Ethnic Protection Rackets: Turkish Cypriot Statebuilding before 1974

ABSTRACT

For the ten years prior to the Turkish partition of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish Cypriot zones, the Turkish Cypriot community lived in distinct ethnic enclaves governed by a parallel Turkish Cypriot administration. I argue that Turkish Cypriot elites formed a system of reciprocal relations with their community by acting as ethnic protection racketeers. With few material resources, but a demand for protection during intercommunal fighting, Turkish Cypriot leaders monopolised protection over and within enclaves, while also deterring co-ethnics from leaving their protection despite poor conditions. Ultimately, this influenced Turkish Cypriot preferences in UN-led talks, demanding to retain autonomy over specific territories they controlled, especially in providing security.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. There is a politicised dispute as to whether the Cyprus conflict began in 1964 or 1974. Based on the deployment of UN peacekeeping and conflict resolution missions in Cyprus in 1964, in this study I treat 1964 as the start of the conflict.

2. Nikos Sampson had been a fighter in the EOKA and had run for parliament as a hardline nationalist and enosist who had bragged of having murdered Turkish Cypriots while campaigning and pledged to cleanse Cyprus of the ‘Turkish stench’. The July 1974 coup d’etat that installed Sampson was followed by three days of violence that saw EOKA-B murder hundreds of moderates and leftists. It was Sampson’s pronouncement that they had defeated their ideological enemies on July 19 that triggered the Turkish invasion (Kaufmann 2007: 214–15).

3. ‘Violence Flares Again in Cyprus,’ The Times p.6 (22 December 1963); ‘Turkish Calls for Partition,’ The Times: 8 (31 December 1963).

4. The ~4,000 other displaced Turkish Cypriots were sheltered in UN-held areas and the two British Sovereign Base Areas provided for in the constitution (United Nations Security Council 1964: 19).

5. Fazıl Küçük reportedly lost support due to hard-line positions on Turkish intervention and annexation to the mainland, while Denktaş was treated as more pragmatic. See: ‘Dr. Kutchuk in Ankara Talks,’ The Times: 7 (8 January 1964).

6. Turkish Cypriot authorities and their backers in the Turkish Foreign Ministry were careful to clarify that this did not constitute secession, but a natural continuation of the status quo, and that they existed within the independent state of Cyprus. Importantly the Turkish side did not recognise Makarios’ government as legitimate under the constitution as no Turkish Cypriots were represented. See: ‘Turkish Cypriots Set up Council,’ The Times, p.3 (29 December 1967); Bozkurt: 1 [in Turkish] (30 December 1967).

7. The TMT was overseen by a special military intelligence unit in Ankara, ‘The Project for Reconquering Cyprus’, which was overseen by Turkish Minister Zorlu. Turkey sent teachers to Cyprus for employment in the colonial schools who had resigned as officers in army special forces. Numerous more intelligence agents and ‘retired’ soldiers were smuggled onto the island as tourists or bank employees. These operatives were overseen by Turkish military intelligence and later officials in the Turkish embassy in Nicosia. In addition to arms and training, the unit provided the British authorities with intelligence on the EOKA. After the 1960 coup d’etat in Turkey, Zorlu was executed by the military and the unit disbanded (see Kadıoğlu and Bezci 2020: 645–47).

8. ‘Turks Trained to Fight in Cyprus,’ The Times: 7 (29 March 1964).

9. ‘Turks Lack Feeling of Elation,’ The Times: 6 (30 November 1967).

10. Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Assembly Legislative Archives [in Turkish] (accessed 9 December 2020); Bozkurt, p.1 [in Turkish] (20 May 1969).

11. Letter from Turkish Cypriot leader Ihsan Ali quoted in New York Times report on UN talks. See: ‘Cyprus Presents Document to Thant to Support Change,’ New York Times: 2 (15 January 1965).

12. Quotes from Rauf Denktaş in ‘Ankara Will Support Turkish Cypriot Reprisals,’ The Times: 9 (25 July 1965); ‘Turkish Wariness on Cyprus,’ The Times: 5 (6 December 1967).

13. ‘Turks Fear New Cyprus Attack,’ The Times: 10 (7 December 1964); ‘Dr. Kutchuk Appeals Over Arms Shipment,’ The Times: 9 (29 December 1966).

14. Also: ‘Greek-Turk Talks in Cyprus Near Breakdown,’ The Times: 7 (23 November 1970).

15. ‘Crunch Point Reached as Turks Refuse to Back Down,’ The Times: 5 (11 August 1974); ‘What is Turkey up to?’ The Times: 13 (13 August 1974).

16. ‘Ankara Says US Backs Federal Solution,’ The Times: 8 (15 August 1974).

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Notes on contributors

Christopher M. Jackson

Christopher M. Jackson is a doctoral candidate in international relations and comparative politics at Georgia State University.