History of Cyprus since colonial times
Main article: History of Cyprus
Starting position
From 1570 to 1878 Cyprus was part of the Ottoman Empire . In 1878 Great Britain took over Cyprus as a protectorate as a result of the Cyprus Convention , as the Ottoman Empire had granted the British power over the island in return for their support in the Russo-Turkish War . Although not mentioned in the agreement, the British power in Cyprus also acted in its own interests in the Suez Canal . The first British High Commissioner was Lieutenant General Sir Garnet Joseph Wolseley (1833-1913).
The Greek Cypriots who initially welcomed British rule and hoped for prosperity, democracy and national liberation were soon disillusioned. The British imposed heavy taxes on them in return for the large payments they had to make to the Sultan for the surrender of Cyprus. In addition, the people were deprived of all rights to participate in government over the island, since the High Commissioner and London claimed all power.
A few years later the system was reformed, some members of the legislative council were probably elected by the Cypriots, in fact their participation was very limited.
The British faced two political challenges on the island. The first concerned the desire of part of the population to join Greece ( Enosis ). The second concerned the resulting problem of keeping the two ethnic communities in a harmonious balance when the Cypriot Turks began to respond to the enosis with calls for separation ( Taksim ) as a defense against the threat of Hellenization. The Cypriot Greeks could point out that they had played an essential role in the island's history; their number ranged from three quarters to four fifths of the island's population.
In 1914 Cyprus' status as a protectorate of the British Empire ended when the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Entente , of which Great Britain was a member. Cyprus was annexed by the British on November 2nd . During the First World War , Great Britain offered Greece the cession of Cyprus, provided it entered the First World War on the side of the Entente and attacked Bulgaria in fulfillment of contractual obligations , which Greece refused.
The First World War was followed by the Greco-Turkish War of 1921/22 (also known as the Turkish War of Independence), which ended with the Treaty of Lausanne . In it the provisional Turkish government ( Turkey was founded within the limits of this treaty in 1923) waived all claims on Cyprus (Art. 20). As a result of this treaty, Great Britain declared Cyprus a crown colony in 1925 .
In the following years the Greek Cypriots sought an expansion of their constitutional freedoms with the main goal of enosis, the annexation to Greece, against the resistance of the British and Cypriot-Turkish leaders.
The demand of the Greek Cypriots for the enosis spread rapidly since the 1930s, a crucial point being the Greek Cypriot riots of 1931 and the arson attack on the government building in Nicosia . The British efforts to introduce a constitutional form of government to develop a certain degree of participation under the exclusion of enosis failed.
Between October 1931 and October 1940 lay a very difficult period for the Greek Cypriots. The governor Sir Richmond Palmer (1877-1958) issued numerous measures, including restrictions on the government, the work of Greek schools, the ban on trade unions and associations of all kinds. This injustice regime was named after the governor "Palmerokratia". His aim was to push back demands for Enosis. This sparked violent protests. The measures were not lifted until the beginning of World War II , when over thirty thousand Cypriots served in the British Army.
After the war, a delegation from Cyprus submitted their request for the enosis in London. This demand was rejected, but the British proposed a more liberal constitution and a ten-year program of social and economic development.
In the 1950s, the Greek Cypriot demand for enosis was repeated with renewed urgency under Archbishop Makarios when Greece gained international support. This attempt to gain the support of the world public alarmed Turkey and the Cypriot Turks .
A terrorist uprising against the colonial power was organized by the EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston). Colonel Georgios Grivas organized and directed the uprising. While the Greek Cypriot sympathizers had a comparatively easy game, as they had a good overview of various service areas, the British security forces under Field Marshal Sir John Harding had to make considerable efforts to contain terrorism. Although they sometimes proceeded with great brutality, they were not able to completely defeat terrorism. Makarios was deported as he was suspected of being involved in the EOKA uprising, but was released when the EOKA, exhausted but still fit for action, agreed to end the hostilities with the release and return of the archbishop.
