Enosis Was a Stupid Idea
20 October 2024 (Edited 17 December 2024 - 29 December 2024)
Mustafa Niyazi
MPhil International Relations
Founder & Chief Editor of Cyprus Profile
A Greek demonstration in the 1930s in favour of enosis. The banner reads "ΖΗΤΩ Η ΕΝΩΣΙΣ" which roughly translates to "WE WANT ENOSIS". The two flags behind the banner are the flags of the Kingdom of Greece.
Enosis, the idea of establishing political union between Greece and the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus is popularly framed as the "will" of the "Cypriot" people.
Atleast, that is the branding, if you believe it.
"Cyprus is Greek."
"Cyprus has been Greek for thousands of years."
"We Greeks are the majority on Cyprus."
"We have the right to self-determination."
"We want enosis."
"GREECE! CYPRUS! ENOSIS!"
Apart from the lack of conviction in questioning its legitimacy and implications, which is very concerning, there is also a great deal of effort being spent to redefine its image in popular discourse.
But for all the attempts to paint Enosis and its legacy as "legitimate", "moral" and "humane" and of supposedly pursuing the right of a "downtrodden" and "suffering" people, "occupied" and living under "subjugation" or "apartheid" on their own "native lands", the actual history of Enosis says much more than its social image.
Because behind the veils Enosis is just another settler colonialist imperialist project rooted in the extreme far-right ethnic purity fever dreams of taking somebody else's lands, or rather, atleast as far as this case is concerned, "Hellenising" an island that is otherwise historically, culturally, and demographically Turkish and slapping the word "Greek" on top... and then forcing that island and its native population, the Turks, to against their will, interests and security, exchange one colonial master - Great Britain - with another - Greece.
Sound familiar? (Palestine vis-a-vis Britain-turn-Israel ringing a bell?)
A map of Greater Greece after the Treaty of Sèvres, when the Megali Idea - Greece's ambition of territorial expansion or multiple enosis through much of the Ottoman Empire - seemed close to fulfillment. It features a portrait of Eleftherios Venizelos in the top left corner, and a female personification of the despotic kingdom to the right, bearing a scroll with a citation that reads: "Greece is destined to live and will live (Harilaos Trikoupis)". 31 December 1919. The map includes the following territorial acquisitions: The Kingdom of Greece, which was first officiated in the Peloponnese (Morea) in 1832. The Ionian Islands, which were gifted by Britain upon the arrival of the new King George I in 1864. Thessaly, which was ceded by the Ottomans in 1881. Epirus, Macedonia and Crete which were ceded after the Balkan Wars in 1913. Western Thrace which was ceded by Bulgaria in 1919. Eastern Thrace and self-proclaimed Ionia which were ceded by the Treaty of Sevres in 1920. And the Dodecanese, which were ceded by Italy in 1947. The island of Cyprus, a distant 800km away to the south-east, and nestled under Greece's old Anatolian mainland, is imposed in an isolated box in the bottom left.
Now before we begin talking about Enosis we first need to address the bigger elephant in the room called the Megali Idea, what it is a part of, how it came to be, and why Cyprus?
In the late 1700s philhellenism started to take root as a popular movement in European culture. The romanticisation of ancient Greek culture led many to advocate for Greek patriotism and independence from the Ottoman Empire. The Great Powers, who initially saw it necessary to preserve the status quo of the Ottoman Empire, soon changed their stance to match this demand.
Emboldened by this, and on the platform of their own cultural, economic and academic liberty and equity under the Ottoman Empire, they followed in the footsteps of the nationalism and enlightenment movements taking Europe by storm, and the cogs were set in motion that would bring about the genesis of a new nation and ideology, and change the face of the region forever.
A collection of paintings on the Greek War of Independence. Top Left: The camp of Karaiskakis at Phaliro. Theodoros Vryzakis (1814–1878). Painted in 1855. Top Right: The burning of an Ottoman frigate by a Greek fire ship. Original title: The attack on the Turkish flagship in the Gulf of Eressos at the Greek island of Lesvos by a fire ship commanded by Dimitrios Papanikolis. Konstantinos Volanakis (1837–1907). Bottom Left: Ibrahim Pasha at the Third siege of Missolonghi. Giuseppe Mazzola (1748-1838). Bottom Right: The Battle of Navarino. Ambroise Louis Garneray (1783–1857). Painted between 1827 and 1830.
After gathering enough support for their cause, in the early months of 1821 the Greeks embarked on a great ambition. Thus began the Greek Revolution. They declared their independence in the Morea, their cradle and backbone, and with clever diplomatic handling and the support of a combined British, French and Russian naval intervention, they de facto achieved it in 1829.
However, stuck with nothing but the tiny footnote of a peninsula they couldn't get much out of, yet still emboldened, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, they sought to expand their boundaries to include other parts of the Ottoman Empire, with a focus on areas where Greeks and Orthodox Christians resided.
