Turkish Cypriot enclave

The Turkish Cypriot enclaves were inhabited by Turkish Cypriots between the intercommunal violence of 1963-64 and the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

In December 1963 the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, citing Turkish Cypriot tactics aimed at obstructing the normal functioning of government, proposed several amendments to the post-colonial constitution of 1960. This precipitated a crisis between the Greek Cypriot majority and the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Turkish Cypriot representation in the government ended. The nature of this event is controversial. Greek Cypriots claim that Turkish Cypriots voluntarily withdrew from the institutions of the Republic of Cyprus, while the Turkish Cypriot narrative has it that the Turkish Cypriots were forcibly excluded.

After the rejection of the constitutional amendments by Turkey on 16 December 1963 island-wide intercommunal violence broke out. The Turkish Cypriot narrative claims that 103 to 109 Turkish Cypriot or mixed villages were attacked and 25,000-30,000 Turkish Cypriots became refugees. Greek Cypriots claim that many Turkish Cypriots were encouraged or coerced into leaving their villages by the Turkish Cypriot paramilitary organisation TMT, which wished to corral the Turkish minority into larger villages to create partition on the ground and in preparation for an anticipated military intervention from Turkey, which would seal taksim or partition. Official figures show that during fighting between 21 December 1963 to 10 August 1964, 364 Turkish Cypriots and 174 Greek Cypriots were killed.

Since the enclaves, scattered all over the island, were regarded by the Greek Cypriots as armed camps that aimed to undermine the state and prepare the way for a Turkish invasion, restrictions were imposed on who and what could go in and out of them. However, the Cyprus government soon came to realise that these restrictions were, in fact, counterproductive and served the Turkish goal of increasing animosity between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, creating de facto partition and alienating Turkish Cypriots from the Republic of Cyprus. Thus, after 1967, restrictions on the enclaves were eased and many Turkish Cypriots, despite opposition from the TMT, began to return to the villages they had left in 1963.

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Wikipedia