CYPRUS: Who Is Right? Is Anyone?

Flowers were in bloom on the crumbling towers of St. Hilarion, and hawks turned soundlessly high above Kyrenia. Now and then, rifle fire beat against the spring stillness, for a band of well-entrenched Turkish Cypriot irregulars still held Kyrenia Pass against the determined onslaughts of their Greek countrymen. All across Cyprus last week, the 7,000 "peacemakers" of the United Nations wagged their blue berets in impotence and pleaded a simple cause: cool off. But no one on Cyprus would or could listen. The islanders were caught up in a Mediterranean frenzy of nationalism, the product of four centuries during which Greek and Turk Cypriot had been taught to hate, fear and--finally--kill one another. The U.S., which is being accused by each side of favoring the other, cares little enough about the issues, but is being forced to ask who is right. Even a partial answer is buried deep in history.

Enter the Turks. Greek influence in Cyprus dates back to the Trojan War, more than 1,000 years before Christ. Homer sang of friendship between Agamemnon and Kinyras, a king of Cyprus, and Greek colonists brought their culture to the island in later centuries. Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Romans and Franks came after, but the Greek influence endured, flourishing during the Byzantine Empire. Then came the Turks.

Janissaries of Sultan Selim II wrested control of the island from Venetian merchant princes in 1571, and quickly demonstrated to the Cypriots the basic style of Ottoman administration. The defender of the Cypriot city of Famagusta, one Marcantonio Bragadino, had held off the Turkish troops for nearly a year, and when Famagusta finally fell, the Turks slowly and publicly flayed him alive. Bragadino's straw-stuffed skin was paraded through the city, and the lesson was not lost on the Cypriots.

Earlier conquerors had exiled the Greek Orthodox archbishops, who served as religious and political leaders to the Cypriots. But the Turks, confident in the strength of their 30,000-man garrison, unwisely permitted these ethnarchs to return. When the mainland Greeks rose against the Ottoman Empire in 1821, Cypriot Archbishop Kyprianos aided them--and was beheaded for his collusion along with hundreds of his followers. Greece won independence in 1829, but Cyprus remained under the hated Turkish rule. The desire for enosis, or union with Greece, had been kindled, only to be brutally frustrated.

Enter the British. In 1878, Britain took Cyprus in "trust" from the declining Ottoman Empire and disregarded Cypriot demands for union with Greece on the grounds that the Sultan was still the suzerain. But after Turkey sided with the Central Powers at the start of World War I, Britain annexed the island outright. Under the British, a state of wary but peaceful coexistence developed between Turkish and Greek Cypriot. Greek landowners in the craggy Troodos Mountains leased their pastures to Turkish shepherds; Turkish shopkeepers bought oranges and carobs from Greek farmers. In the village taverna, Turk and Greek sat at separate tables, but spoke politely to one another, usually in Greek.

World War II found both Greek and Turkish Cypriot firmly on the side of the Allies, but the wartime camaraderie with Soviet Russia gave the island's Communist movement a chance to expand. By 1943, the Reds had latched onto enosis and won major municipal elections by appealing to Greek passions. Today, the Communists' Reform Party holds five seats in the 50-man House of Representatives, while the dominant Patriotic Fronts party of President Makarios is 40% Communist.

Enter Makarios. Archbishop Makarios III, born Michael Mouskos, became ethnarch in 1950, armed with a church-run plebiscite that showed 97% of all Greek Cypriots in favor of enosis. Setting out vigorously to fulfill his mandate, Makarios was joined in 1954 by Colonel George Grivas, a Cypriot officer in the Greek army who returned home secretly to lead the EOKA (National Organization of Cypriot Fighters) in four years of terrorism against the British. The British had staffed the island police force with Turkish Cypriots, and soon the Greek hatred of the British splashed over at the Turkish community. Rarely concerned with politics before, the Turkish Cypriots now began worrying what their fate would be if Makarios, Grivas and EOKA finaly won independence. Their apprehension was shared in the Turkish homeland.

By 1959, when Britain, Greece, Turkey and Makarios began discussing the conditions of Cypriot independence, Ankara's concern had grown to neurotic proportions. In long, frustrating negotiating sessions, Britain was wearily willing to grant any sort of constitution just to get the thorn of Cyprus out of its side, while Makarios was equally ready to sign, speculating that, with time and the majority on his side, he could iron out discrepancies later.

Turkey took advantage by adamantly insisting on safeguards for its Cypriot kinsmen, and the inept constitution that became effective on Aug. 16, 1960, gave disproportionate power to the Turkish Cypriots, who comprise only 20% of the island's 600,000 population.

Exit reason. The Turkish Cypriots were granted 30% of all police and civil service posts, 40% of all billets in the army. A Greek Cypriot President was to be balanced off by a Turkish Cypriot Vice President, both men having a final veto power over internal and external defense and foreign affairs. Not only was the executive split sharply along ethnic lines, but the legislature was also segregated in dealing with certain measures; a simple majority of the 15 Turkish Cypriot M.P.s could effectively block a bill passed by 35 Greek Cypriot votes. And block they certainly did: for months, the government was unable to pass a vital income tax law. The judiciary was split along similar lines.

Last November, with the Greek government momentarily involved in a leadership crisis, President Makarios decided the time was ripe to "rebalance" the constitution. He submitted a 13-point amendment that effectively stripped the Turkish Cypriots of their safeguards. In a flash, Cyprus was up in arms. The Turkish Cypriots, backed by Ankara with its threats of invasion, cry for taksim--partition--or at least some form of cantonal federation. Greek Cypriot extremists, reviving the threat of enosis with Athens, have seriously suggested that all Turks be forcibly removed from the island and packed off to Turkey. Either solution appears unworkable. An outstanding Greek Cypriot leader might have avoided the current violence, which is killing Greeks as well as Turks, but Makarios is neither a great leader nor a notable humanitarian. He is a fairly skillful intriguer who deliberately unleashed forces he may no longer be able to control, even if he wanted to.

In sum, the Greeks have a sound point when they argue that the Turkish minority is blocking the democratic principle of majority rule. But the Turks are equally convincing when they contend that the Greeks under Makarios have abused their majority power, and are increasingly unwilling to let the Turks survive on the island. To a degree, the antagonists are victims of history. Yet the world, which these days demands--and gets--fairly rational behavior from the hostile big powers, has a right to ask a modicum of reason from both sides in this vicious little squabble.

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