Cyprus Dispute: Turkey, Greece, and the Battle for Control

This article discusses the Cyprus dispute involving Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus itself. It provides an overview of the background of the case, the significance of the land, and the ongoing conflict over oil and natural gas resources. The dispute has divided the island into two halves and continues to be a contentious issue.

Running head: CYPRUS DISPUTE
CYPRUS DISPUTE
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Introduction
Cyprus comprises fertile valleys, wide beaches and tall mountains beside
Mediterranean Sea. For more than 10 millennia, Cyprus has been settled by human beings
and stands as historic, cultural and linguistic cross road between Asia and Europe. The main
cities of this country are Nicosia which is the capital of Cyprus, Famagusta, Paphos and
Limassol have captured the history of generations of pilgrims, conquerors and the travelers
from various parts of the world. The country has both Cosmopolitan as well as provincial air
in it.
Greece on the other hand is the crossroad among Africa, Asia and Europe. It is
situated on the southern part of Balkan Peninsula and has the longest coastline in
Mediterranean basin. From Greece the idea of Olympic Games has been taken and it is
considered to be the cradle of Western Civilization and the birthplace of western philosophy,
literature, science, democracy, political science, mathematical principles and histographies.
Turkey shares the border with Greece and also situated in the Balkan peninsula of
Southeast Europe. It is a place of crusade and Ottoman Empire. Turkey is always at the top of
news related to conflicts (Smith, 2019). For millennia different Invaders have captured this
country and committed genocides. In capturing Cyprus Island this country along with Greece
play a vital role. The aim of this paper is to discuss the Cyprus dispute that relates Turkey,
Greece and Cyprus itself.
Background of the case:
In the year 1878 the island of Cyprus situated in the Eastern part of Mediterranean
Sea came under the British control. The population of this country is made of both Turkish
and Greek Cypriots. This is one of the reasons why both Turkey and Greece wanted to

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capture this particular country and rule the majority of people living here. The Greek Cypriot
majority wanted to remove the British rule and United with Greece which is known as enosis.
This campaign for NOC started in 1955 led by archbishop Makarios and colonial George
Grivas. The latter was the head of National organization of Cypriot fighters or EOKA. This
movement wanted to achieve enosis by the means of attacking the government, military
installation, mobilization of population against the British presence. In 1995 EOKA launched
their first series of bomb attacks against the British government in the capital Nicosia.
However, this initial attack killed nobody but the organization started the campaign of
assassination aiming at the Greek members of Police Force as well as those who did not agree
with the idea of enosis. The British government already started to look for a political solution
and emergency was declared (Iwm.org.uk, 2019). Despite Makarios was exiled in 1956, the
state of emergency continued. For helping the British government more troops and British
reinforcement arrived. This British tactics to implement political solution through army in
Cyprus started to have an effect.
By 1967 most of the leaders of EOKA were killed are captured but the organization
kept on working to achieve their goal. This organization arranged right by the school children
and students of colleges and used execution squads to assassin the police officers and military
personals along with their families (Nytimes.com, 2019). Throughout 1958 these had
continued. By that time Makarios had left the initial demand of enosis. In 1959, EOKA
stopped its mass killing actions. The agreement that Cyprus will be a republic was signed by
Britain. However after long protest and violence, Cyprus became republic in 1960 but the
issues between the Turkish and Greek communities did not stop (Smith, 2019). In 1974 the
Greek military troop aimed to reunite the island with the mainland of Greece. This led the
Turkish invasion in Cyprus again. The solution was found by division of Island between the
Turkish northern Cyprus and Greek Cypriot Republic of Cyprus which is followed till date.

