CYPRUS: Tense Aftermath of a Three-Day War

After three days of brutal fighting, the war between Greek Cypriots and Turkish troops who invaded Cyprus by sea and air tapered off last week into a fitful ceasefire. Blue-helmeted United Nations soldiers, who frequently came under fire in the course of the fighting and suffered at least twelve Canadian wounded, finally managed to pry the two sides apart. In a decisive move, 500 United Nations soldiers, at the direction of Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, occupied the strategic Nicosia airport. The U.N. action denied the airport’s runways to Greeks who had been using them to fly in reinforcements, and to Turks who sought control of the airport as a bargaining chip.

Still, there was concern that the fighting could erupt again. Greece charged that Turkey was continuing to land troops on the island in violation of the ceasefire. If the landings did not stop, warned the new civilian government in Athens, the country would go to war. Fears of renewed fighting were so grave that the U.N. Security Council called a special weekend session to seek a solution.

Though the war was brief, casualties on both sides were high. During the Athens-inspired coup that deposed Archbishop Makarios III as President of the island republic two weeks ago, perhaps three dozen people were killed. The dead were not even all buried, much less counted, when the Turkish invasion began. In the first day of fighting between Turks and Greeks, at least 150 were killed in the capital of Nicosia alone.

In addition to the dead and wounded, whose numbers were still being counted, Greeks were holding thousands of Cypriot prisoners, including 1,750 in the Limassol football stadium. Reportedly, hundreds of Greek P.O.W.s were taken off the island to Turkey. Both sides obviously hoped to use the prisoners as bar-gaming chips in peace negotiations that got under way last week in Geneva.

Fully Accepted. Most hopeful for the maintenance of the cease-fire was the emergence of highly respected Glafcos derides, 55, to replace Terrorist Nikos Sampson as acting President of Cyprus. Clerides is a British-educated lawyer who flew with the R.A.F. in World War II, was shot down over Europe, and finished the war in a P.O.W. camp. At the time of the coup he was president of the House of Representatives and one of the few Greek leaders on the deeply divided island who was fully accepted by the minority Turks. For seven years, Clerides has held a running series of friendly talks with Turkish Leader Rauf Denktas, 50, on ways to end the imbroglio between their ethnic communities. Denktas, to whom Clerides paid one of his first visits after being selected as President, said: “He is a man we can trust. He is reasonable and we can talk to him.”

Later, during a 70-minute pipe-puffing press conference, Clerides fielded questions in flawless English and turned vague on only one essential subject. Makarios, the constitutional President, was welcome back, but Clerides added that the archbishop’s immediate return “would be very unwise under the present conditions.” When Makarios does return, or perhaps even before, Clerides said, the presidency would be “a question for the people of Cyprus to decide.” He promised a quick election to facilitate their decision.

Makarios was in Washington last week for talks with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, giving every indication that he planned to return to Cyprus soon. Greek government sources said that Athens would once again recognize Makarios’ right to the presidency. The Greek sources insisted that the archbishop’s overthrow had been specifically ordered by General Dimitrios loannides, the strongman of the Greek military government that fell last week, loannides, it was said, also picked one-tune Cypriot Underground Fighter Sampson, 39, to succeed Makarios. But when Athens withdrew its support of him during the fighting, Sampson wisely surrendered power, presumably to return to his post as editor of the island’s popular newspaper Makhi (Struggle). He had no support among Turkish Cypriots and only a limited following among fellow Greek Cypriots.

More pressing than politics, as Clerides suggested last week, was “how to move from an era of fighting to an era of peace.” The vacation island was badly battered by the week-long fighting (see following story). Electricity was out in many parts of the island, water was short, and food supplies were depleted. Nicosia’s airport, which was not only a mecca for airborne sun worshipers but also a transit point between Israel and the Arab countries, was so damaged that it will take at least two months to make repairs.

Despite the urgent need to begin repairs, Greek Cypriots were more concerned over Turkish territorial gains in the war. Turks now proudly hold Kyrenia, the first port they have occupied since the division of the island following independence from Britain in 1960. From Kyrenia, the Turkish gains stretch through a ten-mile-wide corridor to Nicosia and its large enclave of Turkish Cypriots. “Kyrenia is now the door and window of the Turkish community,” said Turkish Leader Denktas. He added, not altogether lightly, “Now I will be able to go swimming in Kyrenia. I have not been allowed to do that for eleven years.”

Joint Effort, derides was far less sanguine. He observed that Turkey was continuing to land reinforcements on the island in violation of the ceasefire. The landings must stop and the Greek territory be returned, he warned, before a new peace could really take effect. Otherwise, he said, “time is running out. It will be with the greatest reluctance that I will appear before the Greek people of Cyprus to invite them to fight to the last man and to the end.”

The uneasy cease-fire had been worked out by a joint effort involving the U.N., NATO and the Common Market. Though the U.S. was roundly criticized for not applying enough pressure sooner on Greece, Kissinger denied the charge, telling TIME Correspondent Strobe Talbott: “From the first day, we told Greece that we did not want enosis [union], and we told the Turks that we did not want enosis.” Nonetheless, after remaining aloof from the crisis during its early days, Kissinger spent much of the weekend after the invasion talking on the overseas telephone to London and Paris as well as Athens and Ankara, helping to arrange the ceasefire. With his active intervention the Western alliance was able to exert considerable pressure on Turkey and Greece, both NATO allies, to stop fighting each other.

Now it is up to Greece, Turkey and Britain, the three co-guarantors of Cyprus’ independence under a 1960 treaty, to work out a peaceful solution for Cyprus. Turkey sent Foreign Minister Turan Günes to the Geneva peace talks with orders not to agree to any withdrawal from captured territory unless there was some concession by Greece in return. Günes floated a trial balloon that

Turkey might settle for partition, with both Greece and Turkey exercising rule over the island. But the proposal was badly received by the other countries, and Günes quickly abandoned the idea.

The Greek delegation was headed by the new Foreign Minister, George Mavros, who brought three demands: an effective ceasefire, law and order on the island and withdrawal of all “foreign troops,” meaning the whole Turkish invasion force and a few hundred regular Greek officers. Turkey seemed in no mood for conciliation. Said Günes: “A cease-fire alone does not equal a solution for Cyprus. We do not want a return to the status quo existing before the coup.” With neither side seemingly willing to make concessions, Britain’s Foreign Secretary James Callaghan attempted to find a compromise. But at week’s end, after talks threatened to break down completely, Mavros and Günes met privately and expressed optimism that a “final agreement” could be reached.