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| British
Rule in Cyprus (1878-1960) |
| Introduction |
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British
flag raised in Nicosia ... and administration of Cyprus
passes from Ottomans to the British
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In 1878 the
West returned when Britain took over Cyprus with the agreement
of the Ottoman government. At first protectorate, the island was
annexed by Britain on the outbreak of war with the Ottoman
Empire in 1914, becoming a Crown Colony in 1925. One of the
reasons for occupying Cyprus was to protect the Ottoman Sultan
against Russia, but its more obvious, if unmentioned role, was
defence of the Suez Canal, in which Britain had acquired an
interest.
Once Britain
was established in Egypt, however, Cyprus was destined to
continue remain a backwater and at best a reserve place d'armes
until acquiring a greater degree of strategic importance in more
recent years. At
the time of its cession to Britain many doubted its value. This
was especially so among those of liberal and philhellenic
disposition in Britain, the latter seeing the main value of the
acquisition lying in the possibility of handing it over to
Greece. Others noted that it did not have harbours suitable for
the navy. This doubt about its usefulness discouraged the
British from making exceptional efforts to develop the island
economically.
Also Britain in
the early years paid an annual surplus of revenue over
expenditure to the Sultan, at least in theory. In fact it went
to pay off European creditors of the Ottoman debt, a sleight of
hand not to the liking of Cypriots. After 1914 matters improved;
it has persuasively been argued that the British administrative
record was more beneficial than many Cypriots and others assume.
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| Managing
fine balance between two communities |
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British faced two major political problems on the island. The
first was to contain the desire for union with Greece (enosis),
after it became clear to the Greek-Cypriots that it was not
going to be granted. The second was the consequential problem of
keeping the two communities in harmony once the Turkish-Cypriots
began to respond to enosis by calling for partition as a defence
against their being Hellenised, as they saw it. The
Greek-Cypriots could easily claim that they had a strong case in
history (if the distant past is to be arbitrer of the present)
and they constituted between three quarters and three fifths of
the population. During the First World War Britain actually
offered to cede Cyprus to Greece if that country would fulfill
treaty obligations to attack Bulgaria, but Greece declined.
The
Turkish-Cypriots were at first more anti-British than
anti-Greek. They were deeply offended at a high-handed way the
Cyprus government after the First World War abolished, or
assumed control over, Turkish Islamic institutions, including
the pious foundations (Evkaf), schools and courts.
Turkish-Cypriot resentment was also soon to be fired by the new
nationalism of Atatürk's Turkey, even though Ataturk did not
believe in promoting nationalism outside Turkey's post-war
borders. This new Turkish nationalism alarmed the British, who
clamped down on Turkish-Cypriot agitation, which occurred
especially in the schools. By the 1950s, however, the British
had begun to pay some attention to the dissatisfaction of the
Turkish-Cypriot community, which by this time had formed the
KATAK - Kibris Adasi Türk Azinligi Kurumu (Association of the Turkish
Minority of the Island of Cyprus).
The first
[nationalist] newspaper had appeared in 1940, but was relaunched
as Halkin Sesi (The Voice of the People) by the first prominent
Turkish-Cypriot leader Dr. Fazil Küçük. (Still in
circulation, the newspaper is a monument to his memory.) He also
later formed the Kibris Türk Milli Birlik Partisi (The Cyprus
Turkish National Unity Party), later changed, in 1955, as a
challenge to enosis, to Kibris Türktür Partisi (`Cyprus is
Turkish' Party). In the 1950s the Turkish-Cypriots sought to
defend themselves against the Greek-Cypriot terrorist
organisation EOKA by forming the Turk Mukavemet Teskilati
(Turkish Resistance Organisation, TMT), though they mainly
relied on British defence. A Turkish-Cypriot leader emerging to
assist, and later to rival, Dr. Küçük was a young
London-trained lawyer, Rauf Raif Denktash (b. 1924).
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| Resistance
against the British rule |
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In the
Greek-Cypriot community the demand for enosis developed rapidly
from the 1930s, a turning point being the Greek-Cypriot riots of
1931 and the burning down of Government House.
Endeavours by the
British to introduce constitutional government designed to
develop some participation without leading to enosis failed,
despite determined efforts to achieve some semblance of liberal
and democratic government, notably by the post-war Labour
Government in Britain.
On the Greek side the British were helped
to a degree in their desire to head off enosis by the
international socialism of AKEL (The Reform Party of the Working
People) which was influential in the large labour unions. For
once communism was defeated in Greece, enosis became
unattractive to the extreme left which now favoured Cypriot
self-government. However, AKEL's advanced leftism was manna
neither for colonial rulers, nor for the United States, whose
interest in the region increased markedly after the Second World
War. Led by Archbishop Makarios, the Greek-Cypriot demand for
enosis emerged with new force in the 1950s, when Greece began to
accord it support on the international scene. This attempt to
win world support alerted Turkey and alarmed the
Turkish-Cypriots.
When international pressure did not suffice to
make Britain respond as required, violence escalated with a
terrorist campaign against the colonial power organised by EOKA
(Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston). Its leader, Colonel
George Grivas, created and directed an effective campaign.
Easily infiltrated by Greek-Cypriot sympathisers working for
them in various ancillary tasks, the British security forces had
to exert great efforts under Field Marshall Sir John Harding to
bring terrorism under control. They were much more successful
then is often recognised, though terrorism was not quite
vanquished. Makarios was exiled, suspected of involvement in the
EOKA campaign, but was released when EOKA, exhausted but still
determined to fight, agreed to cease hostilities on the
Archbishop's release free to return.
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| Towards
'independence' |
In
April 1957, in the new conditions made obvious by the Suez
debacle, the British government accepted that `bases in Cyprus'
were an acceptable alternative to `Cyprus as a base'. This
produced a much more relaxed British attitude to the problem. It
was now to be solved in conjunction with Greece and Turkey, the
latter thoroughly alerted to the dangers of enosis to the
Turkish community. Violence was renewed in Cyprus by EOKA, but
it increasingly drew in the Turkish community when the new
Governor Sir Hugh Foot's plan (for unitary self-government)
incited Turkish-Cypriot riots and produced a hostile response
from the Turkish government. Violence between the two
communities developed into a new and deadly feature of the
situation.
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Dighenis
Grivas, leader of the terrorist EOKA organisation |
In the few
years that existed before the Zürich and London Agreements (1959
/1960) Greece tried again to win international recognition and
support for the cause of enosis at the UN against a background
of renewed and continuing EOKA violence directed against the
British. It was to no avail. Eventually Greece had to recognise
that Turkey was now a vitally interested party in the dispute.
Grivas and EOKA also had to accept the changed situation.
Makarios could see no way of excluding Turkey from participating
in any solution. It was widely believed by the Greek-Cypriots
that Britain had promoted the Turkish-Cypriot case, thus
preventing the achievement of enosis.
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* See John Reddaway, "Burdened with Cyprus". That the
British tried
to suppress both nationalisms
recommended them to neither. * See
also Pierre Oberling,"The Road to
Bellapais", pp.52ff. for the defence
of British rule. He points out,
however, that 6000 to 8000 Turkish-
Cypriots emigrated to Turkey between
the wars.
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| References:
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- From: C.H.
Dodd,(1993), `Cyprus: A Historical Introduction', in
C.H.Dodd (ed.), "The Political, Social, and Economic
Development of Northern Cyprus", Eothen Press,
Huntingdon, Cambridegeshire, England.
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Chronological
History |
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