Turkey/Kurtulus on Cyprus

[ozgurluk at xs4all.nl]

http://www.ozgurluk.org/kurtulus

Kurtulus, Number 92, August 1, 1998

Cyprus, imperialism's island which never sinks and a stronghold of the
oligarchy

>From occupation to annexation? Who will solve the problem?

These days Cyprus is going through the 24th anniversary of the
"intervention for peace" of July 20, 1974, whose name evokes memories
of tension and a crisis which has not been out of the headlines for
some time. These include the S-300 missile crisis, the opening of a
military base in Baf, news about the closure of gambling dens and the
opening of new ones on Cyprus and finally the first visit by a prime
minister of Turkey to Cyprus 24 years after the occupation of part of
the island. 

>From UN representatives to US presidents and the governments of Turkey
and Greece, right on to the speokesmen of Turkey and Greece on the
Cyprus question, there has been much talk of  "solutions for Cyprus",
"justified hopes" etc. Those who are actually causing the problem are
the ones trying to solve it. But nothing is being resolved anywhere,
on the contrary, problems are constantly being aggravated and are
continually plumbing new depths.

>From occupation to annexation

A phase has started in which the bourgeois media write headlines like
"a historic step involving the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus",
or "we are firm with regard to Cyprus", or other ways are expressed in
which it is clear that plans are afoot to annex Cyprus. This is going
so far that it is no longer necessary to dial internationally to make
a phone call to Cyprus from Turkey. How will this phase develop? Will
Cyprus become the 80th or so province of Turkey? Or will it develop
into an independent state?

It is not actually possible to come up with an answer to this question
from the latest developments. The reason for this uncertainty comes
from observing just how the "discussion of the Cyprus question" is
proceeding. 

That the discussions about the Cyprus question are largely empty and
artificial is confirmed even by the undoubtedly fascist and chauvinist
writer Rauf Temer, who called these discussions hackneyed and
artificial, discussions which were heated up and served anew every
year. Cyprus is a pawn in the oligarchy's game, a pawn which is pushed
back and forth in chess games with the USA, the European Union and
Greece. So if the pawn is pushed forward, this is of no significance. 

Even if the oligarchy's mouthpieces talk again and again about
"unification", it is not really possible to do this in opposition to
imperialism. On the other hand, an apparently independent Cyprus suits
the oligarchy better. The superficially independent island serves the
oligarchy as a contra-guerrilla stronghold and as a paradise for
illegal financial transactions. 

The Cyprus of the Susurluk state      

The Susurluk state's ties with Cyprus through casinos are becoming
increasingly obvious. Just after the Susurluk accident, the
intermeshing of contra-guerrillas and the casinos came to
light. Well-known figures in the Susurluk state like Mehmet Agar
(former police chief, justice minister and finally interior minister
of Turkey, who had to resign after Susurluk), Necdet Menzir (former
police chief), Orhan Tasanlar (former police chief of Ankara, later on
Istanbul, and now a member of parliament for Bursa), Mesut Yilmaz
(current prime minister of Turkey), Sedat Bucak (member of parliament
in the DYP or True Path Party, one of the ruling parties at the time
of the Susurluk accident, in which he himself was injured) and Tarik
Ümit (mafia chief on the wanted list), all were heavily involved with
the casinos or else moved in the same circles as others who were.


The contra-guerrillas launder money in banks and casinos in Cyprus and
dredge up new resources for contra-guerrilla operations and for those
who carry them out. It even became known that Mehmet Agar's driver and
the wife of Tarik Ümit were among the owners of a Cyprus bank. But
contra-guerrilla activities in Cyprus are by no means restricted to
the laundering of dirty money. The island is used as a base for civil
fascists. Also on Cyprus there are plots and chauvinist attacks,  even
"murders by persons unknown" have been carried out there against
revolutionaries and democrats opposed to the system. An example of
these attacks was the murder of the democratic journalist Kutlu Adali
who was investigating contra-guerrilla activities on the island. At
the moment efforts are being made to turn Cyprus into a centre of
gambling dens while casinos that have been closed down in Turkey are
being moved to Cyprus. There are no less than 19 casinos for the
150,000 inhabitants of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and 11
of them are owned by citizens of the Republic of Turkey. 

>From the "island of pirates" of the Ottoman Empire to the
"contra-guerrilla island" of the oligarchy

Cyprus was occupied and plundered numerous times in its
history. Rulers of Assyrian, Mycenean, Egyptian, Persian and Roman
origin all took turns running the island. The strategic importance of
the island for trade in the Mediterranean caused all destructive and
plundering states to cast greedy eyes on Cyprus. So Cyprus fell into
the hands of the Arabs and the English, and for a time it was even
ruled by a king of Palestine who had been overthrown. In the 13th
century it was ruled by Venice and about two centuries later it was
occupied by the Ottomans.               

The island's Turkish population dates back to this period of Ottoman
occupation. The 20,000 Ottoman soldiers sent to the island at the time
constituted the advance guard of the Turks on Cyprus. The Ottomans
used the island as a base for their pirates who launched attacks as
far as the Middle East, North Africa and Europe while trying to turn
the Mediterranean into an Ottoman sea. 

