Nationalism and Independence

I- NATIONALISM in the TURKISH CYPRIOT COMMUNITY -- The conditions of a nationalist movement began to emerge in the late 1940s. -- the major indicator of the nationalist mobilization is the establishment of central organizations with capability to control communal affairs. -- Unlike 1940s, the new central organizations began to demand unification of Cyprus with Turkey. -- Turkish Cypriot nationalists claimed that the community has the right to rule and be sovereign as a part of Turkish nation.

-- “Cyprus is Turkish Party” was established in In 1956 the administration of Evkaf (religious foundation) was transferred to the Turkish Cypriot community. -- The leaders of the ‘Cyprus is Turkish Party’ began to control Evkaf. This made the party the most influential group in the T. Cypriot community. -- The party declared that the right to ‘self determination’ should be employed by each community separately and that the only solution to the Cyprus problem was Taksim (partition). -- In order to achieve this objective the party initiated the following policies:

i. Restrictions on the contacts and cooperation between the members of the two communities. -- Unlike KATAK’s moderate policies regarding the relationship between the members of the two communities, the first political target of nationalists was to limit cooperation between the two communities. the Turkish Cypriots were asked not to visit Apostolos Andreas Monastery. the establishment of a Greek-Turkish Friendship Committee was rejected. The T. Cypriot workers were forced to resign from the common trade unions. “from Turk to Turk” campaign was initiated. An internal population transfer was designed in order to provide a territorial basis for partition.

ii) Establishment of an alternative authority to the colonial government -- T. Cypriot nationalists demanded from all T. Cypriots loyalty to the community organizations -- T. Cypriots were ask to unite around the nationalist leadership. iii) Cooperation with colonial administration -- the Turkish Cypriot leaders described the EOKA as an anti-Turkish organization. -- First targets of EOKA bombs were the British colonial offices

-- The colonial administration normalized and increased its connections with Turkish Cypriot leadership by allowing the reestablishment of the office of Mufti and its election by the T. Cypriot community in The colonial administration appointed nationalist Turkish Cypriots to the educational councils. -- As the attacks of EOKA to British targets increased the tolerance of colonial government towards Turkish Cypriot political activism also increased. -- the only exemption of the British tolerance was the 27/28 January 1958 meetings organized in Nicosia and Famagusta where British forces intervened violently.

I- NATIONALISM in GREEK CYPRIOT COMMUNITY -- The OCC began again dominating Greek Cypriot politics after 1949 municipal elections. -- The OCC and the Greek Cypriot nationalist started a political campaign on the basis of two major arguments: i)The right to self determination shall immediately be implemented in Cyprus ii)Unification of Cyprus with Greece is both a ‘historical right’ and the demand of a huge majority of the Greek Cypriots -- They argued that throughout the history Cyprus has been a part of the Greek world.

-- They also argued that it was not logical or appropriate to take into consideration the demands of a small Turkish Cypriot minority regarding the issue of self determination. -- The nationalists declared that the rights of Turkish Cypriots would be respected and protected after Cyprus is unified with Greece. -- The OCC applied to the colonial government in 1949 to demand referendum to determine the political future of the island. -- After this demand was rejected the OCC organized ‘plebiscite’ on 15 January

The Greek-Christian people of Cyprus were invited to the Churches to sign a document to approve one of the following options : Option 1: “We want to unite with Greece” Option 2: “We don’t want to unite with Greece” -- After this plebiscite the OCC formed massive organizations under its control. -- In 1951 PEON, the right wing youth organization was established. -- In 1952 a National Assembly which comprised of all Greek-Cypriot right-wing groups was established.

-- Grivas and Makarios, the two leaders of the Enosis struggle met confidentially in Athens in 1952 in order to establish a secret organization to achieve Enosis. -- As the nationalist organizations grew up the conflict between leftist and rightist groups increased. -- The rightist youth organization started talking about ‘penalizing’ the traitors. -- the Greek Cypriot nationalist organized a number of protest meetings in the major towns in 1952 to initiate a campaign of civil disobedience against colonial government.

-- In order to achieve Enosis (unification with Greece) the OCC and the G. Cypriot nationalist initiated the following policies: i) Armed struggle: -- In order to force the colonial government to accept Enosis the G. Cypriot nationalists organized armed groups and attached on British targets in the island. -- But the main aim of the armed struggle was not to gain a military victory over British forces. -- the major aims were To attract the attention of the international community to show that colonialism is rejected by people

To terrorize the colonial administration, in order to force them to give up their colonialist control on the island, and To neutralize the leftist circles. ii. Anti-communism -- the strong anti-communist orientations of the OCC and nationalist encouraged them to initiate an anti-communist campaign. -- The OCC saw AKEL as its contestant and aimed at reducing the influence of communists on community affairs.

-- the communists and AKEL were blamed for cooperating with the colonial government to sabotage national struggle for Enosis. -- EOKA, announced, in one of its leaflet distributed illegally that AKEL was dangerous organization which refused Christian values as the legitimate basis of enosis. -- AKEL which described the activities of EOKA as terror also became a target of EOKA.

-- When the Archbishop was sent into exile by colonial government in 1956 Greek Cypriot right- wing trade unions decided to go on strike. -- The Greek Cypriot leftist trade unions, on the other hand, published in Greek and Turkish languages a leaflet calling all workers not to support this strike. -- EOKA killed 142 British, 84 Turkish Cypriot and 278 Greek Cypriot between

III- REACTIONS to NATIONALISM A- Reactions to Nationalism in the Turkish Cypriot Community -- a tiny Turkish Cypriot left which was active among the Turkish Cypriot workers started opposing nationalistic policies. -- Beginning in the second part of the 1940s a weekly paper published in Turkish (Emekci-‘Proletarian’) started supporting cooperation between Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots. -- in 1955 Turkish Cypriot leftists established an association, Reformist Turkish Patriotic Front which differentiated itself from the nationalists. -- This association and its members became the target of nationalists and was exterminated in 1958 by armed attacks.

