between Greece and Turkey over the status of Cyprus has flared up again, reaching extreme acuteness. At the moment the danger of an armed clash appears to have been averted. But the conflict testifies to the utter incapacity of the capitalist regime to assure self-determination for the Cypriot people.
The tension between Turkey and Greece arose from the contradictory needs facing the putschist regime in Athens. On the one hand it required credit for "solving" the Cypriot question; on the other hand, in order to crush the powerful radical workers movement in Cyprus, it had been trying to set up a military dictatorship in Nicosia under its representative, Grivas.
To simultaneously achieve these mutually exclusive objectives was impossible without partitioning the island, something which the immense majority of the people of Cyprus cannot and will not ever accept. Thus the contradictory requirements motivating the military regime in Athens could not be brought into harmony. The attempt to definitely "solve" the problem which was undertaken by the Greek officers and the Turkish leaders last June ended in nothing. The reason was the impossibility of compelling Turkey to accept an "enosis" [union] of the island with Greece in which Grivas would become the key piece. From then on, all the ultrachauvinist propaganda of Grivas turned against the Greek leaders and against Grivas himself.
Makarios, the head of the state in Cyprus, who maintained power thanks to his ability to preserve a precarious balance between Grivas and the left (AKEL, the surrogate for the Cypriot Communist party), declared, with the support of the rightist leaders of the AKEL that after enosis Cyprus would have the same relations with NATO as Greece. This should open the eyes of those who, in the past, have been taken in by his "progressiveness."
This contradiction was the cause of the recently precipitated crisis.
The Greek Cypriots and the Turkish population that was implanted in the island in 1571 generally reached agreements peacefully up to 1955 when British Prime Minister Anthony Eden got Turkey to intervene in order to block the independence movement. But at a certain point, the tactics followed as always by NATO and imperialism, of ruling by dividing, turned against its authors. Two states belonging to NATO were at the point of clashing with each other.
A military confrontation between Greece and Turkey would have had incalculable consequences for the people of the two countries. But it would also have been a catastrophe for the military capacities of NATO, a self-destructive development with even worse consequences for the Greek colonels, who would not have survived it. Hence the comings and goings of Cyrus Vance, José Rolz Bennett and Manlio Brosio, the emissaries of the United States, the United Nations and NATO. Hence, in the weak position in which it was caught, the precipitous retreat of Greece, including pulling out Grivas and troops in a way unprovided for by agreement (1959 Zurich treaty). In face of Turkey, the Greek colonels, lacking any social base, could not impose their will.
A "solution" was found within the framework of NATO. Cyprus, in truth, is a major piece on the chessboard of NATO's military dispositions. Thus they agreed to the progressive departure of Greek and Turkish troops that was not provided for in the Zurich and London treaties. Independence was temporarily guaranteed through the Security Council. The UN troops, whose mandate had just expired, will be maintained there.
Grivas is leaving; but NATO remains. It is not excluded that a partition will be put into effect by "cold" means, guaranteeing the adherence of the two "morsels" of Cyprus to NATO. In Cyprus, an entire grouping in the AKEL, which has never given up its arms and which is organizing, is increasingly opposed to any form of enosis. To impose a NATO solution on Cyprus, imperialism will have to confront a growing sector of the population. The only way the Cypriot people can really exercise selfdetermination is through Cyprus regaining all the bases, including those agreed on through treaties (Greek, British and Turkish bases). It is necessary to put an end to the mandate of the UN and its troops. It is necessary to guarantee self-determination for the Turkish Cypriots in the honogeneous Turkish areas, with equality in language and extraterritorial cultural autonomy guaranteed in the mixed towns and villages.
This is the banner of genuine independence and self-determination borne by the Cypriot section of the Fourth International!