The Road to 1974: The 1964 security crisis on Cyprus

Turkey came close to invading Cyprus in late 1963 and early 1964, when intercommunal violence raged after the breakdown of joint government

When it became independent in 1960, Cyprus did not have a military. The constitution allowed a regular army of 2,000, which was 60% Greek-Cypriot and 40% Turkish-Cypriot. In addition, it allowed 950 Greek and 550 Turkish soldiers on the island as well as a police force and gendarmerie. There was no air force or air defence, no navy, no artillery and no armour, because all security threats were deemed to be internal. The import of weapons was something on which Cyprus’ guarantor powers, Britian, Greece and Turkey, fully expected to be consulted. So Cyprus was, as its ambassador to Athens Nikos Kranidiotis described it in his memoir, a republic without ramparts (Ανοχύρωτη Πολιτεία).^[1]

The Trojan Horses in this situation were the illicitly armed Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot militias. The Greek-Cypriots had intended for eventual Enosis, union with Greece, and the Turkish-Cypriots for partition and later secession or annexation to Turkey – all unconstitutional goals that would have to be achieved by coup. It was the most active elements in favour of these goals who took advantage of the breakdown of joint rule in November 1963 to terrorise the enemy as they saw it – the civilians of the opposite ethnic community. This internal threat, and Turkish threats to invade the island, engendered the question of security for the government of Archbishop Makarios III.