EOKA and Anglo-Greek Relations: The View from Athens

Abstract

ABSTRACT The paper gives an overview of how the armed struggle of EOKA against the British colonial rule in Cyprus between 1955 and 1959 affected relations between Greece and Great Britain. More specifically, it focuses on the Greek perspective on how the Anglo-Greek relation was evolved due to EOKA’s insurgency, by exploring the attitude of Athens towards EOKA, by investigating whether or not the Greek government backed the armed organisation (and by explaining its reasons for doing so) as well as by dealing with the debate between Greece and Britain at the United Nations in order to support their position in relation to EOKA’s insurgent activities. It argues that Athens perceived EOKA’s struggle as a calamity on Anglo-Greek relations and to a great extent as an additional obstacle in the way for solving the Cyprus question. For this reason, it is suggested that, by making EOKA dependent on supplies from Greece, the Karamanlis’s government, tried to exercise indirect control over its activities.