What is the Cyprus problem and why has it become such a protracted and difficult to solve conflict? Understanding the causes and dynamics of the dispute requires some familiarity with the recent history of the island.

In broad terms, the post-colonial problem of Cyprus can be divided into two phases. The first one covers the period from 1960 to 1974, and the second one the period from 1974 to the present. During the first phase, from the establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960 (especially after the 1963 flare-up) until 1974, the problem was basically an internal dispute between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots in which external powers became involved. Difficulties, which could lead to a domestic ethno-political dispute, were, to some extent, inherent in the state-building process and the bicommunal character of the Cypriot society. These difficulties turned into insurmountable problems when the dispute turned violent and the island became a place of armed confrontation.

The two communities by failing to build a working state—a task next to impossible under the 1960 settlement of the colonial problem and given the adversarial attitudes and antagonistic loyalties to Greece and Turkey—fell into the trap of confrontational tactics and mutual blame casting. All the rest, including fighting, gradual segregation, further complications and external involvement followed almost naturally. The sequence of events was neither pleasant nor justified and it was as vicious as it was unjustified.

External involvement in the 1960s and 1970s

For decades, confrontation between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus was part of the problem.  Britain, the former colonial power, which still has two sizable military bases on the island, has also been following closely developments on the island. Also, during the Cold War, superpower involvement was another source of complication. It put the island on the list of peripheral points of superpower friction. As it turned out, the local ethnic dispute over state-building became entangled in the web of regional, ideological, political, and military considerations of external powers. Things could not be worse for the newborn Republic of Cyprus. By 1974, the problem was in a state of stagnation, basically consisting of the clashing claims and concerns of the two local communities, the two “motherlands”, the former colonial power and the two superpowers.

The Greek coup d' état, the Turkish invasion of 1974, and the current status quo

Since 1974, the problem has entered a new phase that led to the present status quo.  Following the coup d' état which was staged against President Makarios by the Greek military regime in July 1974 and the subsequent Turkish invasion, drastic changes took place on the island including the de facto division and a painful demographic surgery that led to displacement of about one third of the population. The forced movement and exchange of population, which led to ethnic segregation, have been widening the gap between the two communities and undermining efforts for reunification. Besides the division of the island, the presence of a sizable Turkish army in the north and a shared feeling of uncertainty and insecurity among the two communities have been some of the striking features of the problem ever since.

Dr. Joseph S. Joseph is Professor of International Relations and Jean Monnet Chair in European Foreign and Security Policy at the University of Cyprus.