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Justin Wear

Mr. Campbell

UWRT 1104

November 6 2018

The United Nations: UNimpressive in Cyprus

The United Nations has tackled many conflicts and potential conflicts throughout the

world since its founding in 1945. However, there is one conflict that the United Nations has been

seeking to end for over 40 years and and that is the conflict on the Island of Cyprus. This island,

located in the eastern Mediterranean south of Turkey, has been divided by a United Nations run

buffer zone that bisects the island between a majority Greek side and a majority Turkish side.

For 54 years The United Nations has had a presence on the island to try to calm tensions between

the 2 ethnic groups involved. However, it should be said that tensions have been on the island for

a long time between these two groups ever since the British were given full control over the

island by the Ottoman empire after World War I. Therefore, there is a lot of background that

needs to be covered in order to know why the current situation that started in 1964 and continues

today ever started with the ineffectiveness of the United Nation mission on the island becoming

apparent.

For centuries before this all started Greeks had been living on the island of Cyprus and

had kept their Greek identity intact over the centuries and maintained deep relations with the

homeland. However, following a conquest of the island by the Ottomans, many Turks came over

to the island which led to some of the Greeks to convert to Islam to gain social status making

them art of the Turkish community instead of the Greek. As can be expected the Greeks did not
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take to kindly to this group and shift in power. Over the centuries of Ottoman rule tensions

decreased as the two communities learned how to live together. This is not saying that the

feelings were warm between them more that they realized that this was the situation both groups

were stuck with.

This all changed when the British took control of the island from a series of treaties with

the Ottomans that put the island under the British as a protectorate. This, however, changed when

the Ottomans joined the Central Powers in World War I causing the UK to fully annex the island.

This was celebrated greatly by the Greek majority of the island who saw Western European

control as a chance to unite with the nation of Greece, a movement called Enosis​. This panicked

many of the Turkish Cypriots for they believed if Enosis happened that they would lose many of

their rights. However, to the relief to the Turkish community the British declared that they had

no desire to relinquish control over the island meaning that the status quo would remain. This led

to a souring in relations between the Greek Cypriots and British and frequent protests against

British control. These feelings maintained until World War II where the Greek Cypriots thought

showing their loyalty to them would increase their chances of becoming one with Greece. Again,

their requests were rejected by the British causing further violence against them. However, with

the United Nations’ decolonization policy, the UK started to relent and tried to give the Cypriots

some autonomy and tried to set up a fair system of government for both groups with both groups

often rejecting the proposals for either not going far enough or going too far to one side.

At one point the Greek Cypriots became so frustrated with the slow movement toward

joining Greece that they created a terrorist group called the EOKA which at first solely targeted

the British in order to make them leave. This can be seen by pamphlets given to the Turks
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explaining that the EOKA was not against them. Even with that reassurance though the Turks

often sided with the British for they saw British rule better than any version Greek rule. Finally a

deal neither side liked was made where the UK, Greece, and Turkey would share joint control

over a new government to be established with a split giving both Turks and Greeks equal power.

This again pleased neither side but were forced to accept it since Greece, Turkey, and the UK all

had agreed to it. However, one condition in the treaty stated that if one group took too much

control that one of the signatories could invade to bring it back to status quo. This would later

lead to the country’s unity’s demise.

As the young country took form many Greek Cypriots saw flaws I the government that

slowed down legislation and drafted up several amendments in order to make the government

more efficient. These amendments though would be rejected by Turkey for stripping away too

much power from the Turkish Cypriots. This rejection led to violence between the 2 groups so

much so that a joint force of British, Greek, and Turkish troops arrived to keep the peace. This

mission failed because of lack of enthusiasm in the Greek and Turkish soldiers. At the same time

many Turkish Cypriots were kicked out of their post or left leaving the government completely

in the hands of the Greeks. So, in order to have a larger force on the island to calm things down

the United Nations got involved passing Resolution 186 establishing the United Nation Force in

Cyprus (UNFICYP).

This resolution is still a factor in the situation today because it recognized the government

of Cyprus which only had Greek Cypriots in it as the official government of Cyprus, leading

many Turks to resent the UN stating that a government without them is illegal. For the next ten

years the communities clashed occasionally while peace talks about what should happen to the
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Island continued with the United Nations not finding any middle ground between the 2 sides. Yet

in the early seventies the 2 sides were close to agreement with the Greeks giving up on joining

Greece and giving the Turks some minority rights while the Turks would accept the current

government of the island. These compromises were all abandoned in 1974 when a far-right

military coup overthrow the compromising government leading to a break downbreakdown in

relations. The situation went from bad to worse as Turkey saw this as an opportunity to invade

the island causing chaos.