In April 1957 under new conditions - evidently due to the Suez Crisis - the British government modified its concept of military bases in Cyprus instead of Cyprus as a military base . This produced a more relaxed British attitude to the conflict. This should now be resolved in connection with Greece and Turkey , the latter were highly alarmed about the threats for the Turkish community from the enosis. There were new outbreaks of violence, sparked by the EOKA, and these spread increasingly in the Turkish community as the plan of the new governor Sir Hugh Foot (for a unified self-government) sparked unrest among the Cypriot Turks and resulted in a hostile response from the Turkish government would have. Violence between the two communities became a new and deadly hallmark of the situation.
In the years before the Zurich and London Agreements (1959/1960), Greece sought again in vain for international recognition and support for the “sovereignty of Cyprus” in the UN in the face of renewed and ongoing anti-British violence by the EOKA. Eventually Greece agreed that Turkey would become a party to negotiations on the future of Cyprus.
Also Grivas and EOKA had to accept the new situation. Makarios saw no possibility of excluding Turkey from participating in a solution. The Cypriot Greeks continued to believe that Britain had sponsored the Cypriot Turks to prevent enosis.
Proposed affiliation with Greece
In 1948 King Paul of Greece declared that Cyprus wanted an annexation to Greece. In 1951 the Orthodox Church of Cyprus held a referendum that around 97% of the Greek Cypriot population wanted the connection. The UN accepted the Greek petition and the enosis became an international concern. In 1952 both Greece and Turkey became members of NATO .
In 1955 the EOKA (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters) was founded, a guerrilla group under the leadership of Georgios Grivas , an officer from Cyprus . For the next four years, EOKA mainly launched attacks on British or British-related targets. Great Britain often reacted with the same brutality and threatened to obey Turkish interests. Britain tried - to a certain extent, with success - to repeat what it had done in India and other colonies: to divide the people by religion so that it could more easily rule the colonies. According to some authors, this is a generally practiced principle of British colonial policy: an overemphasis on ethnic differences leads to a decrease in national self-confidence. Archbishop Makarios , the Cypriot clergy and the political leaders were in exile in the Seychelles . Since mid-1956 discussions took place within the framework of NATO, but all efforts to create an independent Cyprus as a Commonwealth member failed.
In 1957 the UN decided that the problem should be solved according to a Statutory Map . The exiles returned and both sides launched numerous acts of violence against each other.
In 1958, the British Prime Minister Harold MacMillan made new proposals for Cyprus, but his plan to partition the island was rejected by Archbishop Makarios. He stated that he would only accept a proposal that guaranteed independence exclusively with both the enosis and the division. On February 19, 1959, the Zurich Agreement sought to end the conflict. Excluding the Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Great Britain, Greece and Turkey outlined a Cypriot constitution, which was eventually signed by both sides. Both Greece and Turkey, along with Great Britain, have been appointed guarantor powers of the island's integrity.
Important points of the Zurich Agreement were:
- Cyprus becomes an independent state.
- Taksim and Enosis are banned.
- Greek and Turkish troops are permanently stationed on Cyprus at a ratio of approximately 3: 2. Both troops are responsible to the three foreign ministers of Greece, Turkey and Cyprus.
- The President is a Greek Cypriot elected by the Greek Cypriot population; the Vice-President of Turkish Cypriots, elected by the Turkish Cypriot population.
- The cabinet consists of seven Cypriot Greeks, elected by the President and three Cypriot Turks, elected by the Vice-President.
- Decisions require an absolute majority, but the President and Vice-President have the veto power.
- Great Britain remains guarantor and retains two military bases: Akrotiri and Dhekelia .
independence
On August 16, 1960, Cyprus gained its independence from the United Kingdom after an anti-British uprising by the Cyprus-Greek EOKA (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters), a guerrilla group that called for political affiliation with Greece or the Enosis . In Archbishop Makarios, a charismatic, religious and political leader was elected as the first president of independent Cyprus. In 1961 Cyprus became the 99th member of the UN.
