New Greek rulers dislike Makarios

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33588, 17 July 1974, Page 13

New Greek rulers dislike Makarios

(By

STEVEN ROBERTS.

of the "New York Times," through N.Z.P.A.)

ATHENS, July 16. The immediate chain of events that led to the coup in Cyprus yesterday probably goes back to last November, when President George Papadopoulos of Greece was ousted by a group of military officers.

The new rulers in Athens — rigid nationalists and strong anti-Communists — did not hide their dislike of Archbishop Makarios, the President of Cyprus since independence in 1960, The Archbishop always maintained that he shared the traditional desire of Greek Cypriots for Enosis, or union with the Greek motherland, but insisted that it was not a practical solution in the face of fierce opposition from ethnic Turks, who make up 18 per cent of the island’s population of 650,000.

This attitude by the Archbishop smacked of treason to some Right-wing Cypriots, who also worried about the President’s close ties with Cyprus’s large and influential Communist Party. This spring, Archbishop Makarios accused the Cypriot National Guard, which is commanded by 650 Greek officers on contract, of supplying arms and inspiration to a terrorist group fighting for Enosis, Two weeks ago, the Archbishop ordered the removal of the officers from the island, a direct challenge to Greek authority in Cypriot affairs.

As one diplomat put it, "We knew there would be a rear” "on, but we didn’t know what it would be.” Yesterday the answer came. Greek-speaking people have lived on Cyprus for thousands of years. Because of its strategic position in the [eastern Mediterranean, it was invaded by a long list of conquerors who built an occasional castle, added a new accent to the ethnic strain of the population, and passed on.

Cyprus was seized by the Turks in 1571 and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire. For more than 300 years of Turkish rule, the Orthodox Archbishop of Cyprus, the “Ethnarch,” served as both the spiritual and temporal leader of the Greek Cypriots. Through the centuries the Cypriot Orthodox Church kept alive the idea of Enosis, and in 1821, the Archbishop and manv leading churchmen were executed by the Turks for their activities. As Lawrence Durrell commented in his book, “Bitter Lemons,” "From this one could see just how deeply hidden, and in what depths of unconscious historical process, the roots of Enosis lay hidden.” Or as one Cypriot official [put it: “This island has lived for centuries with one dream — to unite with Greece.”

The British leased the island in 1878 and incorporated it into the Commonwealth in 1925. In the 19505, agitation for Enosis erupted in a campaign of guerrilla warfare. The organisation was the original Eoka, and Lj leader was General George Grivas, a Greek Cypriot and legendary guerrilla fighter from the days, of the Greek civil war. Grivas commanded great loyalty among his countrymen.

Archbishop Makarios had been exiled by the British in 1956, but was allowed to return in 1959 as a hero. With the Turks opposing Enosis. the Archbishop agreed to what has been called a “shotgun marriage” — Greek and Turkish Cypriots joining in

an independent state with the Archbishop as President. When ' trouble broke out between the two communities in 1963, President Makarios invited in a contingent of Greek officers to command the National Guard, including Grivas. A United Nations peace-keeping force arrived in 1964. It controlled the fighting until 1967 when it flared up again. At

that point President Makarios ordered Grivas expelled from the island. The Archbishop and his Government continued to proclaim their belief in Enosis, as Cypriot independence took hold, but their commitment was clearly diminishing. As one official put it recently “the idea of Enosis is a feeling, it’s nothing more than that. Everybody believes it

cannot be achieved. We’re better off being independent, but we can’t say it publicly. Enosis is part of our tradition.” To those who believed in Enosis, Makarios was a traitor. In 1971 Grivas slipped back into Cyprus and formed Eoka B. Several assassination attempts against the Archbishop failed, but the movement was a continuing annoyance. Then last January Grivas died of a heart attack and President Makarios saw his chance to eradicate the movement. He offered amnesty to any member of Eoka B who would surrender and lay down his arms. But only several dozen took advantage of the Archbishop’s offer.

Meanwhile, anti-Makarios agitation was growing within the Cypriot National Guard and its corps of Greek officers. Observers point out that the strongman of the Greek junta, which took over in November, Brigadier General Demetrios loannides, served in Cyprus in the mid--1960s and is known to despise the Achbishop. And as a virulent anti-Communist, Genera) loannides was incensed by Archbishop Makarios’s alliance . with the Cvpriot Communists, his independent foreign policy and his frequent trips to Communist capitals. Matters came to a head this spring. The Archbishop felt that a new crop of cadets appointed to the officer’s training school in the National Guard were disloyal to him. He demanded that the appointments be withdrawn. The Greek officers refused. Then a large cache of arms was stolen from a National Guard training centre and the Archbishop declared that the theft was engineered by Greek officers to supply Eoka B.

When police started rounding up members of the movement and recovering the arms, the terrorist group replied with a week of violence last month that left six people dead — mainly well-known supporters of the Archbishop.

President Makarios decided to move more firmly. He announced that the term of national service would be cut from 24 to 14 months, thus reducing reliance on Greek officers. And in a blunt letter to President Phaidon Gizikis of Greece, he requested that the officers be withdrawn.

In that letter, the Archbishop charged that the Greek Government "has been following a policy calculated to abolish the Cypriot State” and has tried to turn the National Guard into “an interna] occupation army.” Suddenly, Athens blossomed with posters and leaflets, calling the Archbishop a “power hungry monk” who had committed “treason against the Greek nation.” To many diplomats Archbishop Makarios was the linch-pin of Cyprus, the one man who could keep the troubled nation together. They have worried for a long time that the fanatical Rightwingers would gamble on chaos. “What I’m afraid of” one diplomat said a few weeks ago “is the assassination of Makarios. They might just try to create an inferno, out of which they think they’ll get their way.” (Copyright, 1974 “New York Times”)