CYPRUS: A NEW AND REALISTIC APPROACH

Year 1999, Volume: 4 Issue: 3, - , 01.09.1999

M Ergün Olgun

Abstract

The latest phase of the conflict started in the early 1950s with the Greeks of Cyprus demanding union with Greece enosis . The Turks of Cyprus responded to this first by demanding the union of the island with Turkey and later by demanding the partitioning of the Island taksim between Turkey and Greece. This was because the Greeks and Turks of Cyprus saw themselves, respectively, as parts of the Hellenic and Turkish nations.2 Since the Greeks of Cyprus simply identified themselves as Greeks and the Turks of Cyprus as merely Turks, one could hardly talk of a distinct Greek Cypriot identity and, similarly, a distinct Turkish Cypriot identity until the establishment of the 1960 Republic of Cyprus. The two peoples established the 1960 bi-communal Republic through negotiation, thanks to the facilitation and active encouragement of Turkey, Greece and Britain—all acting together because of the need for NATO solidarity at the height of the Cold War. They thus agreed to rule out both enosis and taksim, and instead supported as a compromise, the establishment of a partnership constituted of the two national communities and to be guaranteed by the two mother countries and by Britain. Although restricted union with any other country and partition between Turkey and Greece were both ruled out , it was the 1959/1960 Agreement that facilitated independence from Britain and that gave international legal personality to the Greek Cypriot community and the Turkish Cypriot community both were signatories to the Agreement as two distinct and equal constituent peoples. This provided a golden opportunity for the two peoples to prosper in partnership and to act as a bridge between motherlands Greece and Turkey