Cyprus and International Peacemaking 1964-1986 by Farid Mirbagheri

Author:Farid Mirbagheri [Mirbagheri, Farid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781136677526
Google: Znp9AwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-05-01T07:59:46+00:00

The Turkish Cypriot attitude towards international peacemaking in Cyprus, July 1974–1980

Meanwhile the attitude towards peacemaking of the Turkish Cypriots, with the might of the Turkish army behind them, hardened dramatically. In the aftermath of the invasion, Turkish Cypriot politics were influenced more by Turkey than by Rauf Denktash, who in February 1973 had succeeded Fazil Küchük as the president of the executive committee of the provisional Turkish Cypriot administration, so becoming the new Turkish Cypriot leader. In June 1976, fifteen months after the unilateral declaration of the ‘Turkish Federated State of Cyprus’ (TFSC) by the Turkish Cypriots, Denktash was formally elected as the leader of his community. However, the main reason for his dominance over Turkish Cypriot affairs was his close ties with Turkey and the fact that he did not deviate from the guidelines set by the mother-country. Turkish pressure on him to accept the return of Makarios to Cyprus in 1974,51 not to declare an independent state,52 and to keep the term ‘federated’ in ‘TFSC’53 was completely effective. The extent of Turkey’s influence on Denktash has been described by James Callaghan when recalling the second round of the Geneva conference in 1974, which he attended as British foreign secretary: ‘[He] was not a free agent, and confessed to me that in the last resort he was obliged to obey his masters on the Turkish mainland.’54 In fact Denktash, unlike Makarios, was prepared to accept a solution worked out by the two mother-countries.55 This is not to suggest that he had no say at all in the affairs of his community; for example, he retained his constitutional adviser, Soysal, despite Turkey’s desire to remove him.56 However, the outline of Turkish Cypriot policy, if not actually dictated by Turkey, required its blessing.

Denktash was basically a hardliner for whom the problem was a basic question of security arising from the continued fear of Enosis.57This was still, in the eyes of the Turkish Cypriot leaders, the root of all evil and the reason for the Greek-staged coup in Cyprus in 1974:58the Turkish ‘peace operation’, as they prefer to call the invasion, was necessary to prevent the realisation of Enosis. For Denktash the events of 1974 were a clear manifestation of the failure of the 1960 constitution to serve the interests of his community.59

The Greek-staged coup in 1974 was proof to the Turkish Cypriots that without the protection of a new structure their lives and security would always be at the mercy of the Greek Cypriots. ‘Federation’ was the foundation on which Denktash wanted to base a settlement, and his commitment to this principle was embodied in a statement he issued on 13 February 1975, when the TFSC was unilaterally declared by the Turkish Cypriots. In it he announced the final objective of the TFSC to be ‘to unite with the Greek Cypriot community within the framework of a bi-zonal federation’.60 He also declared his commitment to the independence and non-alignment of Cyprus and stated his opposition to either the union or the partition of the island.

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