EOKA

EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston, in English National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) was a Greek Cypriot military resistance organisation that fought for self-determination and for union with Greece in the mid to late 1950s. Since Cyprus was under United Kingdom sovereignty at the time, its objective was to attract world public opinion and support to its cause through sabotage against British installations, armed attacks against British troops and passive resistance of the people. Britain's Conservative Government had decided to remove its military HQ from the Suez Base to Cyprus earlier in the 1950s, so there was a strong British military presence on the island.

Controversy

EOKA was and remains controversial. While it was popular with the majority of Greek Cypriots at the time and is today considered by them a heroic movement that liberated Cyprus from British rule, there were also many who did not support it. Cyprus' communist party AKEL was the leading voice against EOKA, as it disagreed with its violent methods and its aim to establish union with Greece. It has been claimed that part of EOKA's agenda was to attack Turkish Cypriots, most of whom did not want to see Cyprus annexed by Greece, and that the EOKA campaign precipitated the deterioration of intercommunal relations. Indeed, during the summer of 1958 the island verged on virtual civil war. Memoirs of EOKA fighters indicate that at times the organisation did target Cypriots, both Greek and Turkish, that supported the British presence. The British colonial government exercised a policy of "divide and rule" whereby much of its police force consisted of Turkish Cypriots. Thus while EOKA perceived its actions as attacking the British government, the Turkish Cypriots often perceived them as an attack on their community.

Campaign

The organisation was headed by George Grivas, a Cyprus born Colonel in the Greek army. Grivas assumed the nom de guerre Digenis in honour of the Byzantine legend Digenis Acritas who repelled invaders from the Byzantine Empire during the middle ages. EOKA was clandestinely supported by the Greek Government in the form of arms, money and propaganda on radio stations aired from Athens.

The EOKA campaign began on April 1 1955. Over 30,000 British troops were assigned to combat the organisation, which officially claimed the life of 104 British military personnel. Many EOKA members were brutally tortured and/or hanged by the British.

End of campaign

EOKA's activity was officially suspended on March 9 1959 in response to the signing of the Zurich - London agreements, February 19 1959, which established an independent Cyprus republic.

Actual independence was formally declared on 16 August 1960 However, the settlement denied enosis - the union with Greece sought by EOKA. This led to a feeling of dissatisfaction from a section of the Greek Cypriot population that shaped the events of the following years. See History of Cyprus.

EOKA-B

EOKA-B was a Greek Cypriot right-wing pro-enosis paramilitary organisation formed in 1971 that was supported by the ruling Greek junta which came to power in 1967 overthrowing the legitimate Greek government of George Papandreou. When George Grivas returned to Cyprus in 1971 he created EOKA-B in response to President Archbishop Makarios deviation from the policy of enosis. He was angered by Makarios' rejection of enosis in 1959 and was further upset when the President reaffirmed this position when re-elected as President in 1968, Grivas took the reigns of EOKA-B and attempted to overthrow him and achieve enosis through violent means.

Whereas EOKA (1955-59) was seen by the majority of the Greek Cypriots as anti-colonialist freedom fighters, EOKA-B did not have the overwhelming support of the Greek Cypriot population who where sceptical over the organisations involvement with the unpopular Greek dictatorship and did not want to swap their newly found independence with direct rule from Athens. The organisations unpopularity increased after attacks on Greek Cypriot Socialists and supporters of independence, while public outrage followed the murder of government minister Polycarpos Georgadjis and a botched assassination attempt on Makarios.

When Grivas died from heart failure in January 1974, the new leadership of EOKA-B increasingly came under the direct control and influence of the military junta in Athens. On July 15 1974, EOKA-B with approval of the Greek Dictator Ioannides and the help of the National Guard, launched a military coup overthrowing Makarios and installing Nikos Sampson as President of Cyprus. This action served only to excuse a Turkish military Invasion on July 20 1974 which led to the subsequent and continuing Turkish occupation of over one third of the island.