Our View: Official narrative ignores errors of judgment

Cyprus today marks 49 years since the coup that overthrew Archbishop Makarios and paved the way for Turkish invasion. Referred to as the ‘black anniversary,’ sirens will sound in all towns at the time the coup began on July 15, 1974, orchestrated by Greece’s Junta, the officers of which were running the national guard.

There will be church services honouring those who fell defending the state and the political parties will issue the familiar announcements about the treacherous coup which opened the way for the Turkish invasion which led to the occupation of 40 per cent of Cyprus. We will also hear about the state’s failure to punish the members of the terrorist group Eoka B which had been fighting to overthrow Makarios from the start of the seventies and took part in the coup.

Nobody can argue with this, but it is a rather simplistic narrative that strives to present Makarios as the victim of the fascists, whom he had the courage to stand up to. The narrative is a whitewash, ignoring all the errors of judgment and bad choices Makarios made before independence.

In a book published last year, titled Fatal Leadership (1948-2021) – Makarios and his Successors, the author, Leontios Ierodiaconou, explains how Makarios had fallen out with every government of Greece, invariably ignoring advice, using the press to turn people against the Greek government of the day and then doing as he liked. A cleric, with minimal political experience, was ignoring the advice of a state with a diplomatic service and much better understanding of world affairs. And until 1967, these were democratically elected governments.

That he thought he could take on a fascist dictatorship without consequences, as he had been used to in the past, was a grave error of judgment. He made public a scathing letter he had sent the Greek government, asking it to withdraw all its officers from the national guard and accusing it of undermining his government. He made legitimate points, but he should have considered whom he was dealing with and what the reaction to publication of the letter may have been.

Another colossal mistake by Makarios, which may have not led directly to the coup and the invasion but would surely have created the political conditions not conducive to either, was his close ties with the Soviet Union (to have Akel’s support, among other things) at the height of the Cold War. At a time when all three guarantor powers were Nato members, Cyprus should also have joined. Instead, Makarios took Cyprus into the Soviet-controlled, anti-West, Non-Aligned Movement and liked to boast about his close ties with the Kremlin.

This all belongs to the past and is no justification for the coup and the Turkish invasion that followed, but we should acknowledge that Makarios was not without fault for the disasters of 1974, when we mark the black anniversaries.