‘Enough is enough’
the advantage of hindsight, he was clearly an agent provocateur from Greece, from Athens, sent there by the colonels to stir up the locals, and, as you know they were sufficiently stirred up, and a coup occurred in July 1974.
FZ
I mean, Makarios seemed to be quite powerful in his position, but in fact he was undermined by Grivas and, with his henchman Nicos Sampson, they were able to actually launch the coup. I think that was a surprise to many people, including yourself.
MG
Yes it was. I mean, the situation was bad, but I don’t think we appreciated it . . . but as you’ll be well aware this was instigated from Athens by the colonels in Athens, and Nicos Sampson was well known as a terrorist from way back.
A lot of Greek Cypriots suffered at that time, you know, our village was shot up by the internecine strife that was going on.
I remember when we eventually got back to our house, there were bullet holes all over it, and you could see the damage. It wasn’t from Turkish, it was definitely from Greek versus Greek. This is something that people forget, and when they talk about the so-called invasion by Turkish mainlanders, they forget that there was fighting going on between Greek and Greek, at that time, Greek Cypriot and Greek Cypriot, with a huge number of mainland Greek soldiers already on the island, which was a great surprise, I think, not only to the British, but also to the Turkish mainlanders when they intervened as they describe it today.
FZ
Yes, well, Makarios, who survived the coup and got away, and ended up at the United Nations, I think it was the General Assembly, he actually [gave] a speech, which you can listen to today, and he accused Greece of “invading” Cyprus, in fact, that was the word that he used.
A Turkish Cypriot perspective is that the 15th of July, that fateful day when the coup started, that was the Greek mainland invasion, followed by the Turks responding to that and intervening.
MG
Turkey had asked us, the United Kingdom, as a guarantor, to help, and frankly we were feeble. The Prime Minister at the time had enough on his plate, I imagine, saying “No”, and so I think Turkey, as a guarantor of security, had no alternative, because if she had not intervened, then Turkish Cypriots were already in the process of being rounded up and murdered, there would probably have been a major ethnic cleansing continued. There probably wouldn’t be any Turkish Cypriots left on the island today.
FZ
Let’s move on to 2004, to the Annan Plan and referendum. We will recall that this was the most extensive and comprehensive international attempt, organised by the United Nations and backed by the European Union and others, as we mentioned earlier on. A plan to solve the Cyprus Problem once and for all, and it included all sorts of things, including the withdrawal of the military. There would have been less than 1,000 soldiers left from each side of Cyprus, if the Annan Plan had gone ahead, today.
We’ve already mentioned the fact that the Turkish Cypriots had said “Yes” and the Greek Cypriots said “No” to the proposals. Now, why do you think, how did it come to be, that here are the Turkish Cypriots saying “Yes, let’s have this peace plan”, and the Greek Cypriot side saying “No”, yet they end up being a part of the EU but the Turkish Cypriots do not? How does this logic work?
MG
Well, if I could just share with you, just by my own sort of context here. Firstly, during my time in the military I was very fortunate enough to have some very senior posts in Nato, and I worked with Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots in that period, giving me the opportunity to get to know Turkish generals, Turkish colonels, for example, in my division in Belgium at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, I had Turkish military people working for me, and I knew a lot of the generals from that period, and also when I was head of the Royal Air Force, I was able to visit Turkey on a number of occasions. . . So at the time of the Annan Plan, I personally believed that this was a way
ahead, because I could see a whole range of circumstances in it, which would enable, if it was starting to go wrong, to be stopped, and security was one of the most important, as you rightly identified, that was going to take 15 years at least to remove all the soldiers from the island, and this was going to be done in steps and reviewed, as I recall, every five years. So there were security . . . benefits to that, plus a number of benefits for Turkish Cypriots, and I personally used what influence I had, both with my Turkish Cypriot friends, and with Turkish mainland friends, to say this is worth a go.
I had no influence at all with Greek Cypriots, but I was given reasonable assurance by diplomats that that was going to be okay and all I can say is we were successful, [but] the diplomats were not with the Greek Cypriots, and I think that was a huge shame. . . I’m going to quote now from Jack Straw, who, as you will know was [British] Foreign Secretary for a long time, and who has made a number of pronouncements, which I think deserve to be highlighted, and this is a direct quote from him, he said: “The fundamental problem was and remains that the Greek Cypriots had no incentive to sign up to the deal. In one of its worst strategic decisions ever, the European Union, sadly with UK acquiescence, had agreed that Cyprus should join the EU on the 1st of May 2004, whether agreement had been reached with the Turkish Cypriots or not. To add insult to injury to the North, it is the whole island which formally has acceded to membership, including the unrecognised and unrepresented TRNC.”
