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Living In Cyprus: North & South

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If you have ever spent any time pondering why it is human beings seem to love fighting, take a moment to think about countries in the world that are split by civil war. Bet you can’t name many. I have to admit I only know of three, Syria, Korea and Cyprus. My only experience of living in a divided nation is taken from Cyprus, which is where I live.

I know about the conflict that caused this Island to be split in two because I took the time to read about it. Long story short is that Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus in 1974 and have held a third of the island, in the north, ever since.

But what I didn’t know about was the prelude to the Turkish invasion, with conflict between Turkish and Greek Cypriots going back years before that. It was a comment by the barman at a hotel my wife and I stayed in over the week-end that alerted me to two Turkish invasions… sort of. He told us an air-raid siren would sound at 08:20 and this was to commemorate the Turkish invasion. He went on to joke that the Turks actually invaded twice. He was busy and we didn’t get a chance to question him any further. But here’s what I’ve managed to piece together.

Apart from expats, Cyprus has two peoples who have lived together for many years. Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The Greek Cypriots are Christian and the majority and the Turkish Cypriots are Moslem and in the minority.

Britain ruled Cyprus for many years from the 18th Century. But having fought a guerrilla war against the British to gain their independence, Cyprus eventually became a republic in 1960 with Greece, Turkey and Great Britain acting as guarantors to the Zürich and London Agreements which led to the independence of Cyprus. However, communal violence erupted on December 1963 when two Turkish Cypriots were killed in an incident involving the Greek Cypriot police. The peace guarantors, Greece, Turkey and Britain wanted to send a NATO force to the island to stop the violence.

President Makarios of Cyprus issued a call for peace, but these were ignored.
A Turkish army contingent stationed on the island left their barracks and seized the most strategic position on the island, the Nicosia to Kyrenia road. This was the island’s jugular vein and the Turkish military retained control of the road until Turkey invaded the island in 1974. The road became a crucial link for Turkey’s military invasion.

From the minute Turkey took control of the road in 1963 to the time of the Turkish invasion in 1974 any Greek Cypriots who wanted to use the road could only do so if accompanied by a United Nations convoy.

Ever since 1974 Cyprus has been a divided nation and talks have been going on between the two sides for many years in order to resolve that old conflict and remove the barrier between the north and south.

We are not holding our collective breath though, because bad feeling runs deep on both sides of the divide.

Tom Kane (c) 2016



This post first appeared on Tom Kane's, please read the originial post: here

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Living In Cyprus: North & South

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