*Turkish Cypriot leftists argued that: i) T. Cypriots and G. Cypriots can peacefullyshare a political system, ii) partition is not an ideal solution and cannot be implemented in Cyprus, iii) the British colonialism followed a “divide and rule’ policy in the island, iv) Common struggle is a necessity. -- The Greek-Turkish cooperation and reaction to nationalism can also be observed in some non-leftist groups in T. Cypriot community.

B. Reactions to Nationalism in Greek-Cypriot Community -- The Greek Cypriot communists were excluded from the struggle against colonialism. -- As an alternative to the Church dominated national movement, AKEL tried to establish an ‘Anti Imperialist Front” which would include workers, intellectuals and right wing patriotic groups. -- AKEL’s 7 th Congress in 1951 accepted a resolution in which it was stated that under the conditions of the day ‘Enosis constituted a strong anti-imperialist mobilization’. -- AKEL position included a paradox; On the one hand the party was supportive of the claim for Enosis, but on the other hand the party was against the OCC which maintained its leading role in the Enosis movement.

-- When EOKA launched its armed struggle against colonial government, AKEL declared immediately that armed struggle would harm the struggle of Cyprus people and that EOKA would damage the relationships and cooperation between T. Cypriots and G. Cypriots. -- AKEL also called people not to participate in the activities of EOKA. -- The EOKA leader was described as a fascist. -- As a result of its reaction to Greek Cypriot nationalism AKEL stated that EOKA struggle was against the principle of ‘proletarian solidarity’ and ‘intercommunal peace’.

Constitutional System and Intercommunal Relations -- Regarding the intercommunal relations after the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus one of the most important regulations is found in the notion of ‘citizenship’. -- the citizens of the republic was classified into two groups through a constitutional provision. -- According to the Article 2 of the Constitution:

“(1) the Greek Community comprises all citizens of the Republic who are of Greek origin and whose mother tongue is Greek or who share the Greek cultural traditions or who are members of the Greek- Orthodox Church; (2) the Turkish Community comprises all citizens of the Republic who are of Turkish origin and whose mother tongue is Turkish or who share the Turkish cultural traditions or who are Moslems;” The citizens of Cyprus who do not belong either to the first category or to the second category are required to select one of the above categories. -- the constitution provided collective political representation on the basis of communal-religious membership.

A. Central Administration The Republic of Cyprus was designed to be a unitary state with specific autonomy given to the Communities. 1.Executive functions -- Article 1 of the constitution provided that the executive leadership shall be organized in the form of a presidential government consisting of a President and a Vice-President elected separately by Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot communities, respectively.

Unlike classic presidential systems, however, the constitution established a dual executive leadership based on power sharing between the Greek-Cypriot President and the Turkish Cypriot Vice-President. The constitution authorized the president and vice-president to perform jointly all important executive functions including the symbolic ones.

2. Central legislature -- The legislative power of the Republic shall be exercised by the House of Representatives in all matters except those reserved to the Communal Chambers under this Constitution. -- the members of the House of Representatives shall be elected separately by the T. Cypriots and G. Cypriots. -- Greek Cypriots membership: 70% --Turkish Cypriot memberships: 30%

-- The President of the House of Representatives shall be a Greek, and shall be elected by the Representatives elected by the Greek Community, -- and the Vice-President shall be a Turk and shall be elected by the Representatives elected by the Turkish Community. -- basic provisions of the constitution could not be changed. 3. Public Administration -- The public service shall be composed as to seventy percent of Greeks and as to thirty per cent of Turks. -- This quantitative distribution shall be applied, so far as this will be practically possible, in all grades of the hierarchy in the public service.

-- In regions or localities where one of the two Communities is in a majority approaching one hundred per cent the public officers shall belong to that Community.

B. Community Administration 1. The Community Assembly The Communal Chambers shall, in relation to their respective Community, have competence to exercise within the limits of this Constitution and subject to paragraph 3 of this Article, legislative power solely with regard to the following matters: - (a) all religious matters; (b) all educational, cultural and teaching matters; (c) personal status; (d) the composition and instances of courts dealing with civil disputes relating to personal status and to religious matters; (e) in matters where the interests and institutions are of purely communal nature such as charitable and sporting foundations, bodies and associations created for the purpose of promoting the well-being of their respective Community;

2. Municipalities -- Separate municipalities shall be created in the five largest towns of the Republic, that is to say, Nicosia, Limassol, Famagusta, Larnaca and Paphos by the Turkish inhabitants thereof: Provided that the President and the Vice-President of the Republic shall within four years of the date of the coming into operation of this Constitution examine the question whether or not this separation of municipalities in the aforesaid towns shall continue. -- The council of the Greek municipality in any such town shall be elected by the Greek electors of the town and the council of the Turkish municipality in such town shall be elected by the Turkish electors of the town.

-- In each such town a co-ordinating body shall be set up composed of two members chosen by the council of the Greek municipality, two members chosen by the council of the Turkish municipality and a President chosen by agreement between the two councils of such municipalities in such town. Such co-ordinating body shall provide for work which needs to be carried out jointly, shall carry out joint services entrusted to it by agreement of the councils of the two municipalities within the town and shall concern itself with matters which require adegree of co-operation