Three centuries of Ottoman rule ended when Cyprus passed to the
control of England. This was in 1878. The Ottoman state was crumbling
away. The English sought to profit from the situation which arose from
the high indemnities the Ottomans had to pay to their opponent in the
recent war, Russia, after signing the Treaty of San Stefano (today
Yesilköy near Istanbul). As surety for guaranteeing Ottoman territory
in Asia, the English demanded the use of Cyprus as a base. They were
granted suzerainty over the island, but when the First World War broke
out suzerainty was transformed into complete control.      

After the Second World War the current problems of Cyprus arose. After
the war, all the balances in the world shifted. The peoples of the
Soviet Union and Eastern Europe fought and defeated fascism, struggles
against imperialism all over the world were on the rise and
socialism's prestige was high. The liberation struggles of the Arab
peoples in the Middle East shook French and British imperialism to
their roots. Middle Eastern oil grew more important and imperialism
gazed hungrily on the region. In this situation there was talk of an
independent Cyprus. 

Cyprus came onto our country's agenda in the 1950s, at the same time
as neo-colonial relations with imperialism developed. The Democratic
Party (DP) was in power. Sedat Semavi used the headline "Cyprus is
Turkish" in his newspaper Hürriyet as the start of a campaign to whip
up chauvinism and turn attention to Cyprus. The timing was
interesting: at that point Greece was supporting the right of
self-determination for the peoples on the island. On the other hand,
imperialism was founding bases in various parts of the world to ward
off socialism. And imperialism needed Cyprus in the strategically
important Mediterranean. 

Recognising the right to self-determination, resulting in
independence, would have taken the island out of imperialist hands, at
least to some extent. So it was suddenly remembered that there were
two peoples on the island and Turkey put itself forward as the
protector of the Turks living on the island. In this way imperialism
sowed enmity between the two peoples and in dividing the island it
implemented the well-known policy of "divide and rule". 

Dividing it two ways was not enough, imperialism also sought to divide
the Greek people. On the one side were forces who wanted an
independent Cyprus to protect the island from neo-colonialism. These
circles, the fairly strong communist party AKEL, other left-wing
groups and the Orthodox Church, represented the actual wishes of the
people. On the other side was the fascist EOKA, which wanted a
"greater Greece" and supported "enosis" or union with Greece. Under
the leadership of Archbishop Makarios the first group defended the
unity and independence of Cyprus while the Greek fascists under Grivas
made the blood of both Turks and Greeks flow as a result of their
armed actions. At the international level there were the independent
and socialist countries who defended the peoples' right to
self-determination, and there were the NATO countries who wanted to
make Cyprus a base for waging war. 

One of the "1,000 operations": the events of September 6 and 7, 1957 

While the Cyprus question was being discussed at international level,
imperialism sought to find its own solution. It was concerned by
involvement in the Middle East and the approaches by the Arab peoples
to the peoples of Cyprus were worrying developments for
imperialism. So a conference was held in London in which Greece and
Turkey were represented, but it ended without result.

Then Turks from Cyprus held a protest demonstration in London. Two
days later there were banner headlines in the Istanbul Express
newspaper that there had been a bomb attack on the house in Salonika,
Greece where Atatürk was born. Istanbul was turned upside down. The
"Cyprus is Turkish" association held a mass demonstration in Taksim
Square in Istanbul. Before long the demonstration turned into an
attack on ethnic minorities living in Istanbul. Tens of thousands of
people surrounded and destroyed the shops, houses, places of worship
and cemeteries of minorities, starting in Istanbul's Beyoglu district
and spreading elsewhere. 

Later it came to light that a member of Turkey's national intelligence
service had carried out the bomb attack. Parliament did not even
consider it necessary to investigate the brutal attacks on minorities
and covered up the events. It used the opportunity to declare a state
of emergency in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir and censored the press. 

The events on September 6 and 7, 1957 are a typical example of
contra-guerrilla operations. Hostility among the peoples is sown
through this and similar actions like the one later in Maras
(1978). Besides, the wave of chauvinism also serves to prepare the way
for attacks on the revolutionary movement in the country.

Imperialism whips up the "Cyprus question"

 From now on, imperialism concentrated more heavily on Cyprus. It did
not scruple to use every kind of provocation and massacre. At the same
time it persisted in trying to have a state on Cyprus that it could
control. All the contra-guerrilla methods served this end. For this
purpose various conferences were organised and treaties signed. While
England, Greece and Turkey received the right to intervene in Cyprus,
the island's right to independence was obstructed. Particularly in the
1960s, pro-independence views worried imperialism. So it supported
chauvinist policies in Cyprus and aided attacks by EOKA. At the same
time it secretly egged on Turkey to make threats to intervene in
Cyprus. Cyprus has become an important base serving imperialism's
interests in the Middle East. The tension in Cyprus gave legitimacy to
imperialism's military presence in the region. 

Imperialism the main enemy of the peoples

While the Cyprus crisis was rumbling on, a fascist junta took power in
Greece on April 21, 1967. Just like the junta in our country it was
under the leadership of the CIA. For the people of Greece it was the
start of seven years of torture, arrests and massacres. 

The officers of the junta did nothing but seek to destroy any
friendship between the peoples and uphold the domination of
imperialism. The repression and the policies of the junta made
problems in the eastern Mediterranean escalate. The colonels' regime
gave General Grivas in Cyprus full authority to act without any need
to consult the Greek government in Cyprus. Through this directive,
which ultimately stemmed from US imperialism, the Greek dictatorship
was successful in turning the Greek and Turkish people in Cyprus
against each other. One massacre followed after another. Under these
conditions, the armed forces of Turkey intervened on July 20 and 24,
1974 under the slogan "Intervention for Peace", and this ended with
military occupation. The occupation of Cyprus by the troops from
Turkey was one of the factors which contributed to the collapse of the
junta in Greece, because the Cyprus policy of the Greek junta had been
shown to be bankrupt. But of course this was not the reason why Turkey
intervened in Cyprus!

On the contrary, the rulers of Turkey and Greece worked hand in hand
to prevent progressive developments which contributed to the
achievement of independence. Now half the island was under military
occupation. The massacres carried out in the name of an "intervention
for peace" poisoned relations between the two peoples almost past the
point of no return. After the occupation the island was turned more
and more into a contra-guerrilla base. So , for example, the central
units of the contra-guerrilla Özel Harp Dairesi (Turkish: Special
Warfare Department) were trained in Cyprus. Henchmen of imperialism
like the generals Orhan Kilercioglu, Sabri Yirmibesoglu (a well-known
contra-guerrilla theorist) and Kenan Evren (later on the leading
figure in Turkey's 1980 military coup) all directed contra-guerrilla
activities personally while training in Cyprus. 

Imperialism could comfortably use the Susurluk state as gendarmes
against the peoples of the Middle East through the contra-guerrilla
activities in Cyprus. In this regard it offered help. The Susurluk
state could use the island for its drug trafficking which could no
longer be concealed. Cyprus is one of the staging posts through which
narcotics reach Europe from Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

Cyprus as a tool of internal politics

The governments of both Greece and Turkey are past masters at
diverting attention towards artificially created "problems" whenever
they themselves are in difficulty.  Especially in periods when
elections are looming, points are scored by putting Cyprus on the
agenda. Hostility to other peoples is whipped up, and they are blamed
for unemployment, hunger and misery to head off protests against
imperialism and oligarchy. Another method is to use repression against
the opposition in one's own land. A chauvinist mood is created through
talk of crisis and war, and in this way economic and democratic
demands by the people can be postponed or crushed underfoot. Those who
stand for the rights of the people are denounced as traitors to the
fatherland and thus neutralised. The oligarchies in Turkey and Greece
use this tactic against the people on an ongoing basis. Cyprus is raw
material for nationalist demagogy, a kind of aspirin the oligarchies
in both countries take. Whenever they have a headache, inflammatory
statements appear in the newspapers and the "crisis" starts to boil
again like a kettle.        
 
The only solution is an independent, united and democratic Cyprus

The Turkish and Greek people lived for centuries in harmony on
Cyprus. Hostility began when the island was used by imperialism and by
oligarchies. This is the most convincing proof of the need for an
unremitting struggle against imperialism and in defence of fraternity
among the peoples. Today the Turkish and Greek people are seriously
prejudiced against each other, but these prejudices are not so strong
that they cannot be overcome. A joint struggle is the basis for
overcoming them. Turkish revolutionaries defend the independence of
the island against imperialism and its unity based on the free will of
its peoples. The second part of the People's Constitution deals with
this subject. Under the heading "National independence and the
fraternity of the peoples are indispensible principles for the
Republic", the following is written:

"Article 8: We keep our distance from all policies which cause
aggression in international relations or are likely to stir up
hostility between the peoples and threaten internal and external
peace. Our basis is a policy which furthers the fraternity, friendship
and solidarity of the peoples. 

"With all countries, starting with neighbouring ones, we will develop
ties based on equality, respect and friendship, which serve the
interests of our country and theirs. 

"Article 9: We keep our distance from views which produce or stir up
hostility between the peoples of Turkey and Greece. The basis of this
is seeking a life of fraternity and friendship.

"Article 10: A basis for an independent and democratic Cyprus in which
the Turkish and Greek people can live together in fraternity is to be
promoted. A solution to the Cyprus question is to be striven for on
the basis the peoples' right to self-determination."

The liberation of all the peoples in our region depends on putting an
end to the influence of imperialism. The struggle going on under the
leadership of the Front against imperialism and oligarchy is the
struggle of the Armenian, Greek, Laz, Cherkess, Arab, Turkish and
Kurdish people, the struggle of all the people in the region.

-- 
Press Agency Ozgurluk
For justice, democracy and human rights in Turkey and Kurdistan!
Website: http://www.ozgurluk.org                          
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