However, the Zurich Agreement was unable to bring about cooperation between the Greek and Cypriot-Turkish population. The Greek Cypriots argued that the complex provisions to protect Turkish Cypriot interests hampered effective government. Both sides continued the violent actions. Turkey threatened to invade the island.
In November 1963, President Makarios proposed a number of constitutional amendments to remove some of these specific provisions. These changes were opposed by the Cypriot Turks, which sparked widespread confrontation at the local level and led to armed conflict in December 1963 after the Cypriot Turks ended their participation in the central government. Makarios ordered a ceasefire and brought the matter back to the UN. In 1964 UN peacekeepers were stationed on the island. In the same year the Turkish parliament decided to invade Cyprus, but this was prevented by a lack of support from the UN and NATO. As a result, Grivas was recalled to Athens and the Greek troops left the island.
After another outbreak of violence at the local level in 1967-68, a Turkish Cypriot Provisional Government was formed.
Greek coup and Turkish invasion
In July 1974 there was a coup by the Cypriot National Guard , who sought to seize power and unite the island with Greece . This was followed by a military invasion on July 20 by the guaranteeing power Turkey in fulfillment of the international guarantee treaty (Art. IV). The Athenian junta , which had logistically and materially supported the coup led by extremist Cyprus Greeks, who were hostile to Makarios because of alleged pro- communist inclinations and a move away from the Enosis, and as a result, the puppet regime in Cyprus also overthrew only days later . The democratic government of Cyprus could now return.
Now, under the government of Bülent Ecevit , the Turkish military ordered the invasion to be extended on August 14, 1974, and by August 16, 1974, the Turkish troops had taken control of the north of the island. Although the area made up only 37% of the national territory of the Republic of Cyprus , 70% of all economic activities were generated there: 66% of all tourist facilities, 80% of all citrus trees, the island's trading port in Famagusta, etc. 162,000 Greek Cypriots, which made up 79% of the island's population with a total of 506,000 inhabitants, were expelled from the now occupied part of Cyprus or fled during the invasion, a small minority remained on the Karpas peninsula ( Rizokarpaso ), as did Arabic-speaking Maronites . Then around 48,000 Turkish Cypriots, who at that time made up around 19% of the island's population with a total of 118,000 inhabitants, had to leave the south of the island and were resettled to the occupied area by the UN and British SBA authorities (also against their will). Your land ownership has been registered to facilitate return on return. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, 120,000 Greek and 65,000 Turkish Cypriots were affected by the resettlement.
Since then, the southern part of the country has represented the entire unified Cyprus, as if the island were still in the state it was in the first years after independence in 1960 and is recognized as such a representative internationally (with the exception of Turkey). The northern part withdrew and in 1975 proclaimed the Turkish federal state of Cyprus .
On November 15, 1983, the parliament of the Turkish Federal State of Cyprus proclaimed independence , citing the right of peoples to self-determination . On November 18, 1983, the United Nations Security Council declared the Declaration of Independence to be legally invalid, by 13 votes against Pakistan and with Jordan abstaining , as it was incompatible with the Treaty establishing the Republic of Cyprus and the related Guarantee Treaty ( resolution 541 ). Another resolution ( Resolution 550 ) on non-recognition was passed on May 13, 1984, against the vote of Pakistan and with the United States abstaining . Only Turkey accepted the peoples' right to self-determination as the legal basis for the declaration of independence, while the states of the Security Council rejected this mainly for reasons of international law, but also as a violation of the Cyprus resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations . The non-aligned saw the declaration of independence as a violation of their own declarations, further concerns related to the fear for world peace. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus has only been recognized by Turkey to this day , has been rejected internationally in favor of the desire for a unified Cyprus and is isolated by an international embargo .
