The Cyprus conflict generates intense emotional reaction from certain Greek-Cypriot quarters who are quick to frame the issue in terms which would confuse and distort all historical and constitutional facts. The American public is entitled to an honest history lesson without revisionist attempts. To that purpose, let’s answer two burning questions.

Q:Why has Turkey intervened in Cyprus?

A:Because, under the Treaty of Guarantee (London-Zurich Accords signed by Greece, Britain and Turkey), Turkey, as one of the three guarantors of the Republic of Cyprus, was duty-bound to protect the Constitution of Cyprus which in turn was supposed to protect the Turkish minority. A minority which was under imminent threat of ethnic cleansing following the military putsch which deposed Archbishop Makarios and in the process violated the provisions of the Constitution. Turkey did not invade, but rather exercised her right of intervention as sanctioned under the London-Zurich Accords.

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Here is how the then US Secretary of State George W. Ball, in his memoirs, described the events leading to the Turkish intervention of 1974:Makarios’ central interest was to block off Turkish intervention so that he and his Greek-Cypriots could go on happily massacring Turkish-Cypriots.

Q:Why was is necessary to have in the London-Zurich Accords a provision enabling Turkey to intervene unilaterally in Cyprus on behalf of the Turkish-Cypriots?

A:Because long before the negotiations leading to these Accords, the Turkish minority on the island was subject to pogroms and ethnic violence the likes of which were not witnessed since WWII. Indeed, between 1955 and 1958, the Greek Cypriot terrorist organization E.O.K.A. were the instigators of what is nowadays called ethnic cleansing. The press reports of the time are replete with horror stories which would match savagery for savagery with anything we might read today coming out of Bosnia.