CYPRUS 1974 REVISITED: WAS IT HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION?

Abstract

The aftermath of the Cold War has been marked by the outbreak ofvarious ethnic conflicts necessitating humanitarian intervention, in such countries as in Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, or Kosovo. These cases have triggered aninternational debate on humanitarian intervention which, in turn, has led tonew attempts of conceptualization. In the light of criteria developed sincethen, in order to determine whether an intervention is of humanitarian order,this paper looks back at the 1974 Turkish intervention in Cyprus and contends that most of the aforementioned criteria are indeed fulfilled by thePeace Operation undertaken on 20 July 1974. The latter can therefore becategorized as a “hybrid” humanitarian intervention, incorporating political as well as humanitarian concerns

Keywords

• Humanitarian, Fundamental Rights, Intervention, Sovereignty, Use of Force, Just War.