The Megali Idea was born.
They first played a peripheral role in the Ottoman Empire's conflicts, expanding into Ottoman territories during moments of distraction, and made efforts to cause insurrections which failed as they were incredibly unpopular with the local populations and easily crushed by Ottoman forces, just as had happened elsewhere during the Greek War of Independence, including on Cyprus.
Where they couldn't achieve expansion through direct conflict or insurrections, however, they sought to do so through strong political assertions and clever diplomatic acquisitions, exploiting Ottoman weaknesses and shortcomings.
Map of the territory claimed by Eleftherios Venizelos as per the Megali Idea at the Paris Peace Conference, after World War 1 in 1919. The black areas are claimed while the shaded region is where Greek and French claims are disputed. The territory is also called Great Greece (Megali Hellas). Published by The New York Times Company, New York City, N.Y. 1919.
The culmination of this Megali expansion came with the occupation of Eastern Thrace and Western Anatolia in 1919 with the support of the Great Powers including the newcomer United States of America, which emboldened them to push deeper, only to lose once again militarily to the defending Turks, but this time also being forced to cede their most recent Anatolian and Thracian acquisitions, as did the other occupying powers: Britain, France and Italy.
But although the Anatolian Disaster forced them to all but abandon the Megali Idea as far as Anatolia was concerned, they still none-the-less continued their policies where the Turks essentially didn't have effective suzerainty or control.
Cyprus.
The war banner of the "Column of Cypriots" («Φάλαγγα των Κυπρίων»), consisting of a white flag with a large blue cross, and the words "GREEK FLAG OF THE MOTHERLAND CYPRUS" in the top left corner, purportedly hoisted on a wooden mast, carved and pointed at the end to act as a lance in battle. It is currently stored at the National Historical Museum of Athens. Background: On 9 June 1821, 3 ships from the Greek controlled Morea (Peloponnese) sailed to Cyprus under Kanaris Konstantinos (Κωνσταντίνος Κανάρης, Psara 1790 – 1877 Athens), a Greek Fighter of the 1821 Revolution. They landed at Kozan (Lapithou), Larnaka. Kanaris brought with him papers from the Filiki Etaireia. He brought with him back to the Morea between 580 and 1000 people (from a total population of approximately 185 thousand) who formed the Column of Cypriots, led by General Chatzipetros, many of whom died mainly at Missolonghi and at the Battle of Athens in 1827 where roughly 130 were killed fighting in the secessionist war against the Ottomans.
Now, before the formation of the bi-communal partnership Republic of Cyprus (ROC) in 1960 there were a number of not-so inconspicuous Enosist organisations and platforms working to achieve that goal.
Among the first was the Patriotic Cypriotic League (PCL) established in Athens in 1898 by one George Phrankoudes that, as he himself put it, was founded "with the object of effecting in Cyprus the same revolution as had taken place in Crete".
The very first Enosist organisation we could say was in-fact the Society of Friends (Φιλικὴ Ἑταιρεία, Filiki Etaireia), the secret political and revolutionary organization founded in 1814 in Odessa, whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece and establish an independent Greek State, and which during the Greek War of Independence had visited the island to incite support.
There were also the various Patriotic Clubs established on Cyprus since 1878, that according to the British High Commissioner Sir W. F. Haynes-Smith were "engineered from abroad (and we know from where) by past masters in the art... (of you know what) and who have command of money".
And of course there was also the Greek Consul in Cyprus which, although you and I would assume in the context of today that it would surely have been a diplomatic mission that steers clear of any political interference in the host country, but its primary purpose was actually to act on behalf of Greece to actively encourage, support and facilitate achieving Enosis on Cyprus.
Most significantly perhaps, it's worth noting the role it played together with Athens and Britain to help facilitate the pumping of thousands of Greek settlers to the island from Greece, Egypt and other places allied or aligned with the philhellenic ethos, and ensuring this newly beefed up "Greek Cypriot" population would then be carrying the Enosis torch, and given all the arms and money it needed to ensure efficacy and dominance, and it deliberately targeted the native Turkish population and their assets as part of that process.
It also encouraged the Greek population to abuse the Turks, to attack the Turks physically, socially, culturally, politically, economically in a methodical attempt to uproot, displace or replace them. It spurred efforts aimed at reappropriating the island's Turkish and Islamic heritage and culture, such as changing road names from Turkish to Greek and building over mosques with churches, essentially slapping the words "Greek" and "Christian" on top and manufacturing the conditions for a Greek "national cause" that, much like with Izmir in Anatolia, would supplant, supersede and fly-over the long-rooted but "undesirable" Turkish and Islamic elements, and provide a platform to push support for the Enosis agenda internationally.
