Cyprus: The Unresolved Crisis. - Review - book review

Contemporary Review, July, 2000 by Konstantinos Kotzias

The Cyprus Conspiracy: America, Espionage and the Turkish Invasion. Brendan O'Malley and Ian Craig. I. B. Tauris. [pound]19.95. 270 pages. ISBN 1-86064-439-2.

It is twenty-five years since the Greek military dictators staged a coup in Cyprus, dramatically removing its Greek-Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios. Turkey then retaliated by seizing more than a third of the island in a two-phase invasion. Greek Cypriots for years claimed that the Americans were to blame for failing to prevent if not for initiating the events of 1974. The British government also came under criticism, as a guarantor of Cypriot independence, for failing to act militarily to prevent the crisis.

The crisis in Cyprus further worsened the relations between Greece and Turkey, and endangered seriously NATOs unity. The authors describe accurately the unstable period for the island after the Second World War in conjunction with the decline of Britain, the rise of the US as a global actor, the Cold War and superpower rivalry. This well written and well researched account of events provides the understanding of the situation and the causes, which led to the escalation of the crisis in 1974.

The end of the Second World War found Cyprus under a declining British rule. For Britain the geo-strategic importance of Cyprus was vital as it hosted a major air base and numerous spying facilities which provided the capability for a strong presence in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, to secure Britain's oil supplies. The facilities in Cyprus were used as a launch-pad for many operations in the region such as that against Egypt during the Suez crisis.

When in 1954 the Greek Colonel, George Grivas, initiated the Enosis Campaign (Union with Greece) the response from the British was immediate and in many cases severe. The violence escalated, ethnic tensions rose and Cyprus started becoming problematic and unaffordable for the declining British economy. The British withdrawal in 1960 was accompanied by Cyprus' independence under the treaties of Establishment, Guarantee and Alliance, which left the military facilities still under British and American control.

The increasing rivalry between East and West rapidly promoted Cyprus not only as a foothold in the eastern Mediterranean but as the unsinkable air-carrier at the southern flank of NATO. The spying facilities became vital for the US under the UKUSA Agreement in monitoring the Soviet Union and the Middle East. The new government however collapsed and ethnic tensions rose again. The authors argue that at this point in 1964 the fate of Cyprus was decided as US interests suggested partition of the island.

The account of events up to the invasion in 1974, the description of the conspiracy to divide the island and the US and British Realpolitik over Cyprus are revealing and intriguing. The description of the Greek and Turkish political and historical realities however, although accurate, are rather sketchy, and in some cases, elementary as the authors focus on the US-British involvement.

The authors move pretty briskly over the horrors of the war although they recognise that ethnic cleansing took place. The authors' descriptive analysis remains quite specific and Greek-Turkish relations, which date back a thousand years, are treated as a minor factor in the whole affair. This stance however is quite successful as it expresses the one-way, almost Machiavellian, attitudes that characterised and sometimes still do -- American and British foreign policy makers as well.

Without adopting a moral stance the authors describe the realities of the period and only suggest their implications for the region in the post-Cold War era. This book, moreover, comes in a period that the Cyprus question seems to re-emerge due to Cyprus' candidacy and Turkey's intention to join the EU. In this light the authors provide accurately the necessary background knowledge and Cold War realities to those who are not familiar with the Cyprus question.