Lift the Arms Embargo on Cyprus

Doug Bandow

Security, Eurasia

Eliminating the arms embargo would redress a great imbalance in U.S. policy.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing increasing voter resistance to his dictatorial plans. Fears are increasing that he might be planning military action to inflame nationalist support. Yet Ankara continues to purchase American weapons even as Washington has embargoed sales to the Republic of Cyprus (ROC), the most obvious target of Erdogan’s ill attention.

Like many European lands, Cyprus has a long and tortured history. Taken over by the United Kingdom from the Ottoman Empire in 1878, the island uneasily contained an ethnic-Greek majority and ethnic-Turk minority. A Greek-dominated independence movement led to establishment of the Republic of Cyprus in 1960.

The complex ethnic-based constitution, designed to protect the ethnic-Turkish 17 percent of the population, broke down, leading to communal violence. In 1974, the military junta ruling Greece backed a coup by Greek nationalists on the island, intended to lead to enosis, or union with Greece. Five days later Turkey invaded and conquered 37 percent of the island.

Ankara had colorable authority to act—by treaty Turkey was a guarantor power and Turkish-Cypriots feared the consequences of the two dictatorial Greek governments uniting. However, Ankara employed ethnic/religious cleansing while seizing a disproportionate share of the island and made the division permanent. In 1983, Ankara turned its occupation zone into the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Today Europe’s only divided capital city is Nicosia. (The TRNC, recognized by Ankara alone, calls the city Lefkosa.)

There have been years of negotiations over reunification. The two sides often talked past each other. Greek-Cypriots focused on recompense for those driven from their homes. Turkish-Cypriots emphasized the need for security for the minority community. In 2004, both communities put the Annan Plan, negotiated with the assistance of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, to a vote. Two-thirds of the normally recalcitrant Turks voted yes while three-quarters of the normally enthusiastic Greeks said no. Perhaps the most important reason for rejection by Greek-Cypriots was preservation of a Turkish military presence on the island. While the Turkish military’s presence comforted some ethnic Turks in the north, the same forces unsettled residents of the ROC.