turkish press office in Nicosia in a false flag operation to attach blame to Greek Cypriots. It also began a string of assassinations of prominent Turkish Cypriot supporters of independence.
1960–1963 British rule lasted until the middle of August 1960, when the island was declared an independent state on the basis of the
London and Zürich Agreements of the previous year. The 1960 Constitution of the Cyprus Republic proved unworkable, however, lasting only three years. Greek Cypriots wanted to end the separate Turkish Cypriot municipal councils permitted by the British in 1958, made subject to review under the 1960 agreements. For many Greek Cypriots these municipalities were the first stage on the way to the partition they feared. The Greek Cypriots wanted
enosis, integration with Greece, while Turkish Cypriots wanted
taksim, partition between Greece and Turkey. Resentment also rose within the Greek Cypriot community because Turkish Cypriots had been given a larger share of governmental posts than the size of their population warranted. In accordance with the constitution 30% of civil service jobs were allocated to the Turkish community despite being only 18.3% of the population. Additionally, the position of vice president was reserved for the Turkish population, and both the president and vice president were given veto power over crucial issues.
1963–1974 In December 1963, the
President of the Republic Makarios proposed
thirteen constitutional amendments after the government was blocked by Turkish Cypriot legislators. Frustrated by these impasses and believing that the constitution prevented enosis, the Greek Cypriot leadership believed that the rights given to Turkish Cypriots under the 1960 constitution were too extensive and had designed the
Akritas plan, which was aimed at reforming the constitution in favour of Greek Cypriots, persuading the international community about the correctness of the changes and violently subjugating Turkish Cypriots in a few days should they not accept the plan. The amendments would have involved the Turkish community giving up many of their protections as a minority, including adjusting ethnic quotas in the government and revoking the presidential and vice-presidential veto power. 700 Turkish residents of northern Nicosia, among them women and children, were taken hostage. The violence resulted in the death of 364 Turkish and 174 Greek Cypriots, destruction of 109 Turkish Cypriot or mixed villages and displacement of 25,000–30,000 Turkish Cypriots. The British
Daily Telegraph later called it an "anti Turkish
pogrom". A doomed truce was declared on 26 December 1963 and a British peacekeeping despatched to oversee it. In January 1964, negotiations were hosted by the British in London but their failure to make headway, and two vetoes thereafter by Makarios of a suggested NATO or NATO-dominated peacekeeping force, meant matters were turned over to the United Nations. After intense debate, UN Security Council
Resolution 186, unanimously adopted on 4 March, recommended the creation of a UN peacekeeping force (
United Nations Force in Cyprus, UNFICYP) and the designation of a UN mediator. Violence by the militias of both sides had continued, and Turkey made several threats to invade. Indeed, Ankara had decided to do so when, in his famous letter of 5 June 1964, President Johnson of the United States warned that his country was against an invasion, making a veiled threat that NATO would not aid Turkey if its invasion of Cyprus led to a conflict with the
Soviet Union. More generally, although Resolution 186 had asked all countries to avoid interfering in Cypriot affairs, the United States disregarded this and, through persistent machinations, managed to overcome manoeuvring by Makarios and protests by the Soviet Union to intimately involve itself in negotiations in the form of presidential envoy Dean Acheson. UN-mediated talks – invidiously assisted by Acheson, boycotted by Makarios because he correctly apprehended that the American goal was to terminate Cyprus' independence – began in July in Geneva. Acheson dominated proceedings and, by the end of the month, the "Acheson Plan" had become the basis for all future negotiations. The crisis resulted in the end of the Turkish Cypriot involvement in the administration and their claiming that it had lost its legitimacy. They started living in
enclaves in different areas that were blockaded by the National Guard and were directly supported by Turkey. The republic's structure was changed unilaterally by Makarios and Nicosia was divided by the
Green Line, with the deployment of
UNFICYP troops. Fighting broke out again in 1967, as the Turkish Cypriots pushed for more freedom of movement. Once again, the situation was not settled until Turkey threatened to invade on the basis that it would be protecting the Turkish population from ethnic cleansing by Greek Cypriot forces. To avoid that, a compromise was reached for Greece to be forced to remove some of its troops from the island; for
Georgios Grivas, EOKA leader, to be forced to leave Cyprus and for the Cypriot government to lift some restrictions of movement and access to supplies of the Turkish populations. ==Cypriot military coup and Turkish invasion==