The desire for enosis erupted, on April 1, 1955, when bombs destroyed the transmitter of the Cyprus broadcasting station and exploded at British Army installations in Nicosia, Limassol, Famagusta, and Larnaca. The explosions signalled the beginning of a guerrilla war against the British colonial administration that was to continue for four years and claim some 600 lives. The Greek Cypriots fought under the banner of the National Organization of Cypriot Fighters (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston--EOKA), led by Colonel George Grivas. Although EOKA included only a few hundred active guerrillas, it enjoyed wide support in the Greek Cypriot community and was able to tie down about 10,000 British soldiers.
However, when EOKA called a cease-fire in March 1959, after the signing in February of the agreements that led to Cypriot independence, it could claim only partial success. The Cypriot tie to Britain was broken sooner than it would have been without the guerrilla struggle, but EOKA's goal of enosis remained unmet.
For members of the Turkish Cypriot minority, who regarded Turkey as their motherland, enosis would have meant becoming a much smaller minority within the Greek nation. In the mid-1059s, Turkish Cypriots responded to the growth of EOKA with the formation of their own paramilitary organization, Volkan, which later became the Turkish Resistance Organization, Turk Mukavemet Teskilâtu--TMT. British authorities also armed a paramilitary police force composed entirely of Turkish Cypriots, the Mobile Reserve, to help in combat terrorism. The intense intercommunal violence of 1958 implanted bitterness in both ethnic communities and foreshadowed post independence strife that would tear the young nation apart.
Three interrelated treaties in February 1959, and the subsequent adoption of a constitution, resulted in Cyprus's gaining its independence on August 19, 1960. Under the Treaty of Establishment, Britain retained sovereign rights over two areas to be used as military bases. The Treaty of Alliance stipulated that contingents of 950 Greek troops and 650 Turkish troops were to provide for the defence of the island and train a new Cypriot army. Under the Treaty of Guarantee, in the event of a threat to the established political arrangements of Cyprus, the treaty's signatories, Greece, Turkey, and Britain, were to consult on appropriate measures to safeguard or restore them; the signatories were granted the right to intervene together or, if concerted action proved impossible, to act unilaterally to uphold the settlement. These elaborate arrangements came to provide the pretexts for repeated foreign intervention that severely undermined Cypriot security, and for Turkey's unilateral military action in 1974, which led to the de facto partition of the island. THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS was established in 1960, after the former colony
Gained independence from Britain. Since 1974, however, a de facto division of the
Island has existed, with the Greek Cypriot community controlling 63 percent of the
Territory, and the Turkish Cypriots, backed by Turkish army units, 37 percent. The
Scene of constant anticolonial and intercommunal strife since the mid-1950s, Cyprus
Assumed an importance out of proportion to its size and population because of its strategic location and its impact on the national interests of other nations. The island's location in the eastern Mediterranean Sea has made it easily accessible from Europe,
Asia, and Africa since the earliest days of ships. Its timber and mineral resources
Made it important as a source of trade goods in the ancient world, but attracted
Conquerors, pirates, and adventurers in addition to merchants and settlers. About the
Middle of the second millennium B.C. Cyprus was subjected to foreign domination
For the first time, and from then until 1960, almost without interruption, outside
Powers controlled the island and its people.
In 1963 there was intercommunal violence between the Turkish Cypriots, Turkey gathered it’s troops on its shoreline 64km north of Cyprus but it was dissuaded from invading Cyprus by the US,UK and Russia. Matters remained tense and in 1974 the Greece government’ at the time comprised of a right wing military junta, supported a coup d’etat in Cyprus to replace the Makarios, who had left wing sympathizers and no longer wanted an enosis, by former EOKA activist, Nicos Sampson. This sent Turkey mad and claiming that as a guarantor power it had a right to protect them, invaded.
About 210,000 people became refugees, in which was ethnic cleansing of the island, 180,000 Greek Cypriots where forced to move south and 30,00 Turkish Cypriots forced to move north. There was destruction of the economic and social infrastructure including main tourist areas and also the Nicosia airport.
