EOKA: From Thought to Action
İsmail ŞahinThe purpose of this study is to examine the establishment process of EOKA within the framework of other important events concerning the history of Cyprus. The fact that comprehensive and adequate academic studies have not been conducted on this organization until today, constitutes the reason for this study. The research focused on the historical period from the birth of EOKA’s founding idea to its first action. Throughout the research, important turning points in the history of Cyprus were also men-tioned. Thus, it was thought that the subject of the article would be easier to understand. The article argues that EOKA is a paramilitary organization that was established to put into practice the enosis through weapons. It was revealed in the research that EOKA is an organization that emerged as a result of the failure of the enosis diplomacy of Greek Cypriot representatives and Greek governments. In the study, memoirs, archive documents, articles and books about the subject and newspapers of the period were used.
Düşünceden Eyleme EOKA
İsmail ŞahinBu çalışmanın amacı, EOKA’nın kuruluş sürecini Kıbrıs tarihinin önemli bir kısmını meşgul eden Enosis çerçevesinde incelemektir. Bugüne kadar bu örgüte yönelik kapsamlı ve yeterli ölçüde aka-demik çalışmaların yapılmamış olması, bu çalışmayı teşvik eden itici güç olmuştur. Çalışma, EO-KA’nın kuruluş fikrinin ortaya çıkışından ilk eylemini gerçekleştirinceye kadar ki örgütlenmesi ve faaliyetleri üzerine odaklanmıştır. Çalışmada Kıbrıs tarihinin önemli dönüm noktalarına da değinile-rek, makalenin konusunun daha kolay anlaşılmasına çalışılmıştır. Bu çalışma, EOKA’nın Enosis’i silah yoluyla gerçekleştirmek amacıyla kurulmuş paramiliter bir örgüt olduğu tezini savunmaktadır. Ayrıca EOKA’nın Kıbrıs Rum temsilcilerinin ve Yunanistan hükümetlerinin yürüttüğü Enosis diplo-masisinin başarısızlığı sonucunda meydana çıkmış bir örgüt olduğu araştırmada ortaya konulmak-tadır. Araştırma sırasında birinci el kaynaklar, arşiv belgeleri, konuya ilişkin makale ve kitapların yanı sıra gazetelerden de istifade edilmiştir.
At the end of the Second World War, a fast decolonization process started in the British Empire. This situation re-triggered the sovereignty debate in Cyprus. Repre-sentatives of the Greek Cypriots had been trying to make Cyprus a territory of Gree-ce for many years. Enosis, which meant the annexation of the island to Greece, was a strong feeling among Greek Cypriots. They also wanted to take advantage of the decolonization process. However, Great Britain did not favor the annexation of the island to Greece due to its interests in the Middle East. Great Britain favored making a more libertarian constitution on the island instead of enosis. The Greek Cypriots responded to this approach of the British government by declaring that they would never step back from the enosis.
Enosis was not only prevented by Britain’s interests in the Middle East. Tur-kish Cypriots were also strongly opposed to enosis. Because Turks living on other islands, especially in Crete, had to leave their homeland due to Greek pressure, they were concerned the same outcome would happen on their own. That is why the Tur-kish Cypriots defended the continuation of the British rule on the island, or it should have been given to Turkey, which was the former owner of the island. On the other hand, Turkey was also against enosis because Turkey saw the enosis as an instrument of the expansionist politics of Greece. Despite the Turkish Cypriots’ and Turkey’s objections, Greek Cypriots insisted on demanding Enosis.
The date of 18 October 1950 was a turning point for enosis because of Maka-rios III, whose original name was Mikhail Christodoulos Mouskos, was elected as archbishop. Makarios was ready to use all the facilities of the church for enosis. Eno-sis was a historical task, a national and religious issue for him. For that reason, he regarded leading the struggle for enosis as a great honor. According to Makarios, there were two ways to achieve enosis: diplomacy or armed struggle. He applied all the diplomatic methods he knew between 1950 and 1955. In this context, he organi-zed demonstrations in Athens and Nicosia; directed the public opinion, sought sup-port from the Greek lobby in the USA; and pressured the British administration.
All the diplomatic initiatives of Makarios and Greece failed to persuade Bri-tain for enosis. Therefore, Greece applied to the United Nations to obtain the right of self-determination for Cyprus on August 16, 1954. However, the United Nations rejected Greece’s application. In the same period, besides diplomatic initiatives, an armed terrorist organization was established to carry out terrorist acts on the island, but this organization declined to take any action until the United Nations made its decision on Cyprus. The name of this organization was EOKA. It was founded under the leadership of retired Colonel Grivas and Makarios, and its aim was to carry out enosis through terrorist attacks.
The establishment activities of EOKA began secretly in 1951, and had comp-leted all preparations by 1 April 1955. EOKA carried out all its activities on the is-land mostly through youth organizations such as PEON and OHEN. The Cyprus Church provided financial support to EOKA. Thanks to this financial support, the necessary weapons could be purchased. In order to become a member of EOKA, it was necessary to be Greek, a supporter of enosis and not be a communist. Therefore, EOKA was a pan-helenic fascist organization whose purpose was limited to enosis. Consequently, EOKA cannot be described as an organization that is fighting against colonialism to gain independency for its own folk because it wanted only enosis, not national independence. It was clear that EOKA’s motivation to resort to armed struggle against the British colonial administration was never independence.