That is it . . . by agreeing to let the Greek Cypriots join the EU, there was no leverage on them for that Annan Plan, and consequently . . . the Greek Orthodox Church, [Greek Cypriot communist party] Akel, and all the rest of them who didn’t want any agreement at any price with
Turkish Cypriots, were able to vote it down.
I don’t think that would have happened if they had had the leverage of saying “if you don’t sign up you will not become a member of the European Union”. Big mistake, big mistake, and it’s left them with this huge advantage ever since.
FZ
What about the future? Let’s talk about the future, that’s the past. It is often claimed that, really, the key problem for Cyprus is the Turkish troops, and if they leave Cyprus, all the problems will go away. As a former military person, and also as an observer on Cyprus, what are your views on that please, Sir Michael?
MG
Well, it’s the big cry from Greek Cypriots about the presence of Turkish soldiers on the island, and to a degree they’re right, in that the numbers of soldiers that are there are simply not necessary, to hold it at 30,000 or whatever the figure is at the moment, you could do with a lot less. But in terms of a bargaining position, which is what it
is, then there’s absolutely no reason for the Turkish negotiators and Turkish Cypriot negotiators to give anything up until they see some response, some benefit coming
to them, from the Greek Cypriots and frankly, since . . . 2004, there’s been no progress.
I’m going to give another quote, because I think it is so important that people understand this, and this is Jack Straw again in 2017, way on from [2004] . . . He said: “Earlier this summer [of 2017] the 11th international effort to strike a deal between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots was rejected by the Greek Cypriot government, as every previous one had been. So, whatever its terms, will the next and the next be. It is time to end the charade that negotiated agreement to unite the island with a bizonal bicommunal government will ever be possible. The solution is to partition the island and give international recognition to the Turkish Cypriot state in the North.” Now, that’s pretty clear and that’s from a diplomat who’s had the experience of viewing this totally objectively with no agenda behind him at all.
FZ
People believe that there is a silver bullet. In my view, the federal thing could work but it hasn’t happened, so it’s important to try out new models, different ways of thinking, thinking outside the box. But I think there’s a lot of groundwork, in my opinion, to be done to bring people up to speed with the modern world, really, away from racial hatred and towards understanding that we’re all human beings, trying to live our lives, have a good education, good health, and all the rest of it. Do you feel, Sir Michael, that enough is being done to bring the two communities . . . on par with each other in terms of their understanding of one another?
MG
It’s difficult to know what Turkish Cypriots can do, to be honest. I think it has to be the international community that puts pressure on the Greek Cypriots. But what pressure can they put on them? The Greek Cypriots have got what they want, and it’s always distressed me that, in my experience, the schools in the North of the island, certainly the ones that I’ve been able to visit, have a perfectly normal syllabus.
They don’t indulge in TurkGreek disagreements, they educate their children. I’m told by those who have been to Greek Cypriot schools that, unfortunately, almost fundamental to the syllabus is the poison that is dripped into the young people today about the Greek and Turkish situation, with of course the so-called 1974 invasion as the beginning of the whole situation, not, of course, the culmination of what had been going on for so many years before. So, unless the international community puts pressure on the Greek Cypriots to do better in that field, I don’t think anything’s going to happen.
FZ
Well, thank you very much for those words. Is there anything else that we ought to be covering, Michael, or have we reached to our agenda for today?
MG
If I could have my last little shout on this one, because I find it sad, so sad, that an island in which, when I first arrived there I thought had so much going for it, and there were some lovely Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots who were actually getting on and managing to live, and we saw the extremist right-wing of Greece and Greek Cypriots, this nonsense of Enosis poison that whole atmosphere and kill off the prospect of living together as one would have hoped they could. And all this has been going on ever since that time, and since 1974, Turkish Cypriots have been blamed. . . The sanctions that have been put on them are no more than a blame and a pressure point from people who should know better, and I think enough is enough.
I think the denial of human rights for a people who meet all the requirements for democratic statehood, who were victims of ethnic cleansing for some 57 years, who voted for the United Nations solution to the Cyprus Problem. The fact that they have had sanctions imposed for 37 years is a disgrace and it is time to end it.
❐ Sir Michael Graydon GCB CBE FRAES served as a UK Royal Air Force pilot and staff officer, including command appointments in the UK and Falkland Islands. He was a Nato commander in 1991-1992 and head of the RAF from 1992 to 1997. He was knighted in 1989 and has had a second home in North Cyprus for more than half a century.
❐ Fahri Zihni is the chairman of Embargoed!, an independent human rights group which campaigns against embargoes placed on the people of North Cyprus.
❐ The video can be viewed on the Embargoed! YouTube channel bit.ly/3oczc0F
It will also be broadcast on BRT 2 at 8pm tomorrow