The EOKA Campaign and Intercommunal Violence
From 1955 to 1959, Cyprus was engulfed in an armed insurgency by EOKA seeking union with Greece (enosis), a British counter-insurgency campaign, and escalating intercommunal violence between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The period saw the formation of rival paramilitary organizations, the exile of Archbishop Makarios, and increasingly bloody clashes between the two communities, before the Zurich-London Agreements of 1959 established the framework for an independent Republic of Cyprus.
Anti-Greek riots erupt in Istanbul and Izmir, destroying thousands of Greek-owned businesses, churches, and homes. Subsequent investigations and scholarship point to state orchestration. Approximately 13 people are killed. The violence accelerates the long-term exodus of the Greek community from Turkey, which ultimately numbered approximately 100,000 over the following decade, and deepens Greek Cypriot fears about Turkish intentions. The events are widely referred to as the Istanbul Pogrom.
Lord Radcliffe is commissioned to draft a constitution for Cyprus. His proposals include a form of self-governance with reserved British sovereignty, with a Legislative Assembly where 24 seats are elected by the Greek Cypriot roll and 6 by the Turkish Cypriot roll, with 6 nominated by the Governor. Greek Cypriots reject the proposals as perpetuating colonial control; Turkish Cypriots initially receptive but later oppose the unitary-state structure.
British colonial authorities hang Michalakis Karaolis (age 23) and Andreas Dimitriou (age 22) at the Central Prisons in Nicosia, making them the first EOKA members executed during the Cyprus Emergency. Karaolis had been convicted for killing a Greek Cypriot police officer during an EOKA operation, while Dimitriou was convicted for shooting a British intelligence agent. Their executions provoke mass demonstrations in Greece and Cyprus. In total, nine EOKA fighters are hanged between 1956 and 1957 under emergency regulations that also authorize detention without trial, collective fines on villages, curfews, and mass arrests.
TMT Announces Its Existence
Turkish Resistance Organisation (TMT) announces its existence when leaflets in its name are distributed around Cyprus's main towns. TMT was formed as a response to EOKA's campaign and its targeting of Turkish Cypriot police and civilians since 1955. Founded by Rauf Denktash and Burhan Nalbantoglu, the organization initially comprised approximately 100 members and received support from the Turkish military.
British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan proposes a 'partnership' plan involving dual sovereignty by Greece and Turkey over Cyprus for seven years, effectively institutionalizing partition. Greek Cypriots and Greece reject the plan; Turkey conditionally accepts. The plan is the first time a British government effectively endorses a form of partition.
A bomb explodes at the Turkish Consulate's Press Office in the Turkish quarter of Nicosia. Turkish Cypriot crowds attack the Greek quarter, killing at least 2 Greek Cypriots. British Deputy Governor Sinclair assesses the bombing was 'apparently not Greek inspired' and describes it as 'their all-out bid for partition.' The bombing triggers the bloodiest period of intercommunal violence in the 1950s.
During the June 1958 intercommunal violence wave, British Royal Horse Guards soldiers arrest 35 Greek Cypriot men from Kontemenos village in a riverbed near Skylloura. Eight of the men are separated and released near the Turkish Cypriot village of Geunyeli. TMT members attack and kill all eight unarmed men in the fields between Geunyeli and Ortakoy. A Commission of Inquiry headed by Chief Justice Paget Bourke investigates, with findings published on 9 December 1958. The British military's role in releasing unarmed civilians near a hostile village during extreme intercommunal tension remains a point of serious contention.