A propaganda leaflet promoting enosis. It was produced by the EOKA terrorist organisation on an unknown date and distributed around the island at the start of the EOKA terrorism campaign on 1 April 1955. It features: the word ENOSIS (union) in capital letters. The face is an image of the leader of EOKA, Georgios Theodoros Grivas (codenamed: Digenis) who prior to jointly-founding EOKA with the Greek government and Michael Christodoulou Mouskos (clerical name: Makarios) was also a member of the secret Committee for the Cyprus Struggle, and in World War II collaborated with the Nazi German occupation of Greece, taking part in critical operations on the side of the so-called Security Battalions. The words on the banner draped over a line-drawing of Cyprus read "Hellas" (Greek) - "Kipros" (Cyprus) - "Enosis" (Union).
Now none of this can even start to be mentioned without also doing our due diligence to recognise the most prominent and infamous of the cogs in the Enosis machine, the terrorist organisations EOKA & EOKA-B.
And in mentioning that we also need to drive home the key instrumental role played here by the new Greek Cypriot society in facilitating, carrying and spearheading all of this. That includes the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, the religious leadership, the committees, the congregations, the Greek members of the political and judicial assemblies, the Greek political parties including by the way AKEL - the most leftist-leaning of these, the unions, the social groups and organisations, the clubs, the businesses, even the schools, the hospitals, entire communities and villages built on pushing the Enosis agenda, lest they be excommunicated from the crucial-to-livelihood functions of their society.
It was calculated.
It was systemic.
It was ruthless.
This was the rot that was brought to Cyprus.
The hostile, malicious, ethnocratic, theocratic, racist, supremacist, extremist, imperialist, settler-colonialist, terrorist rot.
Every single cog in the Enosis machine, from those pushing for it - be that with smash-mouth politics or barbaric and heinous assaults on the Turks, to those simply standing back and letting it be pushed. All of it was built on the back of recruiting people to that agenda and relying on the support they received from complicity and inaction to it, or rather, of the rewards they got for the ethnic cleansing, dispossession and land theft committed by their national collective.
Pollice verso.
"What we all give a thumbs up or thumbs down to can't be made my own personal responsibility. Because everyone did it. Not just me. So you can't blame me for anything. And I will feel no guilt or remorse for the people I just sentenced to death."
A sign at the Girne (Kyrenia) Harbour reading "No entry to Turks and Dogs". Between 1960-1974.
But enough about that.
For now.
I often get into heated conversations and debates with froth-in-mouth zealots on this topic, many of whom I would dare say are the indignant-to-truth gatekeepers of a global campaign by Greece and its adorers to manipulate history, confuse humanity and trouble mankind with their idiocy and support for a level of barbarism so terrifying they need to hide it behind the ten-foot-thick walls of concrete disinformation.
But one thing that never happens is nobody asks for an opinion on Enosis or how contrary to Greek claims of "Turkey" or "World Powers" or basically anyone and everything else being to blame for their own errors and shortcomings on the island, it was in fact the relentless pursuit of Enosis by Greece and the Greek Cypriots and them alone - albeit with foreign aid, support and egging on - that led to the current situation on Cyprus today.
So lets talk about it.
What do I think of Enosis? And the current situation in Cyprus?
Top Left: Thousands of chanting Greek Cypriot students are shown as they march through the streets of Lefkoşa (Nicosia), Cyprus, on 12 April 1964 demanding the return to Cyprus of Former EOKA Chief terrorist, Gen. George Grivas. (AP Photo). Top Right: Greek Cypriot students march through the streets in Lefkoşa on 2 December 1967 carrying banners reading “Enosis (union with Greece) and we’ll not let the soldiers go back.” referring to the Greek soldiers occupying the island and trying to crush the Turkish Cypriot resistance. The demonstration went on as U.S. presidential envoy Cyprus Vance was meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Makarios III in an effort to get him to de-escalate enough to prevent Turkey from militarily intervening and potentially going to war with Greece over its invasion and occupation of the island. (AP Photo). Bottom: Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides giving a pro-enosis speech under a banner reading: "GREECE CYPRUS ENOSIS" (ΕΛΛΑΣ ΚΥΠΡΟΣ ΕΝΩΣΗΣ) in 2024, the same as Makarios III in 1963. The then-newly elected Greek Cypriot leader Christodoulides took part in a ceremony commemorating the EOKA terror group, which not only murdered near to 400 British servicemen in the 1950s, but also later played a significant role along with Greek-Greek Cypriot forces in the attempted genocide of the Turkish Cypriot people between 1963-1974. All for "GREECE CYPRUS ENOSIS", Union with Greece, which is the writing he stood under when delivering his address, which he openly supported in the footsteps of all his predecessors.
Lets cut to the chase.