The UN peacekeeping forces guarded a buffer zone between the two sides. Since 1974, apart from occasional demonstrations or minor incidents between soldiers in the buffer zone, there have been no significant conflicts until tension escalated in August 1996 when the Greek Cypriots and mainland Greeks tried to break through the border. When the Cypriot Greek Solomos Solomou climbed a flagpole to remove the flag of Turkey , he was shot by Turkish soldiers.
In December 1999, the UN-led talks on the status of Cyprus resumed in order to prepare the ground for further mediation towards a full solution. Efforts to reunite the island into a confederation , however, continue under UN surveillance.
When Cyprus planned to join the EU in May 2004, the island's status was negotiated again. In December 2003 the borders between the two parts of Cyprus were partially opened, numerous Cypriots visited the opposite side, and labor migration of the Cypriot Turks to the south (especially towards Nicosia / Lefkoşa) began. In April 2004, both communities held a referendum on the Annan Plan , which was aimed at reunification based on the UN proposal. The plan was rejected by the Cypriot Greeks, while the Cypriot Turks agreed; however, the consent of both sides was required for a successful execution.
On March 9, 2007, there were renewed signs of a rapprochement from among the political leaders in Cyprus. At the instigation of the Greek Cypriot government, which wanted to use it to send a “sign of goodwill” , part of the border fortification in the old town of Nicosia was torn down. The European Commission welcomed this step and encouraged the Turkish side to accept the symbolic gesture.
See also
literature
History, general
- CD Cobham: Excerpta Cypria, Materials for a History of Cyprus . Cambridge 1908. Nice Collection of Written Sources.
- D. Hunt: Footprints in Cyprus . Trigraph, London 1990.
History, 20th century
- C. Spyridiakis: The Education Policy of the English Government in Cyprus (1878-1954) .
- C. Spyridiakis: Brief History of Cyprus .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Heinz A. Richter: Historical Background of the Cyprus Conflict. In: From Politics and Contemporary History . Issue 12, 2009, p. 7 ( online and PDF ).
- ^ The Middle East and North Africa. 2003, p. 255.
- ↑ Ronald Wellenreuther: Career and background of the Cypriot ethnic group discussions between 1974 and 1993. In: Zeitschrift für Türkeistudien . 7th year, issue 1, 1994, p. 118; Ilse Dorothee Pautsch (Ed.): Files on the Foreign Policy of the Federal Republic of Germany 1975. Volume 1. R. Oldenbourg, Munich 2006, pp. 1855 f .; Ayla Gürel: Property and Population Issues in Divided Cyprus. In: From Politics and Contemporary History . Issue 12, 2009, p. 14 ( online and PDF ).
- ↑ Kıbrıs Tarihçe ( Memento of the original from February 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (“History of Cyprus”) on the website of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Turkish).
- ^ Stefan Talmon : Collective non-recognition of illegal states. Basics and legal consequences of an internationally coordinated sanction, illustrated using the example of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (= Jus publicum. Volume 154). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, pp. 45-48.
- ^ Stefan Talmon: Collective non-recognition of illegal states. Basics and legal consequences of an internationally coordinated sanction, illustrated using the example of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (= Jus publicum. Volume 154). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, p. 48 f .; Egbert Jahn : Political Issues. Volume 3: International Politics. VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2011, p. 108 f.
- ^ Stefan Talmon: Collective non-recognition of illegal states. Basics and legal consequences of an internationally coordinated sanction, illustrated using the example of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (= Jus publicum. Volume 154). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, p. 49 f.
- ^ Stefan Talmon: Collective non-recognition of illegal states. Basics and legal consequences of an internationally coordinated sanction, illustrated using the example of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (= Jus publicum. Volume 154). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, p. 50 f.
- ^ Stefan Talmon: Collective non-recognition of illegal states. Basics and legal consequences of an internationally coordinated sanction, illustrated using the example of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (= Jus publicum. Volume 154). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2006, pp. 53-57.
- ↑ [1] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , DER TAGESSPIEGEL online, March 9, 2007
