Abstract
<p>This paper conducts historical research on the inter-communal talks and the political life in the two communities of Cyprus from 1974 to 1983. The period covered by the research commenced with the creation of the bi-regional structure on the island in 1974 and ceased with the declaration of Turkish Cypriot Independence in 1983. As this period constitutes an important threshold in the history of Cyprus, it might be argued that observing the political developments it covers is likely to be beneficial for the literature. The research focused on the two communities’ positions in negotiations as well as their elections and political actors. It utilized Turkish, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot newspapers (and official press releases), political leaders’ memoirs, national archives of USA (NARA) as well as official online documents. Its findings indicate that the two sides could not reach to a settlement mainly due to their disagreements on the authorities of central and regional governments. While the Turkish Cypriot side promoted broader authorities for the regional governments, the Greek Cypriot side favoured broader authorities for the central government. On the other hand, while Turkish Cypriot leader Denktaş had managed to unite the majority of Turkish Cypriot right-wing voters, the Greek Cypriot right-wing was divided among supporters of Makarios and Clerides. On the other hand, while the Greek Cypriot left-wing was in cooperation with Makarios, the Turkish Cypriot left-wing opposed Denktaş’s policies. </p>
Highlights
From the 1960 system to federalismZeno of Citium, a Cypriot philosopher, promoted the ‘cosmopolitan utopia’ in a form of cosmopolitan citizenship, a world-wide political order and a universal law (Brown & Held, 2010, p.4)
The Greek Cypriot community promoted Enosis which was totally unacceptable to Turkish Cypriots as it would render them purely an ineffective minority in the Greek nation-state. (Kızılyürek, 2002)
The pro-Enosis Greek nationalism led Turkish Cypriots to promote the partition of the island by Greece and Turkey, and the British rulers’ divide-and-rule policies damaged the inter-communal relations on the island (Yorgancıoğlu & Kıralp, 2019)
Summary
Zeno of Citium, a Cypriot philosopher, promoted the ‘cosmopolitan utopia’ in a form of cosmopolitan citizenship, a world-wide political order and a universal law (Brown & Held, 2010, p.4). On June 28, 1981, Turkish Cypriots held their legislative and presidential elections Denktaş defeated his pro-federation socialist and social democrat rivals (CTP’s candidate Berberoğlu and TKP’s candidate Ziya Rızkı) in the first round by winning around 51 percent of the votes in the presidential elections. What it enjoyed was a fair proportional representation as no other Greek Cypriot leader but Makarios could convince the leadership of AKEL to sacrifice the party’s seats by showing fewer candidates When it comes to Turkish Cypriot left-wing, they owed their electoral success in 1981 elections largely on the ‘social justice’ discourse. He claimed that the 1981 elections clearly monitored the emergence of an ideological cleavage between nationalists and Marxists-Leninists in the Turkish Cypriot community (Moudouros, 2017, pp.151-152)
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