Today in History – 1 July

Towards a dual-society republic in Cyprus

After meeting with U.S. President Johnson in Washington D.C., Prime Minister İsmet İnönü paid a visit to France on July 1, 1964 on his return and met with French President General de Gaulle as well. During the meeting held at the Palais d’Elysée, İnönü detailed Turkey’s Cyprus policy to the French president.

In the first phase of the three different policies she pursued on Cyprus, Turkey had demanded the annexation of Cyprus to Turkey. However, the ensuing developments revealed that this policy would never be implemented and the Turkish government next leaned towards the division policy, which foresaw the partition of the island between Turks and Greeks.

Once the increasing internal economic and political problems and the external pressures particularly from the U.S. and the U.K. made it evident that this policy could not be pursued either, the government was forced to embrace the third option. Imposed by the U.K., the third and last policy entailed a “a dual-society republican regime” that also named Turkey a constitutional guarantor and granted the right of intervention.