I think Enosis, the idea of calling Cyprus "Greek" and unilaterally annexing it to Greece, and the relentless pursuit of this despite the actual Cypriots - the Turkish Cypriots - and the only legitimate potential claimant to the island Turkey saying "no", this was a stupid idea to begin with.
I think the refusal to accept the concessions and olive branches which championed fairness for both sides; the refusal to implement the treaties concerning the establishment of a bi-communal partnership republic; the illegal occupation of the government and all institutions and organs of that republic; their illegal secession from that republic in 1963 as well as of the treaties which they signed; their unilateral de facto dissolution of that republic in that same year; the continued wholesale disenfranchisement and suffering of the Turkish Cypriots which ensued; and the culminant withdrawalist occupation of the south of the island by Greece, in the hope that Enosis could still somehow be achieved even after being resoundingly defeated and permanently scuttled. It was all a terribly conscious and calculated step in the wrong direction.
I think it was a stupid idea.
I think it was a bad idea.
I think it was a disengenuous idea.
I think it was an inhumane idea.
I think it was a morally bankrupt idea.
I think it was an unprincipled idea.
I think it was an undemocratic idea.
And I think it was a dangerous idea.
Nevcihan Oluşum, whose agonising face was captured in a famous photo by an award-winning British journalistic photographer Don McCullin, was used by Greece for decades as the image for their propaganda campaign of their "suffering" at the hands of the "terrible Turk". She died at the age of 87 in the free unoccupied areas of the island in 2018.
But most of all, above everything else, the most disappointing thing was not the brutal and barbaric way the Turkish Cypriots were treated.
It was not the horrible bathtub massacres, or the hundreds of stormings and shootings, or the treatment of the Turks like "filth" and "animals", blockaded, trapped, constantly under siege in the enclaves, tents, makeshift sheds and caves, the WWII style-grottos and for the more fortunate the Turkish army protected safe-zones, living off foreign aid from the international Red Crescent.
It was not the deliberate denial and weaponisation of such basic needs as water, food, electricity, even milk for babies, deliberately only allowing the survivors a restricted caloric minimum that would put the amount of sustenance provided to the worst criminals in the dankest of prisons to shame.
It was not the urgency of this situation that could have led to the deaths of thousands, or the victims being forced to protest this in the full sight of an unperturbed lame duck of a so-called UN "Peacekeeping Force", which in reality was there to simply let the Greeks do what they wanted and justify it.
It was not the destruction and forced displacement of people from more than 103 villages, or to those who couldn't escape the clutches of this expanding open-air apartheid prison and concentration camp the restrictions imposed to their freedom of movement on their own native homeland, or the denial of basic healthcare or pensions or the right to apply for passports or simple birth registrations and marriage certificates, or any other state-related social benefits or functions, because their occupiers didn't want them to exist, they couldn't exist.
It was not the 1000s of people left dead and buried beneath the worms and the dirt, some of them actually buried alive, or the tens of thousands more who were fortunate to live but turned into stateless persons and refugees, collectively squeezed into 3% of their own native homeland, or the hundreds of thousands more left to suffer from abroad and in full-view of an uncaring international community as their families and loved ones lived under perpetual flight and fear, subjugation, occupation, oppression and siege, their voices hijacked by the hostile foreign elements occupying their homeland.
It was not the bodies of few day old babies riddled with bullet holes, or the babies ripped from their wombs, or the prisoners of war castrated, mutilated and turned inside out with their organs missing and hammers nailed into their skulls, leaving them humiliated before murdering them in cold blood.
It was not all the men and young boys of the villages being rounded up, kidnapped and taken to makeshift prisons or fields and massacred before being dumped in dirt holes, or the consciously ignored voices of the women screaming in terror at the news of their deceased husbands and children.
It was not the journalists who were deliberately handcuffed and shot in their guts, or the shepherds slaughtered like sheep - as ironic as that one goes, or the women and young girls who were isolated from their men, and vulnerable, and who were savagely and brutally attacked, raped, mutilated, humiliated, some of them with their breasts cut off.
The most disappointing thing in all of this is not how even with everything being documented in real-time by the United Nations, by foreign journalists and commentators, by ambassadors and intelligence agencies, by the offices of secretaries and heads of state, by the Turkish Cypriots themselves, who were bravely wielding cameras to spread their plight to the world while also defending themselves against the vast military host of Greece with nothing but homemade pistols and shotguns... while nothing was done to help them.
It is not how even to this day the Turkish Cypriots have not only been ignored, but also collectively punished, blamed, isolated simply for the crime of refusing to give up and not leave or die, while their aggressors were being sold arms to shoot them with, and have been rewarded with everything they ever desired and more - blanket support for Enosis in all but name, including even the "victimhood" status they fooled the world with.
The worst thing is not how all of this happened not just under the noses of all those observers, who did or could no nothing, but also the British soldiers stationed on the island, and even a United Nations Peacekeeping Force (UNFICYP) which despite being agreed to at great loss for the Turkish Cypriots politically and existentially, it still did nothing to protect them, counter to its promises, counter to the promise it would only be temporary, that it would focus on the most pressing issue of protecting Turkish Cypriot lives, and eventually allow for a political solution to the horrors being unleashed upon them, but the UN lied, and instead it gave the Greeks the political cover they needed to do whatever they wanted and get away with it, and the Turkish Cypriots only had a handful of rogue non-compliants among the British Army and the UNFICYP helping to alert them of impeding monolithic assaults or accommodate their forced movement to safer places. Human beings the lot of them. But what could be said of the rest?
Worst yet, it is not how the only country to intervene and put an end to it all, the only country to protect the Turkish Cypriots, and finally establish peace and security for the Turkish Cypriots on their island, has somehow been painted as the aggressor and the actual aggressor - the Greeks - the victim. And it is not how the Turkish Cypriots continue to show good faith, yet also continue to be humiliated by an international community of selective pseudo-listeners slave to their politically-automated pro-Enosis anti-Turkish Cypriot sentiments, with deafening ears and blinding eyes to boot.
The biggest issue with Enosis is not any of these things.
The biggest issue with Enosis is simply that it exists.
Pollice Verso, an 1872 painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (Phoenix Art Museum). It depicts the Vestal Virgins signifying to a murmillo that they decree death on a fallen gladiator in the arena. The term itself is a Latin phrase, meaning "with a turned thumb", that is used in this context of gladiatorial combat, a hand gesture or thumb signal used by Ancient Roman crowds to pass judgment on a defeated gladiator following duels in colloseums. The notion of the pollice verso thumb signal was brought to modern popular attention by this painting. To those pursuing enosis, whatever they did could be justified, and no one could be held individually responsible, no blame, no guilt, no remorse. For when everyone is involved, no individual can be wrong.
We also already mentioned the Pollice Verso concept at play here.
And to clarify whether or not this is true. It is true.
The statues, museums, church murals, podiums, sermons, books, newspapers, magazines, TV stations, party manifestos, political speeches, fundraisers, social organisations, labour unions, charities, school textbooks, all glorifying the "heroes" of the Enosis cause and vilifying the Turkish infidels and heretics as "ungrateful" "mutineers" and a "pollutant" "minority" is also a thing.
Usually in any normal society most would DISAGREE and CONDEMN such things. The few who commit it are branded a DISGRACE in any culture. "They do not represent the entirety of society" is also the usual go to explanation.
And sadly, those idiots do exist in every country, and humanity has not found a way to cure this stupidity even until now.
The goal of any people should be the defense of their culture and territory and protection of life and property, a bit controversial perhaps but in the reality of things they also need to kill if needed, especially armed invaders who attack them. All soldiers or able-bodied people would do the same to protect their families, their possessions, their homeland and their freedom.
Chanting about killing Turks and achieving Enosis in general should have nothing to do with Greece and the Greek Cypriots today and their past should not represent their present. And they should be very sorry about this.
But they are not.
And THAT is also the biggest problem with Enosis.
Going on live TV gloating about how you massacred scores of Turkish civilians. Protesting peace and wishing people dead. Joining mobs of raving hooligans attacking Turkish civilians, policemen and soldiers, hurling insults, lobbing rocks, attacking them with blunt weapons. Trying to invade a foreign country and vandalise their property. Calling the Turkish Cypriots “barbarian hordes” aiming for the "occupation and Turkification of all of Cyprus", and the Greek efforts to exterminate them "miracles when we are united."
Because THAT is just despicable, hostile, dishonest, deceitful, unjustifiable, ahistorical, hypocritical, devious, conniving, malicious, cruel, barbaric, unfeeling, inhumane, ignorant, arrogant, ideological, doctrinaire, partisan, bad, toxic, wrong...
That's what I think of Enosis.
That's what Enosis always was and will always be.
That's why Enosis was a stupid idea.
Would you like to know more about Enosis? Keep reading or
Well, seeing as we've already gotten to this point, we may as well note how confused and complicated this has all become. In order to say "Enosis Was a Stupid Idea" look at what we've had to go through.
We should have just purely been talking about Enosis as this ancient and archaic ideology that no longer exists, but this is also testament to how this octopus of terror gripped its tentacles on so much on the island and in the region at large and evolved through the years to make Enosis mean much more than just a simple but long abandoned aspiration, which I'd also argue should have been calculated to have been unachievable to begin with and necessarily inhumane to even try and implement, and therefore should have been shelved from the get-go.
But we are where we are.
And despite reading everything above one might still also ask, surely there is at least some legitimacy to calls for Enosis when the majority of the population on Cyprus is Greek? Surely they have a right to self determination? After all their history on the island goes back thousands of years, does it not?
Well, none of that is true.
This is not to say I am trying to de-legitimise the right of the Greek Cypriots to the island of Cyprus. About whether they have a right to be here now is unquestionable. Now that the Greeks are here they are here. They have been on Cyprus for well over a hundred years already.
I'm also not going to start comparing or say who has more rights or who has a longer history or heritage on the island thus justifying anyone's claim over the other. If I did that anyway they will lose that argument, and on every front, but I'm not out to do that. And I'm proud to say I have no problem with any of them being here. I'm even prouder to say no one on the island has any problem with them being here. Nobody ever did. And actually that's something I feel very proud of as a Turkish Cypriot.
Despite all they've done to us as well, we've never played that game of tit-for-tat "you tried to exterminate us so we will try to do something to you". And if we're still here now it's because we've been consistent. We've been just. We've been right. We've been fair. Even when they haven't been. We simply won't say they don't exist. But we will demand we are treated equally by them, just as we treat them equally.
And bringing this to the subject of nations and states, there are many states and peoples founded on injustices or foolishness and bad ideas. That doesn't mean that anyone can just come and evict or destroy them. And I'm not saying that. And I'll never say that. But I think I'll have to say that I've always thought it's a stupid, extremist, hardline religious and theocratically strangled, ultra-nationalist idea, and it's their society, sadly, and it's a waste of what it could mean to be Greek, and it guaranteed a quarrel with the Turks because it meant they're going to take away what's most precious to the Turks, their livelihoods, their dignity, their rights, their freedom, their land, their island, by trying to make the Greeks "native" to a land and dispossess the Turks of their land.
Now I don't know about you, but that to me is a very stupid idea.
It was even more stupid that they committed their attempted genocide out in the open and pursuant to a written plan, the Akritas Plan, that I'm sorry to say to all the deniers out there but yes, it did exist, and the fact I even have to say that is very telling of the leaps and bounds people will go to to deny something, the mental gymnastics one must go through is incredible. And it was even more stupid yet that in this plan they recognised the Turks would resist and again, even more stupid than that, if that was even possible, they actually counted on it as a most crucial if not the most crucial part of their plan.
And on that note of Greekness I just mentioned, by the way, about what I just described, in my opinion that's not the way to enhance the Greeks. Making them into "natives" on an island they are not native to, and with a "right to self-determination" not afforded to the actual natives of the island, the Turks, guaranteeing further injustice to the Turks which now anyone can see and even going the extra mile and committing acts so barbaric that no rhetoric of the Hellenes or statues of Plato could ever help them, and it's now more than 120 years or 60 years or 50 years depending on where you want to start, it's generation after generation of Turkish Cypriot brought up either dispossessed of where their grandparents or great grandparents were born, or living in freedom in the TRNC or any other country in the world but also in perpetual international isolation and collective chronic stress, anxiety, depression, and racial trauma simply for being who they are, or if they remained in the Greek occupied areas still living under that religious ethnocratic occupation and humiliation, and now we know something has to be done to address what is now part of that original sin we could say of the Greeks and Cyprus.
On a personal note, I've been actively researching, writing, discussing, talking and working in favour of the Turkish Cypriots and their homeland all my post-university life, and I'm no more or less in favour of it than I was because of recent events where the UN invited the Turkish and Greek leaders to "talks".
Then there's also the even more pitiful situation created by the position and involvement of the Greeks today in these so-called "talks" towards a "solution", which they do to the backdrop of continuing their Enosist policies, as well as threats, lies, provocations, verbal attacks, diplomatic attacks, economic attacks, because they've been edging towards a "solution" before and I don't want it to look as if the Greeks will suddenly have no choice and need to do it as a concession, which they'd be too proud to admit or accept, as far as they're concerned they need the Turks to make concessions to them not visa versa, but they're going to have to come to terms with it one day, and that's part of the Cyprus Problem right there in a nutshell.
Intransigence is the term.
Deliberate and calculated and existentially necessary intransigence.
But it's also a matter of principle to them.
And speaking of principles the following also needs to be said.
There were different periods where Greece and the Greek Cypriots were edging towards accepting Turkish rights and living in peace and harmony with them, towards accepting peace, towards accepting a lasting and peaceful solution, to (excuse the French) stop treating the Turks like s**t, to stop their illegal occupation of the "government" they purport to be, to stop their illegal, unjust and inhumane impositions on the platform of being that purported "government of Cyprus"...
But that's also the issue here. They've been edging towards it but never really fully signed up to it. Just as they were reluctant to sign the 1959 London-Zurich Agreements, or how they have basically said "f**k you" to no less than 77 peace moves and potential solutions to the Cyprus Problem, which has now existed for almost 150 years and counting!
Hooking this back to that point about principle though.
I would like to submit something to you.
If Greeks born in Athens or Alexandria have a right to a state in Cyprus, then Turkish Cypriots born in Cyprus have a right to a state in Cyprus.
Anyone who doesn't agree with that principle I think is suspect.
If the Greeks relentlessly massacring the Turks being stopped by Turkey have a right to claim victimhood - which is absolutely ridiculous, then the Turkish Cypriots who were actually being massacred here, and who were the victims of an island wide crusade if you will to destroy them and who had suffered for years with thousands of people dead and buried and who have been fighting the continuation of that oppressive regime for decades and still counting, then they also have the right to claim victimhood.
If the children of Greeks born in Athens to one or two Greek parents and Russians born in Moscow to one or two Russian parents have the right to obtain so-called "Republic of Cyprus" citizenship, then the children of Turkish Cypriots born in Cyprus to Turkish parents have the right to obtain that same citizenship.
If Greek soldiers, settlers and migrants brought to the island to engage in war, ethnic cleansing, genocide and terrorism have the right to stay in Cyprus, then Turkish migrant workers brought to the island to fill a massive labour shortage caused by the conflict and Turkish soldiers brought to the island to defend the Turkish Cypriots and ensure their security from Greek aggression have the right to stay in Cyprus.
Now I know most people after reading this will say they do agree with this in practice. I know that. Everyone wants to say they are humane, and just, especially when it's presented to them that they might not be. And I know some will wrestle with this personally, they may truly wish to say the Turks deserve nothing, maybe they'll go the extra mile and say the Greeks should have finished the job and exterminated them all and achieved Enosis - I know, happy times, right? - but they couldn't do it, and so the Greeks are the victims and the Turks are the aggressors. But everyone will still want to say they agree the Turkish Cypriots are victims "too", the Turkish Cypriots have rights too, even those who say it but know deep down in their hearts that they truly don't, and they won't, and that's also to be expected.
And we all know that in principle Enosis was born out of the Megali Idea, that is, the idea of establishing a Greater Greece, the belief that after the Morea they were destined to continue aggressively expanding into even more Ottoman Turkish lands, again at the expense of the people living there, and specifically because of that, because they're Greek, because being Greek meant you had that god given "right", it meant you were "superior", it meant you were "strong", and where any Greeks or Greek-speaking Orthodox Christians live, if they are not living in a Greek religious ethno-state that meant they were living under "oppression", or under an "inferior people", in this case "the sick man of Europe", "the terrible Turk", and to them it's as simple as that.
This is not too dissimilar to the creation of the state of Israel at the expense of the Palestinian people and their own national dreams and ambitions, or to the expansion of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific. That's Manifest Destiny to those who don't know. And Zionism. That last one is just as contemporary as it gets, and just like with Enosis it is still ongoing, but this isn't what we're discussing.
This is also about great power politics. This is about how empires fall. This is about soft power, hard power and sharp power. This is also about nationalism. This is also about states, territory, expansionism, imperialism and settler colonialism, those last ones "justifying" some ambiguous and mystical "divine ethno-religious right" and "supremacy" complex.
That is Enosis in a nutshell.
About that application of Pollice Verso earlier. I understand we really need to be very careful when talking about involvement and responsibility and who did what.
We already briefly went through the cogs of the Enosis cause, as we put it above, and we know they all differed in their tactics and specific roles perhaps, or in how much they really agreed or disagreed with the methodology used or the extent, but every asset to this cause worked diligently, collectively and collaboratively to consciously demonise, terrorise and dislodge the native Turkish population, committing acts of barbarism, violence, terrorism and ethnic cleansing.
Of course not all take the same level of responsibility and there's certainly the role played by the leadership in this sense, but fundamentally speaking all the heavy lifting came from the mainly Greek migrants to the British-administered island who were indoctrinated with the extreme far-right Greek nationalist ethos, all with the aim of helping usher in the new era of Cyprus, a "Greek" Cyprus, which would achieve Enosis by any means necessary.
And it didn't stop with them, even their children were fundamentally used, abused and forced to get involved.
They routinely organised processions of their own schoolchildren, armed with blunt weapons, pistols, Greek flags and banners painted with slogans such as "Death to the Turks!", and they proudly marched them through the Turkish neighbourhoods, waving these banners and flags and chanting "Cyprus is Greek!", "Death to the Turks!", "Enosis!" while mobs of Greek thugs did the less dirty side work of simply attacking those vulnerable or susceptible to response.
They committed provocation after provocation, act of violence after act of violence and terrorism against the Turks and also the Brits.
They engaged in widespread bombings, executions and assassinations targeting the government and security apparatus to force them to give up control of the island, and to force the Turks to give up their place and rights to the island.
They used unlawful violence and intimidation against not just servicemen but also civilians without distinction, in the pursuit of advancing their own political aims, and even targeted any dissenters amongst themselves, as few as they were.
