By Stephanos Constantinides*
This year marks 50 years since the coup in Cyprus on July 15, 1974 and the Turkish invasion that followed on July 20 of the same year. It is a twin crime against the people of Cyprus behind which were NATO, the Americans and the British. Because the coup and the Turkish invasion come as a continuation of the dictatorship that was imposed on Greece in 1967 and which the Americans and NATO were behind once again.
After all, one of the reasons that the dictatorship was imposed on Greece was to close the Cyprus problem that the Americans had been trying to close since 1964, without succeeding, with the double union, based on the Acheson plan. Essentially, the Acheson Plan, named after the former US Secretary of State Dean Acheson, envisaged giving Turkey the part of Cyprus it occupied in 1974.
The political anomaly in Greece began in July 1965 with the overthrow of the democratic government of George Papandreou by the Americans and the Palace. The overthrow aimed to impose a dichotomous solution of the Cyprus issue and was made possible by a defection led by Konstantinos Mitsotakis, who with other Centre Union deputies (the ‘July apostates’), defected from Papandreou’s party and joined the pro-monarchist forces causing political chaos. When that failed, the dictatorship was imposed with the same solution in mind.
The first period of the George Papadopoulos dictatorship failed for various reasons to impose the solution that the Americans and NATO wanted in the Cyprus problem. It was then that the Americans proceeded to overthrow Papadopoulos and impose the dictatorship of Dimitris Ioannidis who himself did not appear but acted as an invisible dictator. Ioannidis and the country’s military leadership at the time helped create EOKA B, an organization that undermined the legitimate government of Cyprus and then proceeded with the coup of July 15, 1974 that led to the Turkish invasion and occupation (until today) of 37% of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus by Turkey.
Today we know from the American and British documents made public as well as from a series of other testimonies that Ioannidis carried out the coup in Cyprus in consultation with the Americans and in particular the CIA. We know that the American plan of this period envisaged the Turkish invasion and the occupation by Turkey of the territory of the Republic of Cyprus which it holds to this day. For this reason there was no substantial resistance in the first stage of the Turkish invasion. Furthermore, when their goal was achieved, the Americans sidelined Ioannidis and Henry Kissinger announced from Washington the political change that took place in Athens with the collapse of the dictatorship and the return of Constantinos Karamanlis 48 hours before it happened.
Then the Americans prevented Greece and especially Karamanlis from any intervention in Cyprus after the second Turkish invasion of August 1974 which completed the occupation of almost 37% of the Cypriot territory. The interest of the Americans at that time was how to prevent a Greek-Turkish war and the disintegration of the south-eastern wing of NATO. And they succeeded since Karamanlis in his speech after the second Turkish invasion said the infamous “Cyprus lies far away”.
50 years later, Cyprus is always far away from Greece and the Americans and NATO support the Turkish occupation of Cyprus. It is characteristic that they differentiate it from the Russian invasion of Ukraine by arguing that in Cyprus the differences lie between the two communities, Greek and Turkish, and exonerate Turkey. At the same time, the Greek and Cypriot elites adopted the sanctions against Russia and are sending weapons to Ukraine without having achieved any return for the end of the Turkish occupation in Cyprus or for the national sovereignty of Greece which is threatened by Turkey.
The July 1974 coup and subsequent Turkish invasion of Cyprus were tragic in themselves but what’s even more tragic is that 50 years later the occupation of Cyprus continues. 37% of the sovereign territory of the Republic of Cyprus is still under illegal military occupation by Turkey, with the presence of dozens of thousands of heavily armed Turkish troops rendering the occupied area of Cyprus one of the most densely militarised areas in the world. Also tens of thousands of illegal settlers were imported from Turkey into occupied Cyprus after 1974.
It is clear that NATO and the Americans continue to tolerate the Turkish occupation of Cyprus at the same time as they condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. NATO is tolerating the aggressor within its own ranks.
At the same time, the Europeans maintain a very lukewarm attitude towards Turkey, even if Cyprus is a member of the European Union.
*Academic, poet and writer
Professor Stephanos Constantinides taught political science and history at Laval University, the University of Montreal and the University of Quebec at Montreal.
Also read
The Divisions of Cyprus, by Perry Anderson
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