Division over Cyprus
| Date | 01 June 1967 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206702200208 |
| Published date | 01 June 1967 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Division
Over
Cyprus
W
M.
Dobell*
The
shots
that
rang
out
on
December
21,
1963,
unleashed
a
battle
for
control
of
Cyprus
which,
muted
and
restrained,
is
with
us
to
this
day
It
has
divided
Greece
from
Turkey
compromised
Britain's
relations with
Greece,
prejudiced
the
United
States'
raprort
with
Turkey
strained
Cyprus's
dealings
with
just
about
everybody
separated
the
United
Nations
from
its
coffers
and
frayed
the
Eastern
Mediterranean
bond
of
NATO.
As
far
as
Greece
and
Turkey
were concerned,
it
could
not
have
come
at
a
worse
time.
The
shots
in
Cyprus occurred
exactly
half-way
between
two
general
elections m
Greece.
After
eleven
years
in
office
the
National
Radical
Union
[ERE]
formerly
the
Greek Rally
finally
fell
before
the
ballots
of
the
Centre
Union
on
November
3,
1963.
Papandreou,
the
new
Premier,
while
already
an
old
man,
was
in
Parliamentary
terms
still
several
weeks
short
of
his
majority
Facing
a
nearly
equal
opposition,
he
was
sustained
only
by
the
extreme left
[EDA]
an embarrassment from
which
he
was
anxious
to extricate
himself
as
quickly
as
possible. When
the
storm
broke,
Papandreou had already
asked
for
a
dissolution,
the
King
had
offered
the
Premiership instead
to
Kanellopoulos
of
ERE,
and
both
had
given
way
to
a
caretaker
government
instructed to
supervise
elections
for
February
16,
1964.
Turkey
was equally
unprepared
for
the
outbreak
of
December
1963.
The
army
revolution
of
May
27
1960,
had
been
instigated
to
produce,
after
an interim
period
of
military
rule, purified and
rejuvenated
party
government.
What
it
did
do
was
destroy
the
strong,
if
autocratic,
Menderes
regime,
replacing
it
with
multi-
party
government
under
the
equally
authoritarian, but
much
older
and
less
popular,
Ismet
Inonu. Like
Papandreou,
he
had
just
spent
eleven
years
in
the
political
wilderness.
Inonu had
been
saved
from an
abortive
coup
in
May
1963,
but
his
unruly
coalition
broke up
at
the
beginning
of
December
in
the
face
of
strong
Department
of
Political
Science,
University
of
Western
Ontario.
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