Turkish invasion of Cyprus - Essay Example

Even before the conflict, the tension arose when the Cyprus Convention, on the basis of which Britain 'leased' the island, lost much of its relevance for some reasons, foremost of which was the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire. However there is a background of the conflict followed by the year 1878, when Cyprus was offered to the British, the Turkish sultans expected them to build a strong naval base on the island, which could be used as a deterrent against possible Russian attacks on the Asian parts of the Ottoman Empire (Borowiec: 24).

This project was never realized thus never fulfilled. Despite high claims and loud voices in Britain that demanded an end to colonial rule in Cyprus, the Convention was never abrogated, resulting in the economic disaster in Cyprus. After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, it was felt that the time was not favourable for the Cyprus government as the Turkish government had just relaxed its negotiating position linking free access to Ayios Theodhoros with Artemis Road (Hart: 47). It had also, instructed its permanent representative to the United Nations to thank Secretary-General for his efforts in obtaining the release of Denkta, and to state Ankara's acceptance of the UNFICYP timetable for the phased resumption of police patrols to the village, provided UNFICYP returned the Kophinou police compound to Turkish Cypriot police and redoubled its efforts to settle the Artemis Road situation.

The attitude of the Turkish Government was warlike because for months the Demirel administration had been focusing its attention on internal development projects, many involving U.S. economic assistance. However the advance deployment of heavy weaponry and Greek mainland troops were indicating something fishy not only, in battalion strength, around Skarinou, but throughout the island. When the Cyprus crises erupted in 1964, Turkey found itself deprived to get U.S. support, at that time Ankara thought of reapproaching Arabs with a hope that would pay off.

However the Arabs instead supported Greece with arms and weapons against the Turkish Cypriot minority (Nachmani: 14). Turkey while depicting such attitude of Middle East as the Arab betrayal, tried to shake hands with the Western world.Conflicts and threats during and after Turkish invasion The political aspirations of the Cypriot leaders were to inspire Cypriots towards either Greece or Turkey instead of creating a mutual concern for the unity of their nation and for their own self-preservation as Cypriots.

The dominant feeling that remained long after the invasion among Turkish Cypriots was that the internationally recognized government of Cyprus has not represented the interests of the island's Turkish community. Indeed, it was observed that except minor exceptions, particularly after the invasion, Greek Cypriots regarded Turkish Cypriots as enemies rather than as compatriots. Greeks never considered them as their equal partners due to which systematic economic blockade of the Turkish areas by the Greek side were theoretically intended to 'punish' Turkey (Borowiec: 8).

Distances between Greeks and Turks remained wider and therefore alienated the minority that was supposed to share the island with the Greeks. However despite the elements that separated two Cypriot