On the occasion of the military coup on July 15 and of the Turkish invasion on July 20, 1974, four left organisations in Cyprus, north (Turkish Cypriot side) and south (Greek Cypriot side) produced the following joint statement in three languages, English, Turkish and Greek.
The organisations are
- NEDA – New Internationalist Left (ISp section in Cyprus, with members on both sides of the divide)
- AFOA – community of struggle (a campaigning group in south Cyprus)
- DiEM25 in Cyprus (Cyprus section of DiEM25 international current around Yiannis Varoufakis)
- Bağımsızlık Yolu – Workers’ Party (a Turkish Cypriot Marxist organisation in north Cyprus)
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The summer of 1974 witnessed the physical division of Cyprus. The seeds of division had been planted long before by the nationalist ruling classes of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, and NATO eventually cemented the prolonged division of the island. The fascist Greek military junta paved the way, and the intervention of the Turkish army followed soon afterwards. Turkey’s military intervention turned into the de facto occupation of the north of Cyprus on 14 August 1974.
Today, NATO is once again trying to drag Cyprus into its dirty wars. Behind the performative rhetoric of Turkish and Greek nationalisms, the ruling classes of Turkey and Greece joined forces under the shadow of Trump at the recent NATO summit in Turkey. They have no shame. The whole world has witnessed the brutal US-Israeli aggression in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran. Now they want to draw Cyprus even deeper into NATO’s wars, as if it were not already a useful military base for imperialism, a logistical foothold against the Middle East and North Africa, and an intelligence centre suitable for keeping the Eastern Mediterranean under control.
The ruling classes of the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities are already collaborating in this process. In addition to the tens of thousands of Turkish troops, belonging to a NATO member state, stationed in the north, Turkish drones have also been deployed at Geçitkale (Lefkoniko) Airport. Meanwhile, the south is increasingly dominated by the naval assets of EU imperialism, US military aircraft and personnel in Paphos, an Israeli military presence in Troodos, and military initiatives involving Egypt and India in cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus. At the same time, the British bases assist the genocide of Palestinians. Moreover, natural gas has attracted several companies to the Mediterranean, further militarising and dividing the island at the cost of environmental destruction.
Political elites pursue policies that serve their own interests while selling nationalism to their own people. This is because they have nothing else to offer but capitalist exploitation, poverty, unemployment, precarity and misery. Greek, Turkish, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot working people remain divided, even though they face the same struggles: long working hours, low wages, poor-quality education and healthcare, lack of access to social housing, and inequality. The ruling classes know this and use nationalism to divert attention away from these problems and safeguard their own power.
The working class within the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities, together with the working classes of Greece and Turkey, has the power to overcome the division imposed by imperialism and nationalism. This struggle goes beyond national identities and communities; it is rooted in the common interests of the working class against capitalism, imperialism, nationalism and militarism.
We call for:
• an end to all foreign military presence and bases in Cyprus;
• an end to the use of the island as a military, logistical and intelligence platform for imperialist wars;
• a common struggle against militarism, arms expenditure, nationalism, chauvinism, the far right and fascism;
• the protection of people and nature against the profit-driven exploitation of natural gas and energy resources;
• the strengthening of the common class struggle of the working class within the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities for a federal, united, independent and socialist Cyprus.