With an iron fist, they gripped the island in an environment of fear, terror and hopelessness, while waging a merciless campaign of wanton death and destruction against all who dared to oppose them.
They forced the Turkish populations in many villages to abandon their homes, their lands and their possessions which would then be occupied by the Greeks.
Road and place names were changed from Turkish to Greek.
Mosques and other holy sites were razed and built over with Greek churches.
Back again to that point about children, and the EOKA terrorist organisation, they hid among the local population, embedded themselves, subjugated everyone to the status of slaves, forced or willfully coercing all men, women, even the elderly, even young boys and girls to support them.
Young boys and girls were made to transport weapons and other crucial materials, and when they were subjected to searches, arrests and interrogations by the police, or arrested for being found with weapons or for taking part in or supporting the terrorists during their operations, the fear these young children must have felt, and remember they were manipulated and used and thrusted into that position by the EOKA cowards and some of them even by their families, but they would never have understood or blamed them, yet their images continued to be used by their families and EOKA for propaganda purposes, even becoming the subject of poems and posters decrying the "horrible treatment of poor, innocent children by the British colonial government".
All of this happened before 1960. Because after the ROC was officiated as a state, these groups were brought together to form the "Greek Cypriot community", the "Civil Services", and to create the "Cyprus National Guard", and the terrorist leaders would go on to form the Greek-side of the supposed bi-communal government, becoming politicians, ambassadors and presidents.
Their dark history, which is still unashamedly celebrated by their descendants, is forgotten.
And after 1960 we all know what happened.
Long story short, they labelled the Turks as the "terrible enemies of Hellenism", "dirt", "filth", "dogs", "animals", "scum", "cockroaches", "gypsies", "thieves", "s**t", a "pollutant", "carrion" (rotting flesh) - the implications being to justify their being massacred with impunity.
Their slogan was the same as the Greek revolutionaries of the independence war, it was the same as the Hellenic Armed Forces that invaded Anatolia, and it was the same as the EOKA terrorist organisation.
"VICTORY OR DEATH"
To strive for the death of my freedom.
Or die trying.
And this, all of this, is what I think of Enosis.
*Editor's Note: Let it also be read right here. No matter what happens, the world should know, I will always continue to stand by my Turkish Cypriot brothers and sisters in our just cause. God bless the Turkish Cypriot people. God bless the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). God bless the Republic of Türkiye. God bless the Turkish nation. God bless our veterans. God bless our Martyrs. God bless our struggle. God bless humanity.
*Extra: This article is also related to the decline of the Ottoman Empire, so to give some background to that as well as where the Greek Revolution and the application of Enosis to Cyprus played a part, it's worth mentioning a number of things had happened that led to political instability, economic trouble and social unrest in the empire, which weakened it at its core. Because an empire is bigger than its center. And as far as the Ottoman Empire is concerned, it was a huge empire, one of the most powerful, influential and enduring empires in history, spanning three continents at its height. It was a hub of cultural and scientific innovation producing advancements in medicine, astronomy, architecture and engineering that changed the world. They ruled a considerable mix of peoples and faiths, and there was no great history of ethnic tension, even though there was a history of massively complicated ethnic and professional co-existence. It lasted almost 600 years, until it didn't. And one factor that contributed to its demise was its waning influence over the peoples and territories it had under its control, also known as soft power, and the same rang true for Cyprus. There was both a loss of soft power, in terms of influence, which can be observed in their unwillingness to get involved in the island culturally and politically following their leasing it to the British Empire in 1878, which was in return for tactical and logistical support against the Russian Empire during the Crimean War, as well as an annual tribute loan. But this also showed a loss of hard power also. They lost the ability to exert influence and control over the island, and more crucially that soft power component was both always there but also completely missing. The role of soft power is to be more persuasive than coercive, they lost the willingness to have that, to use that, and at their heart they could not have gone the other way and be coercive because this in turn would undermine their very nature which relied on getting people to comply without using force. In the case of Ottoman influence on Cyprus there should have been a delicate balance of diplomacy and cultural influence, but over time, the empire's ability to foster loyalty or support from diverse groups the empire over was eroding, led by rising nationalism within these communities. The Greeks were the first to rebel. And although there were attempts to sway Cyprus away from buying into the vision of the empire and to break off and pursue joint interests with the Greeks, this fundamentally failed, and in the culminant Turkish struggle for independence against the occupying powers of Great Britain, Italy, France, Greece and to an extent the USA, the islander's played a key role in supporting the empire and the rest of the Turkish nation. So although there was that soft power at play there on the island, neither the Ottoman Empire nor the new secular democratic Republic of Turkey ever capitulated on that or balanced this constant cultural influence grounded in deep-rooted heritage with the necessary diplomacy.
Share
