Southam, Andrew Cyprus 1974

Conflict in the Mediterranean. No Control, No Conspiracy

On 15 July 1974, Archbishop Makarios III, the democratically elected president of Cyprus, narrowly escaped death when the Cypriot National Guard fired on the presidential palace in Nicosia. Makarios and his bodyguards fled just as the attack was delayed by a defective tank. The coup was supported by the Greek military dictatorship, the junta, which had seized power in 1967 and regarded Makarios as a communist sympathiser. The junta's leader, Dimitrios Ioannidis, assumed that the CIA and the West would support the archbishop's removal, which was a major miscalculation. The aftermath of the coup led to the installation of Nicos Sampson as president, which sparked fears in Turkey of a union between Cyprus and Greece (Enosis) that would threaten Turkey's security. In response, Turkey invaded Cyprus, triggering a conflict with the Greek and Cypriot National Guard forces. The crisis nearly led to war between Greece and Turkey. Efforts by Henry Kissinger and British Foreign Secretary James Callaghan to prevent further escalation were hampered by political unrest in the United States and Britain's vulnerability due to its military presence on the island. By August, the conflict had claimed 3,000 lives and displaced 200,000 people. Cyprus remains divided to this day. In Cyprus 1974, Andrew Southam examines the perspectives of all parties involved, debunks conspiracy theories and highlights key mistakes.