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Patrick has offered a more complicated contemporary dissection of the
controversy: 62
In 1964 Turkish-Cypriots were generally unable to sell their grain
and grapes through the government's marketing agencies. Turkish-Cypriot farmers
were thus forced to sell surplus requirements to their Greek-Cypriot counterparts at
a substantial discount or dump the crop. In 1965 the marketing boards were willing
to receive Turkish-Cypriot produce provided the farmers were willing to pay off the
debts for the advance payments they had received in 1963, for the crop that was not
delivered in 1964. The Grain Commission deducted 20% from payments to Turkish-
Cypriot farmers until the debt had been repaid. Attalides argues that the intention
was not to pay Turkish producers less:
Since the [Turkish] Co-operative Bank owed a sum of money to the
Grain Commission, the sum was eut in instalments from lump payments
to the Turkish Co-operative Bank. If the Bank, which engaged in many
other activities than purchasing grain, chose to pass this on in the form
of lower prices... it was true that to the producers it would appear that
the Government was discriminating against them. 63
Patrick relates how in 1966 the Government tried to raise a compensation fund for
Greek-Cypriot Farmers displaced by communal fighting 64 (mostly from around the
northern Nicosia enclave) by imposing a 30% déduction on payments for grain
grown in the Nicosia enclave. This is in addition to the 20% réduction that
producers already experienced, amounting one way or another, to a 50% réduction
in the likely payments due to cereal farmers in the Nicosia enclave. Consequently
no grain was delivered to the Grain Commission in 1966 from the Nicosia enclave
and the 30% Government "Emergency" rent was withdrawn. The picture thus
62 Patrick 1976. op. cit., p. 110.
63 Attalides 1977. op. cit., pp.88-89.
64 UNICYP estimated that half of the farmland abandoned by Turkish Cypriots was being leased to
Greek Cypriots, sometimes under allegedly less than favourable terms. UN. Security Council. 8
December 1966, "Report on UNICYP and the Cyprus Situation for the period 11 June to 5 Dec.
1966". NY: S/7611. By comparison only a very small proportion of Greek Cypriots lost access to
property in 1963/4 and most of that was in and around northern Nicosia. Rep. of Cyprus 1967.
Report hy the Special Parliamentarv C'tee set UP to Examine the Question of Emergency Victims.
Nicosia: House of Représentatives. Both sources quoted by Patrick, 1976. op. cit., p. 110.
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