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Some of the Turkish-Cypriot community had already sought security in numbers by
moving to predominantly Turkish areas of the main towns and cities of Cyprus in
response to the activities of EOKA beginning in 1956. Effectively the Green Line (a
neutral zone dividing the two communities) had been established in Nicosia in the
summer of 1958 by British Troops attempting to separate the two communities
during the unrest triggered by the EOKA campaign 21 . When fighting waned and
after the restoration of confidence as a consequence of the signing of the Zurich and
London Agreements (February 1959), communications between the two
communities in the major towns, and even the capital, were restored. However, by
1 April 1961, just over seven months after it came into operation, the new
constitution already showed signs of severe strain 22 . On the 30th November 1963
President Makarios, in a letter to the Turkish-Cypriot Vice President, suggested 13
amendments to the constitution favouring the Greek majority. On 11 December
these amendments were made public. The atmosphere thereafter was tense. The
consequences were that a street brawl in the Turkish quarter between the (ex
EOKA) Interior Minister Yorgadjis' plain clothes special constables and a Turkish-
Cypriot crowd was immediately followed by a major assault by various Greek-
Cypriot paramilitary elements on Turkish-Cypriot areas of Nicosia and Larnaca.
Since the publication of the 1964 Foreign Office documents, it is no longer
controversial that the British High Commissioner, Sir Arthur Clark, actively
supported, if not influenced, President Makarios' moves to change the recently
21 Interview with Ozalp Sarica, op. cit., And Harbottle M. 1970. The Impartial Soldier. London:
OUP, p. 63: "Those who were in Cyprus during the EOKA campaign of 1955-9 will remember that
the Greek and Turkish quarters of Nicosia were divided by a wire fence which acquired the sobriquet
of the 'Mason Dixon Line'. Within the walls of the Old City, the Green Line almost coincides with
its predecessor... "
22 0n 1/4/1961, the Cyprus Mail reported that President Makarios acted unconstitutionally to
reinstate a colonial taxation law after the failures to secure the required separated communal
majorities to approve new taxation authority. Turkish Cypriots failed to support new taxation
legislation to put pressure on the Govt to speed up the pace of positive discrimination and fully
install the constitutionally guaranteed 30/70 ethnic ratio at all levels of public service.
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