What's going on in Cyprus
Written by Ruwan Jinadasa
What’s going on in Cyprus?
And a little backstory
Cyprus, officially called the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country, which has over the years become more and more divided. Cyprus is divided into two main ethnic communities being the Greek Cypriots, and Turkish Cypriots. Currently an important election is taking place, and I thought that it would be cool to have a look at what makes this election so crucial.
The result of Operation Alakii
First, starting with an invasion that changed Cyprus forever. Before July 1974, Varosha, which in the southern quarter of the Cypriot city, Famagusta, was one of the most touristic areas in Cyprus with one of the most popular resorts in Europe. However, soon after this date, Famagusta changed forever. The Turkish army invaded The Republic of Cyprus, known as Operation Attila which resulted in great change.
The inhabitants of Varosha fled as the army approached, though intended on returning once the violence ended. When they fled, they kept most of their possessions behind. A lot of people thought they were leaving for just a few hours, so literally walked out with only the clothes on their back. Many people headed to the capital, Nicosia.
Some families were able to return to grab a few things, however had to leave since it was too dangerous to stay for too long. The fighting in Varosha only lasted 3 days, but the Turkish put up barbed wire separating Northern Cyprus to the South.
After the first invasion in July, Turkish forces had only captured 3% of the island before the ceasefire was initiated. However, in August there was a 2nd Turkish invasion resulting in the capture of approximately 37% of the island. The UN interfered and placed an official ceasefire line, becoming the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus, also referred to as the Green line.
Map of Cyprus
This created a defining division between the Northern and Southern parts of Cyprus, as well as emphasising the pre-existing division between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots. The Turkish invasion resulted in the partition of the island into two political areas, being the Republic of Cyprus inhabited mainly by Greek Cypriots, and Northern Cyprus mainly inhabited by Turkish Cypriots. Around 150,00 people were displaced from the occupied northern part of the island, where the Greek Cypriots were about 80% of the population. As well as roughly 60,000 Turkish Cyrpiots being displaced from the south to the north.
In 1983, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, declared it’s own independence, although Turkey is the only country that recognises it. The international community including the EU, considers the TRNC’s territory as a Turkish-occupied territory but part of the Republic of Cyprus.
After Famagusta came under Turkish control, Varosha was abandoned and declared a buffer zone where no one was allowed. This situation remained like this for 46 years, up until now. Since no resolution was met between the divided Cyprus, Varosha was literally frozen in time, still with a newspaper stand with the year 1974.
Northern Cyprus recently opened the Varosha beachfront, a seeming political move which was met with a lot of criticism. The UN security council has been called to address where this opening is legal under international law. It is reported that around 2000 people had visited Varosha between midday and 5pm on Friday. The beachfront is reported to remain open everyday from 9am to 5pm every Friday.
Former Greek Cypriot residents of Varosha protested on parts of the Green Line last Thursday against this opening.
Why was Cyprus invaded?
The reason for Turkey’s invasion is quite complicated, and probably would require another article on it but there are many explanations available online. Many Greek Cypriots will say that this was nothing but Turkish aggression to try to partition Cyprus from joining Greece, while Turkish Cypriots will say that this was nothing but Turkey wishing to protect their people from the Greek right-wing extremists. Both of these are true and false to an extent. For ages, Cyprus has been a Greek-majority island, and has always been regarded as a ‘Greek’ island by foreign rulers. This identity was enough to create a huge movement called Enosis so that Cyprus can join Greece as a state. However Greek Cypriots were the majority, there were also other minorities such as Armenians (kardashians wbk) and Maronite arabs who had generally assimilated into the Greek Cypriot community. But there were many Turkish Cypriots and they were too historically self-distanced from Greeks to ever assimilate. That was the preface for the Turkish Cypriots to oppose Enosis.
Cyprus used to be a colony of the crown, and this caused quite a lot of violence from extremist groups from both sides. EOKA is a Greek Cypriot nationalist organisation which started a Guerilla War against the British, killing Turkish Cypriots and British alike, who wanted to be separated from the crown and join Greece. With that tension and increased violence, the Turkish Cypriots formed their own militant extremist group being the TMT fighting for a partition from the Greeks, Taksim.
In 1959, the war ended with The Republic of Cyprus being created as a middle solution, for Cypriots to be a free and self-governing country. Neither the Greeks got their Enosis, nor the Turks their Taksim.
Later with more divide between the two groups, with the Greek Cypriot president, Makarios, introducing a plan to weaken Turkish Cypriot influence and slowly achieve Enosis, more violence occurred. Notably, Extremist Greeks had been unhappy with Makarios’ lack of Enosis and lack of cooperation from Turkish Cypriots in government led to a violent outburst: 1963 Bloody Christmas. From 21-31 of December, more than 100 Turkish Cypriots were killed. More violence from both sides followed, this, with a shared amount of atrocities carried out.
Bloody Christmas - 1963
Turkey had always planned to invade the island, but didn’t initially have the resources, but later obviously did in 1974. It’s clear why Turkey invaded, since it was a matter of national pride and protection but also geopolitics. They didn’t want Cyrus to become part of Greece. No side ever had just one motive or just one reason fro what they did. It was a build up of unresolved tension that played a part in this. And with that, no side is innocent with both sides committing horrible atrocities with numerous mass graves. The guilt lies mainly upon the extremists’ shoulders.
Current Politics of Cyprus
Currently there is an election in Cyprus, and this week, the voters in the Turkish—occupied region of Cyprus, North Cyprus. Three quarters of the votes were counted last Sunday, with unofficial results showing Mustafa Akinci and Ersin Tatar in a tight race for the lead, but none in the majority.
Current president, Akinci, who’s left has pledged for the reunification with Greek Cypriots if re-elected. He recently accused the Turkish government of interfering with the polls. Ersin Tatar is a strong right-wing nationalist, has been openly backed by Turkey and has close ties with Rayypi Erdogan, President of Turkey. Tatar orchestrated the opening of the Varosha beachfront, which critics said it was a political stunt intended to improve Tatar’s poll ratings, and Akinci described the move as a strain on democracy.
For Turkish Cypriots who view the ballot as the last chance to stop Northern Cyprus from becoming a ‘province of Turkey’, Akinci’s re-election is so crucial as it will retain Northern Cyrpus’s independent cultural and political identity, under his preferred bi-zonal and bi-communal federation, the north would become part of the Republic of Cyprus.
“Akinci represents the last best chance of reunification talks restarting and getting Turkish Cypriots out of their international isolation”
On the other hand of his opponent’s wish for reconciliation, Tatar sees a two-state solution, wanting to make the TNRC internationally recognised.
There are already strains between Turkey and Greece over the desperate search for gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean, and now with the opening of Varosha will only make everything tenser, if not resolved.
Thank you for reading and feel free to comment/correct me on anything I may have missed!