Cyprus 1974

The story of Cyprus is one I have been brought up with. My mother, who is Greek, and father have helped me develop a profound love for Greece and pride in my heritage by making me attend Greek school as a youngster and traveling to Greece every summer to visit family. Every year, we attend church for three nights in a row to socialize and celebrate Easter, culminating in a beautiful service Saturday night to hail the resurrection of Christ; every year, we celebrate "???!" (No!) Day on Oct. 28 in remembrance of the Greek resistance to the Italian invasion under Mussolini's orders during the Second World War; and every year, we celebrate the Mar. 25, Greek Independence Day, complete with a parade down 5th Avenue in New York City. Yes, it does sound somewhat like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and I can empathize with many of the characters of this movie, however exaggerated or comical they may be.

There exists a historic enmity between the Greeks and the Turks, and all I knew of the "other side" was what my family was telling me and what I was learning from Greek media. My grandmother was among those forced out of her home in Constantinople, today Istanbul, by the Turks and I have spoken to survivors of the Cypriot invasion. I have heard all of their stories of suffering, and this has given me a bias against Turkey.

Throughout my upbringing, I have been exposed to the Greek perspective on the Cyprus issue, and I do harbor strong feelings about the topic. After all, a popular chant of the Independence Day parade is "?????? ??????? ??? ??? ?????!" ("Get the Turks out of Cyprus!"). It is a catchy chant, one that young Greeks marching or watching the parade pick up very quickly. Many people today are unaware of "Cyprus' quiet crisis," as BBC has termed the Cypriot situation. I wrote my term paper in AP US History about the Cyprus issue and the US double-standard involvement with it.

In short, after World War II, there was much restlessness in Greece, as in the rest of Europe. At the time, Cyprus was a British colony and was struggling for its liberation. A movement called enosis began in Greece in an attempt to reunite Cyprus with Greece. With the signing of three treaties, Britain granted Cyprus its independence in 1960, and almost immediately after its departure, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot populations clashed.

In 1967, the army overthrew the government in Greece under the premise that it was preventing a communist takeover. The junta was directly supported by the United States, and on July 15, 1974, they launched a coup d'?©tat in an attempt to assassinate the incumbent president Archbishop Makarios, who was striving for an independent Cyprus instead of complete enosis, the ultimate goal of the junta.

This provocative move gave Turkey its excuse to justify its intervention and the junta's coup backfired as the Turks invaded northern Cyprus on July 20th of that year. July 20, 1974, will remain a date of infamy in Greek and Cypriot history as the invading troops forced Greek Cypriots out of their homes, committing human rights violations and vandalizing Greek churches and structures in the north, while simultaneously forcing Turkish Cypriots to move to the north.

To this day, Cyprus remains divided by the "Green Line," which divides the capital Nicosia in half. In 1975, Turkey declared north Cyprus a federated Turkish State, and in 1983, Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot president, formed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), to this day recognized by no nation in the world except Turkey. Cyprus remains to this day the world's most militarized country.

The town I am from in New Jersey is very homogeneous, and I must admit I had not known any Turkish people until I came to Tufts, where I have met several who are very pleasant. This has made me question my previous convictions about the Turkish people today, especially in light to the improved relations between the Turkish and Greek governments. I welcome the Turkish population of students here to respond. What have the Turkish people been taught and what feelings do they harbor toward historic issues like the Cypriot invasion of 1974 that have divided the Greek and Turkish people?

What angers me the most about the Cypriot crisis is the involvement of the super powers, mainly the United States and Britain. Cyprus, so cherished by so many, was just a pawn played by these superpowers as so many nations have been. When Britain granted Cyprus its independence, it did so by leaving the nation under a purposefully divisive constitution and with three treaties that would help ensure British presence upon the island. In this way, Britain was able to play the two antagonistic populations against one another in order to maintain this influence.

After WWII, while the Cyprus issue was developing, the Cold War was taking place, so the United States was keen upon keeping Russia out of the Balkan region. The US was the only nation that had the sole power to bring about change in Greece, yet it chose to support the military junta because that establishment was the most anti-communist regime in all of Europe. Both the junta and the Nixon administration mutually benefited from their relationship. The junta donated money to the Nixon-Agnew election campaign while the US strongly supported the junta's coup in Cyprus because the Cypriot president Makarios was a cleric in politics, and as the United States' foreign policies have proven time and again, if another regime fails to meet US standards it is blacklisted as a "threat to democracy."

Makarios also objected the junta when it allowed Israeli planes to use a US base in Crete to launch air strikes on Egypt, Jordan and Syria, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli conflict. Moreover, the strategic importance of Cyprus' location cannot be overemphasized. By supporting the junta, the US could secure a strategic foothold on the island and then be able to play the Turks and the Greeks against one another to maintain power.

Furthermore, I resent the unwillingness of the US and other powers to offend Turkey because of its influence in the region as a democratic republic and moderate Muslim country. The human rights violations committed against the Greeks and other subcultures and different ethnicities by Turkey in the past have either been simply frowned upon or largely ignored.

This lack of action is in sharp contrast to the US stance on the Kosovo issue in the 90's and the current issue in Iraq. Citizens of the United States cannot wonder why so many harbor anti-American sentiments when such a double-standard exists in its foreign policy. As a global super power, the US has the flexibility to be selective in its policies; however, such policies have and will continue to backfire in the future and sentiments of mistrust and hatred will continue to be fostered and acted upon by terrorists, or what others call 'freedom fighters.'

Despite this tragic history, developments in Cyprus have begun to improve as the EU welcomes the island into the union next year and is considering Turkey's bid for membership. I look toward the future with hope as the Greek and Turkish governments are working together for the first time toward a peace plan. Today, headlines read that for the first time in 30 years, people of either side have been allowed to cross over this Green Line and the UN buffer zone.

Though Turkish Cypriot president Rauf Denktash may not support the union of the two halves of Cyprus, I believe, as many do, that Cyprus should enter the European Union next year as a united nation, not as one separated by de facto segregation because of the blind stubbornness of politics and the games that super powers play.

Daphne LaBua is a freshman who has yet to declare a major.