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Explanation of the significance of the land:
The location and resources found in Cyprus has made eat more vulnerable in the
political powers of the world. Cyprus is an island in Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea
and as mentioned before, it is I did into the Turkish controlled north and Greek controlled
Republic of Cyprus in South. Since 2004 this country has been the member of European
Union and became a Eurozone member in 2008. Cyprus location has made it an essential part
of security dynamic in this region. In spite of having a nonmember status Cyprus has been a
critical component of NATO Mediterranean operations (Michael & Hadjipavlou, 2018). This
play a central part in the events of NATO’s intervention in Levant. This country is
particularly important for France as France has a strong die with Syria as well as Lebanon
(Salem, 2016). Most of countries of the United Kingdom and United States considered
Cyprus to be critical to maintain control in the Mediterranean waters.
In addition to this Cyprus has special importance in the neighbor countries like Israel,
Egypt, and Qatar along with Russia. As much as Cyprus is an important part in Geo political
dominance connecting Asia and Europe comma it is also a part of exclusive economic zone.
Cyprus has special political worth in the world economy as it has a huge amount of oil and
gas deposited under it (Ulusoy, 2016). This has made the politics of Cyprus more sensitive.
Most of this land valuable for every part of the world comes under the Greek controlled
southern part. Therefore the disturbance continues between Turks and Greeks (Stergiou,
2016). From the perspective of the Turkish, the Greek Cypriots are ignoring the in alienable
as well as equal rights and interests of Turkish Cypriots in terms of natural resources of this
Island. De also state that by ignoring the rights of the Turkish Cypriot, the Greek government
is not complying with the Republic of Cyprus constitution. It provides power sharing among
the Turks and Greeks but the UN resolution and similar case regulations have favorite Greece
(Lidén et al., 2016). However the US is supporting the right of the Republic of Cyprus for

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explore as well as exploit the hydrocarbons along with the issue that the natural resources
should be equally shared in this context of finding solution of Cyprus dispute.
Conclusion:
Therefore it can be concluded that Cyprus plays a vital role in the world geography as
well as economy. It is a connector of Asia with Europe surrounded by Greece and Turkey
which are two most important nations in the Mediterranean area. Since Cyprus is a vital
crossroad for business and transportation the domination of Cyprus has been an important
question. Due to the reason, the British captured the Cyprus Island for many years the
neighboring Nations like Turkey and Greece play a vital role in giving the country freedom
from the British rule. Certainly they have done the movement for their own interests but
finally divided the island into two halves. Now the location of Cyprus has attracted interest of
powerful Nations so also of its neighbors. Recently the dispute has been started due to the
presence of oil and natural gas found in the southern part. The exploration of natural gas and
oil has made this issue more critical. Over this discovery the Turks and Greeks have again
started to dispute over there dominated areas. Till now Cyprus though has an EU
membership, suffering a lot and cannot finding any way to cope up with the situation.

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References:
Iwm.org.uk. (2019). What Caused The Division Of The Island Of Cyprus?. Retrieved from
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-caused-the-division-of-the-island-of-cyprus
Lidén, K., Mikhelidze, N., Stavrevska, E. B., & Vogel, B. (2016). EU support to civil society
organizations in conflict-ridden countries: A governance perspective from Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Cyprus and Georgia. International Peacekeeping, 23(2), 274-301.
Michael, M. S., & Hadjipavlou, M. (2018). Locating the Cyprus problem within conflict
resolution. In Cyprus and the Roadmap for Peace. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Nytimes.com. (2019). Cyprus: Why One of the World’s Most Intractable Conflicts
Continues. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/world/europe/cyprus-reunification-talks.html
Salem, N. (2016). Cyprus: a regional conflict and its resolution. Springer.
Smith, H. (2019). Cyprus: likely gas field find raises prospect of tension with Turkey.
Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/feb/25/cyprus-gas-
field-find-raises-prospect-fresh-tension-turkey-exxonmobil
Stergiou, A. (2016). Turkey–Cyprus–Israel relations and the Cyprus conflict. Journal of
Balkan and Near Eastern Studies, 18(4), 375-392.
Ulusoy, K. (2016). The Cyprus conflict: Turkey’s strategic dilemma. Journal of Balkan and
Near Eastern Studies, 18(4), 393-406.