It was those days of the Cold War, when we felt safe under the NATO umbrella. We would realise years later how much risks we had taken for survival, under the circumstances of the time…
We would also recognise that the Cuban Missile Crisis, which erupted thanks to Soviet Union’s plans to install nuclear missiles to Cuba, was also a bargain including Turkey and that if the Soviets had not retreated in that nuclear confrontation, our sacred country would have become one of the initial targets…
In the 1960s, Cold War balances were maintained through triggering coups in Turkey and targeting our beloved homeland in nuclear bargains as a “wing state.”
In the same period, we came across with an unexpected crisis bearing “national identity”: Cyprus…
A man of religion, Archbishop Makarios was sitting at the presidential seat. He was seeking to annul via a constitutional amendment of 13 articles the 1959 Zurich Agreement, known as the “diplomatic masterpiece” of Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, who was executed in the aftermath of the coup of 27 May. He knew that the amendment would not pass, but nevertheless relied on the Papandreou Government in Athens, replacing the Karamanlis Government which had approved the project.
He ordered an attack at midnight on December 20!.. The attack was in fact a massacre against unarmed and defenceless Turks… For Turkey, the “Cyprus Issue” started de facto on this very night, which went down in history as Bloody Noel…
