cyprus issue in turkish-russian relations

International Journal of Turcologia

Volume: IX N: 17 - PRINTEMPS / SPRING 2014

International Journal of Turcologia

International Journal of TurcologiaAims and Scope: The International Journal of Turcologia is a refreed journal. The journal aims at meeting the need for a major international publication devoted to all aspects of Turcology. The IJT is a journal that examines social, political, cultural, historical, linguisti-cal and literature issues in Turcology, especially 19th and 20th centuries.

Editorial InformationAcademic Editors

İlhan Alemdar Historien d’art, Paris Bahriye Çeri Turcologist, Paris Kayoko Hayeshi Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Timour Muhidinc INALCO, Paris Cüneyd Okay İstanbul Technical University

Editorial Board Gabor Agoston Georgetown University Yorgo Dedes University of London Benjamin Fortna University of London Priska Furrer University of Bern Gottfried Hagen University of Michigan Tooru Hayashi University of Tokyo Frédéric Hitzel CNRS, Paris Slobodan Ilic Eastern Mediterranean University Matthias Kappler University of Cyprus Tijana Krstic Pennsylvania State University Gabriel Piterberg University of California, Los Angeles Börte Sagester University of Giessen Grazyna Zajac Jagiellonian University in Krakow

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Table of Contents

Bandwagoning vs Chain Ganging: The Failure of Great Power

Diplomacy in the Balkans before the First World War

Burak Samih GÜLBOY .............................................................................. 7

Fundamental Property Relations in Ottomans

Yüksel YILDIRIM .................................................................................... 37

Anti-Communist Propaganda of Turkish Armed Forces During

The Cold War

Güven Gürkan ÖZTAN - M. İnanç ÖZEKMEKÇİ ................................ 47

The Structure of The Ottoman Diplomacy During

The Reign of Mahmud - I

Hatice DEMİR .......................................................................................... 77

Cyprus Issue in Turkish - Russian Relations

Özgün Erler BAYIR ................................................................................. 89

A Modern Biography During The Ottoman Empire Era:

“Bismarck Hayat-ı Hususi ve Siyasisi”

Gül Ayşe AKAR ...................................................................................... 103

89

Cyprus Issue in Turkish - Russian Relations

Özgün Erler BAYIR*1

Abstract

This paper essentially focuses on the Cyprus issue as a matter in Turkish – Rus-sian relations both in Cold War and Post-Cold War periods. I will try to analyze Russian policy towards Cyprus issue from 1945 until today and Turkish perspec-tive on Russia connected to the issue. Did this issue effected Turkish-Russian relations or were infl uenced by their relations? So, what kind of context can we fi nd between Turkish-Russian relations and Cyprus issue? Besides, have the Russian approach to Cyprus issue been differentiated in the process? If so, what are the reasons and factors behind it? I attempt to answer these ques-tions as they can be enlightening for the study.

Key Words

Cyprus issue, Turkish-Russian relations, Cyprus, Turkey, Russia

IntroductionTurkish-Russian relations are historically based on the rival-

ry in general. Ottoman Empire and Russia had been competing each other in the regions and there had been big and long wars between them. In 20th Century –especially during the Cold War they had been part of the two different political regimes and rival blocs. Turkey as a strategic ally of USA and Western countries and being geographically close to Soviet Union, was feeling military pressure of Soviet Russia all the time. In post-Cold War period there has been strong rivalry between Russia and Turkey. Russia, as still one of the big powers in the world,

* İstanbul University, [email protected]

90 International Journal of Turcologia / Vol: IX No: 17

wants to control the regional countries and maintain its posi-tion and sphere of infl uence in the region. At the same time for Turkey, the post-Soviet region has meant new opportunities for its foreign policy as these new independent countries are culturally and historically close to Turkey.

If we look at the main problematic issues in Turkish-Rus-sian relations in 20th Century and today, Cyprus is for sure one of them. In this paper, Russian perspective to Cyprus is-sue, as well as the signifi cance and implications of the issue in Turkish-Russian relations will be discussed with a historical perspective after the 2nd World War. A periodization and a pre-liminary analysis for each period’s characteristics are made in the context of the Cyprus issue and Turkish-Russian relations: 1945-1964, 1965-1974, 1975-1991 and 1991-today.

Why such a periodization is signifi cant for this subject? Be-tween 1945 and 1964 the Cold War rivalry was really intense. The year 1964 was a turning point both for Turkish foreign policy and Cyprus issue. The famous Johnson letter -in which US president Johnson stated that US might not defend Turkey if Turkey’s possible intervention to Cyprus will cause Soviet response-, was sent to Turkey in 1964. The political movements and events between 1964 and 1974 –in which Turkey’s inter-ference in Cyprus occurred- needs to be evaluated separately. After 1974 intervention, Cyprus gained its present status. The end of Cold War and collapse of Soviet Union at the beginning of 1990’s opened a new era both in international system and regional problems like the one in Cyprus.

I. 1945-1964 PeriodBetween 1945 and 1964 Cold War was really intensifi ed and

rivalry between USA and Soviet Union was at its peak. During

91Cyprus Issue In Turkish - Russian Relations

this period, it is more meaningful to evaluate the Cyprus issue not in its own circumstances as an issue between two commu-nities in the island, but rather in the context of Cold War envi-ronment and NATO-Warsaw Pact relations. Particularly, Cy-prus Communist Front Organization AKEL in Southern Cy-prus) had conducting much close relations with Soviet Union in these years. Soviet Union’s support to the left in the island and policy towards the issue can better be analyzed within the Cold War logic. Soviet Union conducted policy for supporting the movements that can potentially dissolve American-British infl uence in Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East regions. In some sense this would mean to dissolve the infl uence of NATO. This is because, Turkey and Greece -as the parties of the Cyprus issue- were in the Western Bloc and members of NATO. So, Soviet Union saw Cyprus issue as an instrument to be used to weaken Southeastern part of NATO. A possible clash between Turkey and Greece might mean weakening of south east part of NATO. Moreover, Soviet approach to “eno-sis” -which means unifi cation of the island with Greece-, is shaped within this framework.

In this term, defenders of enosis in AKEL party -which was close to Soviet communist party-, became predominant. AKEL’s defending of enosis, revealed a situation which Soviet Union seemed also close to the enosis idea. Behind this policy of Soviet Union was the consideration that the island should be free from British infl uence. This is because; in those years enosis was perceived as a movement that is against Britain. But as of 1955, EOKA as an anti-communist and nationalist organization initiated an armed struggle against Great Britain in Cyprus on the bases of enosis. At this point, there occurred some hesitations of AKEL and Soviet Union about enosis and self-determination thought was started to be pronounced.2


Afterwards, EOKA became the leader of enosis movement. It was the Turkish population who was effected by EOKA’s policy and activities negatively. As of 1958 Makarios start-ed to maintain close relations with Soviet Union with “Inde-pendent Cyprus” slogan. “Diplomatic relations between the Republic of Cyprus and Soviet Russia were established in 1960. In many ways, the Cypriot approach to Soviet Russia has very close parallels to that of Greece, with some minor differences visible in the minutiae of certain issue areas.”3 As the chain of events started in December 1963 in the is-land, Turkey sent its planes over Cyprus for a warning fl ight and following this, Soviet Union delivered a note to Turkey in which this attitude of Turkey is protested. In an article written in Russian newspaper Pravda, it was written that the crisis resulted from London and Zurich Agreements which were signed with the manipulation of NATO.4

An important development at this point was the so called “Johnson Letter” that was sent to Turkey by American President Johnson. As is known, USA reacted to the possible military in-tervention of Turkey to the island in 1964. In his letter, President Johnson mentioned that Turkey cannot use the military equip-ment supplied by the USA in such an intervention to Cyprus. Besides, it was written that this kind of military intervention would cause big tension between two NATO members: Turkey and Greece. Besides, NATO would abstain for defending Tur-key if Soviet Union would interfere to Turkey. After this letter, Turkey decided not to interfere to Cyprus. These developments should be viewed in the context of the Cold War balances of power and the Johnson letter was a turning point for Turkish foreign policy. Turkey did not feel American support despite its membership to NATO. But conversely, it faced with the reality of leaving alone in the Alliance without any guarantee.


II. 1965-1974 PeriodAs of the mid-1964, there had been some differences in So-

viet Union’s attitude towards Cyprus. Turkey’s direct dispute with its western allies over the possible interference to Cyprus and the Johnson letter prepared a political environment for the rapprochement between Turkey and Soviet Union in the eyes of Turkish public opinion and politicians. Soviet Union declared its support for Cyprus independence, territorial in-tegrity and legal rights of both communities in the island.5

When it comes to Turkish foreign policy, it is not diffi cult to say that Johnson letter marked a major turning point in Turkey’s foreign policy in the period between 1965 and 1974. The difference between Turkish and American perspectives occurred about the solution of Cyprus problem prepared the ground for the development of Turkish-Soviet Union relations. This development is refl ected to Cyprus issue as well. Soviet Union that supported only the Greek perspective on the issue before 1965, started to pronounce “bi-communal” structure in the island. Due to the political environment after Johnson letter, Soviet-Turkish rapprochement started. It is possible to observe its refl ections in Cyprus issue as well. Although So-viet Union was referring independence and integrity of Cy-prus and its opposition to any intervention to the island from this period, it also accepted Turkey’s thesis that mentions two different communities living in the island. Moreover, parallel to the development of the relations, some of the Soviet rulers who have similar opinions with Turkey about the Cyprus is-sue, stated their opposition to enosis and self-determination principle that could be used for the purpose of enosis.6

Between 1965 and 1974 the conditions for Turkish popu-lation in the island worsened. As is known, in 1974, EOKA-B


leader Nikos Sampson staged a coup where President Makar-ios was overthrown and Simpson became the new president. Turkey, based on its status of a guarantor state which is de-fi ned in 1959 London and Zurich Agreements, interfered to Cyprus and launched two operations.

Soviet Union showed a positive approach to the fi rst opera-tion of Turkey. Understanding the reason behind this positive approach, we need to consider the changed political balances in Greece. As of 1967 the pro-American Military Junta (Re-gime of the colonels) was in power in Greece. Under these cir-cumstances Soviet Union didn’t want Cyprus to be connected to Greece and didn’t approve the Sampson’s coup. However Turkey’s second operation which allowed Turkey to settle in the island, was also not approved by Soviet Union because they wanted Turkey to behave in a limited strategy in Cyprus and the aim of the second intervention should have been for the limited purpose that allows to overthrow Sampson and provide the conditions for the presidency of Makarios who was close to Soviets. However Turkey showed a further action that let it to receive its present position in the island. Substan-tially, Soviet Union’s policy towards Cyprus and Makarios grounded on its relations with AKEL party which was close to Soviet Communist Party in this period. Besides, as the So-viet Union did not want NATO’s infl uence in the island, was in favor of the “non-aligned” status of “independent Cyprus” which established in 1960.

“As it was the case in the 1964 crisis, during the 1974 cri-sis the Soviets tried from the beginning to take the Cyprus problem out of the triangular framework of Turkey – Greece – Great Britain and pull it into the UN Security Council where they would have a control over the issue. The second Turkish intervention strengthened the Soviet decision in this respect.”7


III. 1975-1991 PeriodAlso in 1975-1991 period, the primary purpose of Soviet

Union’s Cyprus policy was to keep the infl uence of USA and other NATO member states at the minimum level in the island but rather to defend the independent and non-aligned status of Cyprus as a territorially integral state. Besides, according to Soviet Union the armed forces and weapons should have been removed from the island. Thereby, the necessity of closing two British forces which have been very important for USA in Cy-prus8 was also emphasized.

In 1975, Northern Cyprus declared the establishment of “The Turkish Federated State of Cyprus”. Afterwards, Soviet Union repeated that it recognizes the Republic of Cyprus un-der the Makarios presidency as the only legitimate state in the island and foreign forces on the island should be withdrawn. Besides, the necessity to organize an international conference to fi nd a solution was noted by Soviet Union and it supported United Nation’s approach for solving the problem with nego-tiations between two communities.

IV. Post-Cold War PeriodAfter the end of the Cold War and collapse of Soviet Union

there have been new balances in international system but, when it comes to Cyprus issue and Russian approach to the issue, it can be said that there have been no signifi cant changes. How-ever, because the ideological perspective lose ground in today’s politics comparing in Cold War era, Russian interest on the is-sue could not be evaluated only in the framework of Makari-os-AKEL and Soviet Communist Party. Perhaps we can refer to “Orthodox axis” as well. But the refl ection of Turkish-Russian relations to Cyprus issue has been occurring similar to Soviet


Union term. It has been possible to observe the refl ections of the rapprochement in Turkish-Russian relations to the policies to-wards Cyprus. Similarly the negative state of relations in 1990’s was refl ected to Cyprus issue as well. After 1991 Russia has been rather closer to the idea of “unifi ed Cyprus” as the thesis of Greek Cypriots. At this point we should refer to the devel-oped relations between Russia and Southern Cyprus especially at economic and commercial level. As known, there have been several important investments of Russia in Cyprus.

United Nations proposed a plan that is called “Annan Plan” to resolve Cyprus dispute. It is suggested to restructure the “Republic of Cyprus” as a “United Republic of Cyprus”, that would be a federation of two states. A referendum was held for both communities on 24 April 2004, but the results were disappointing. As the majority of Greek Cypriot population voted down the Annan Plan (75.38% against), the majority of Turkish Cypriot population voted for the Plan (64.91% in fa-vor). A few days before the referendum, (on 21st of April) a draft resolution to reinforce the referendum related to imple-mentation of the Annan Plan came to the agenda of UN Secu-rity Council. But, Russia did veto the draft that was prepared to guarantee the functionality and applicability of the Annan Plan. This draft aimed to alleviate the security concerns of Greek Cypriots. However, according to Russia, this draft was prepared without taking Russian advices and would cause the suppression of the parties.9 AKEL party was also against the Plan and vetoed it. Following the rejection of the plan, Kofi Annan wrote a report about situation. There had been some opinions claiming the Russia’s infl uence in preparation process of this report. Allegedly, Russia claimed that it would have vetoed the report in Security Council if in the report had been some statements in which Greek Cypriots had been crit-


icized because of their rejection of the Plan. At the end, Greek Cypriots was not criticized because of being against the plan, in the report written by Annan.

“This was an important report for the Turkish government that wants to urge the international community to lift the iso-lation of the northern part of the island. With Turkey’s pres-sure, President Putin declared that the economic embargo on the north was unjust. Oscillating between the long tradition of positioning itself as a habitual protector of the Balkan Ortho-dox nations and the attempts to satisfy Turkish expectations, Moscow wanted at least to give the impression that it is trying to do something about Turkish concerns on Cyprus.”10

In the following years Russia indicated willingness to con-duct more balanced relations between the parties of the Cy-prus issue. In recent years, Turkish-Russian relations have been characterized by cooperation and improving remarka-bly. This situation is refl ected to Cyprus issue as well. For in-stance; Russia opened direct diplomatic contact with Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made bilateral ne-gotiations during the meeting of Organization of the Islam-ic Conference (OIC) that was held in Turkey in 2004. In the offi cial visits between Turkey and Russia, Putin stated Rus-sian support to the attempts of United Nations related to the Cyprus dispute. In 2008, Sergey Lavrov visited Cyprus and negotiated with the leaders of two communities. During his visit he mentioned the signifi cance of considering the United Nations Security Council’s decisions in fi nding a solution to Cyprus problem. Besides in 2010 during the visit of Medve-dev in Southern Cyprus, he expressed that it is better to fi nd a solution between two communities without the necessity of a foreign intervention.


General Evaluation Cyprus has a vital importance for Turkey’s security per-

ceptions both for its geostrategic position and socio-cultural and historical dynamics as Turkish population living in the northern part of the island. So, Cyprus has been one of the main issues in Turkish foreign policy from 1950’s. Russia has been also showing strong interest to the island because of the strategic aspects as it is in the hearth of the Mediterranean Sea and close to the Middle East region.

For instance “the active role played by the AKEL party in the enosis campaign initiated soon after the war by Cypriot Greeks must therefore, be evaluated within the framework of the over –all Soviet policy aiming at having access to the Mediterranean and Middle East. During those years the Brit-ish presence in Sue and Cyprus was an important obstacle for the Soviet entry into these regions. Considering the civil war in Greece during 1946-1949 and the substantial commu-nist strength in Greece, placing Cyprus in the hands of a weak Greece rather than a strong Britain would secure signifi cant benefi ts for Soviet designs.”11

Besides, Russia has good relations with Greece and energy is one of the bases of the economic cooperation between the two countries. Russia is the biggest energy supplier of Greece: 75% of the Greek gas needs are supplied by Russia. Further-more, military cooperation between the two countries is also very important. In recent years, the volume of Russian arms exports to Greece reached US$1 billion.12

As Russia maintains strong trade and economic relations with Greek Cypriots, does not want to risk its political and economic relations with them. It is known that Russia uses Greek Cyprus as an offshore region for Russian capital.13


In conclusion, it should be mentioned again that one of the main problematic issues in Turkish-Russian relations is Cyprus, Russian approach to Cyprus issue and the refl ection of it to the relations. Although Cyprus is one of the primarily important matters in the relations between Turkey and Russia, it shows variability in the historical process according to the rapproche-ment in relations. When the Turkish-Russian relations have been good, Russian approach to Cyprus issue can be evaluated rather positive for the purposes of Turkey and reached to the point that Turkey could regard. However when relations have been on the decline, it is easy to recognize Russian further sup-port to Greek approach on Cyprus. As a sample, in 1997 South-ern Cyprus declared its willingness to purchase S-300 missiles from Russia in 1990’s when the Turkish-Russian relations were troubled and not so good. “The missiles have a 90-mile range able to reach southern Turkey and were to protect air and na-val bases in Southern Cyprus that would be used by Greece.”14 For the sale of S-300 missiles, there have been some comments that referred to the Russian motivation to defend its interests in Eastern Mediterranean against NATO.

