Turkish Invasion of Cyprus: Encyclopedia II - Turkish Invasion of Cyprus - Greek Cypriot accusations

Turkish Invasion of Cyprus - Greek Cypriot accusations

Ever since then the Turkish Cypriot leadership, acting on instructions from the Turkish Government, has been the partitioning of Cyprus and eventual annexation by Turkey which is known as Taksim. Turkey's support for partition through the forced displacement of populations is revealed in the Galo Plaza report of 1965 and in its demands during negotiations with the British over Cyprus independence and the so called Acheson plan which would have divided Cyprus between Turkey and Greece. It is also revealed by the system of apartheid or racial segregation that formed the basis of the Annan Plan which the government of Cyprus claims was devised in order to meet all of Turkeys key demands.

Greek-Turkish relations had a long history of conflict and ethnic cleansing as the Greeks formerly under Ottoman rule fought for their indepoendence. As Greece expanded to reclaim Greek-populated territories fierce wars took place, with the last major conflict being the war in Minor Asia (West Turkey). After World War I a number of Greek-populated Aegean islands and part of Minor Asia (today Turkey's west coast) including the cities of Smirni-Izmir, Efessos-Izmir, came under Greek rule after intervention by the time's superpowers. However, the defeat of the Greek Army by Kemal Atatürk's (founder of the modern Turkish state) forces in Minor Asia. resulted to ethnic cleansing and fleeing of 1000000 Greek and Armenians residing in Minor Asia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Greek Cypriot accusations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki