Nato Topic 2

NATO
Topic II: The Cyprus Dispute

Key Events and Dates

1200 BCE: Beginnings of ethnic Greek Settlement on Cyprus.

1571-1878: Cyprus ruled by the Ottoman Turkish settlement.

1878-1960: British administration, then colonial rule, of Cyprus.

1955-1960: Intense Greek Cypriot agitation for union with Greece.

1960: Cyprus achieves independence. Shared powers under constitution.1963-1964: Severe intercommunal violence. Turkish Cypriots gather in enclaves.

1964: Deployment of U.N. peacekeeping force (UNFICYP).

1974: Greek-instigated coup against Makarios. Turkish military intervention leads to de facto division of the island; population shift. UNFICYP redeployed to buffer zone.

1977: Resumption of intercommunal negotiations designed to re-establish commongovernmental institutions and resolve territorial and property issues.

1977 to present: Intermittent intercommunal negotiations, with major U.N.-sponsored initiatives in 1981, 1985, 1988-90 and 2002-04.

1996: Violent clashes at the demarcation line leave 2 dead and 41 injured.

2003: Lifting of restrictions on movement across the demarcation line. Millions of visits both ways in succeeding years.2004: Cyprus joins the European Union.

2008: Resumption of Intercommunal Negotiations.

2010: Nationalist candidate Dervis Eroglu elected “TRNC President,” decreasing prospects for a solution.

Key Terms and Acronym Guide

Enosis – Union of Cyprus with Greece

Taksim – Separation of Cyprus between the Greek south and the Turkish north

Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) – The looseorganization of 118 developing countries
EOKA – A paramilitary organization (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston or National Organization of Cypriot Fighters) that campaigned against the British

UNFICYP – The United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus

“TRNC” – The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the name of the independent state declared by the Turkish Cypriot administrationIntercommunal – Between communities

The island of Cyprus is situated in the eastern Mediterranean Sea roughly 64 km from the southern coast of Turkey. Ever since 1974, the island has been under constant dispute, since it has been divided de facto into two parts: the southern two-thirds are inhabited almost exclusively by Greek Cypriots, and the northern one-third almost exclusively by Turkish Cypriots. Intheory, the internationally-recognized Government of Cyprus controls the entire country, but in practice it is only the southern two-thirds, which administers and represents the Greek Cypriot population of the island. There is however, a separate Turkish administration in the north.

People of Greek ethnic origin began settling on the island in substantial numbers around 1200 BCE. Aftercenturies of Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Frankish, and Venetian rule, Cyprus was conquered by the Ottoman Turkish Empire in 1571. During this period, people of ethnic Turkish origin began to settle on the island. In 1878, Turkey ceded administrative control of Cyprus to Great Britain. Great Britain formally declared it a colony in 1925.

In the 1930’s the Greek population ofCyprus began to want freedom from Great Britain and union with Greece. This feeling died down during WWII, when Cyprus actively supported the Allied cause, but was later revived in the early 1950’s. A paramilitary organization known as EOKA undertook a full-fledged guerrilla campaign against the British authorities. EOKA would build a small dedicated organization, which acquired much or itsfinancing and weaponry from sources in Greece. The British would declare a state of emergency and took severe countermeasures: strikes were declared illegal; the death penalty was instituted for carrying weapons and many more. Increased violence between the two ethnic communities began in 1958, and the Turkish Cypriots formed their own paramilitary organization, the TMT (Turk Merkavement Teskilati or...