The Russian willingness to sale the S-300 missiles to Greek Cypriot have been perceived not only as a commercial issue in Turkey but rather an attempt which is against Turkish se-curity interests. However thinking of the conjuncture at the beginning of 1990’s it could be more reasonable to say that Russia behaved rather more with economic motivations than political and military ones on this issue.

Turkey reacted to the sale of missiles and after a minor cri-sis, in December 1998 it is decided to deploy the missiles to Crete Island, but not to Cyprus, thus effectively continuing to pose the same type of security threat to Turkey as the missiles’ deployment in southern Cyprus would have done.15


When Turkish-Russian relations have been better, Cyprus issue did not seem like a serious or major problem on its own. The 1965-1974 period is an example to this. Another ex-ample was in 2010 –when the relations between Turkey and Russia were at a good level. The Russian foreign minister offi cially negotiated with both of the leaders of southern and northern parts of the island and he mentioned the necessity to consider the UN Security Council decisions on Cyrus is-sue as a keynote.

Fundamentally, Russia has been conducting good relations with Greek Cypriot and close to the Greek approach relating to Cyprus issue in all of the analyzed periods. However par-allel to the improvement of the relations in 21st Century espe-cially, it can be said that Russian approach about Cyprus is quite at the same distance to Greece and Turkey. Pronouncing the repeal of embargo on Northern Cyprus can be evaluated in this context.

To sum up, it is not diffi cult to say that Cyprus is not an issue that has a restorative or damaging effect on Turk-ish-Russian relations. Thus, Cyprus issue is a dependent variable in the relations between Turkey and Russia and has been shaped by the outcomes of the relations. Addition-ally, Russia’s policy towards the Cyprus issue can be eval-uated both in terms of its general foreign policy in Eastern Mediterranean and specifi cally in the context of balancing the policies of the other big powers like USA and EU. In this respect, it is doesn’t seem right to read Russian policy towards Cyprus and its support to Greek Cypriot in histor-ical process, as its opposition or contradiction to Turkey. It is more signifi cant to analyze the situation rather in the context of balance of power.


(Endnotes)1 With great thanks to Prof.Dr. Faruk Sönmezoğlu for sharing his valuable ideas

and profound experience with me.

2 Faruk Sönmezoğlu, Türkiye-Yunanistan İlişkileri ve Büyük Güçler: Kıbrıs, Ege ve Diğer Sorunlar, İstanbul: Der Yayınları, 2000, pp:93-95.

3 George Christou, “Bilateral Relations with Russia and the Impact on EU Policy: The Cases of Cyprus and Greece”, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 2011, 19: 2, p:230.

4 Sönmezoğlu, Türkiye-Yunanistan İlişkileri ve…, p:96.

5 Ibid, pp:97-98.

6 Faruk Sönmezoğlu, II. Dünya Savaşı’ndan Günümüze Türk Dış Politikası, İs-tanbul: Der Yayınları, 2006, pp:358-359.

7 Fahir Armaoğlu, “1974 Cyprus Crisis and the Soviets”, Dış Politika (Foreign Policy), Vol: 4, No: 2-3, p:181.

8 Sönmezoğlu, II. Dünya Savaşı’ndan Günümüze…, p:454.

9 Fatih Özbay, “Soğuk Savaş Sonrası Türkiye-Rusya İlişkileri: 1992-2010”, Bilge Strateji, Vol: 2, No: 4, Spring 2011, p:62.

10 Suat Kiniklioğlu, Valeriy Morkva, “An anatomy of Turkish Russian Relations”, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Vol: 7:4, p:547.

11 Armaoğlu, “1974 Cyprus Crisis and the Soviets”…, p: 178.

12 Krisztina Hegedüs: Russia’s relations: the Turkish-Greek-Cipriot triangle. Délke-let Európa – South-East Europe International Relations Quarterly, Vol: 1. No: 2. (Summer 2010) p:3.

13 Fatih Özbay, “The Relations between Turkey and Russia in the 2000s”, Percep-tions, Autumn 2011, Vol: XVI, No: 3, p.85.

14 Carol Migdalovitz, “Cyprus: Status of U.N. Negotiations and Related Issues”, CRS Report for Congress, Updated July 20, 2007, p:5, http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL33497.pdf

15 Duygu Bazoğlu Sezer, “Turkish-Russian Relations: The Challenges of Recon-ciling Geopolitical Competition with Economic Partnership”, Turkish Studies, Vol: 1 No:1 (Spring 2000), p:79.

cyprus issue in turkish-russian relations

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