OpenTube

Why Does Britain Have Bases on Cyprus?

Imperial War Museums

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This video explores the Cyprus Emergency of the 1950s and how it created the conditions for the division of Cyprus in 1974.

VISIT IWM

Visit Emergency Exits: The Fight for Independence in Malaya, Kenya and Cyprus, open now at IWM London: https://www.iwm.org.uk/events/emergen...

TIMECODES

00:00 The real reason Cyprus is divided
01:00 A brief history of Cyprus
02:01 Greek Cypriots
03:26 EOKA
05:04 The revolt begins
06:06 The British response
07:31 From bad to worse
08:27 Divide and Rule
09:26 Turkish Cypriots
10:33 The turning point
12:39 Intercommunal violence
13:55 Peace?
14:49 The Cyprus problem

FILM CLIPS

Explore and licence the film clips used in this video: https://film.iwmcollections.org.uk/co...

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CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTIONS

Taksim graffiti in Nicosia late 1950s by Don Christie. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

Turkish rally Nicosia 1950s by Don Christie. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

Turkish Flag Flying by Ahmet Baris Isitan. CC BY-SA 3.0.
Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported - Creative Commons

UNFICYP peacekeepers patrolling the buffer zone by Thaizacastilho. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Deed - Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International - Creative Commons

20 Comments

@bighamster2 8 months ago

Very interesting video about a subject I previously knew relatively little about.

@notmenotme614 8 months ago (edited)

Cyprus makes a great aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. From RAF Akrotiri, aircraft can reach the Black Sea (Southern Ukraine), the Middle East (such as Syria and Iraq) and North Africa (such as Libya). Cyprus is a strategically important airfield that extends the reach of the RAF and Squadrons can be forward deployed there during times of crisis, just in case and to act as a deterrent. Also Squadrons would often have a layover in Cyprus if they were transiting long distances, breaking the transit flight into 2 halves.

@Ettrick8 9 months ago

History it's complicated. I've been to Cyprus on holiday and found it a lovely and friendly island

@johnsabini2330 9 months ago

The main intelligence winner was to use the law that anyone found with a gun or explosives could expect the death penalty. So most captured terrorists opted for leniency in exchange for information. It worked.

@jayrigger7508 9 months ago

I really am glad that you did this, I have Greek ancestry with a Turkish last name. And I had family involved in Cyprus. Only feedback I wish you would have shown some of the fortifications and the walls that make up the current state of the island

@davidrussell8689 9 months ago

Very interesting video . Reading the comments can sometimes be more informative than the video itself 😂. What strikes me always in conflicts is the lack of imagination by the military powers . Apart from simply cracking down and using more violence isn’t there any other way to gain control ?

@simonrichards6739 9 months ago

That sounds like the Sketch out 'the life of Brian'. "You're being exciled to the Maldives'! 😂

@arpitagrawal6125 9 months ago

The similarity with final decades of British rule in India is unmistakable.

@shanemac1111 9 months ago

My great uncle was a sergeant in the west Australian police force, served in Cyprus as a "peace keeper".

@billyponsonby 9 months ago

Who knew this was a hot topic before they read the comments?

@QQ_241 9 months ago (edited)

There are 2 sba areas on Cyprus and the Famagusta border has a British Military camp called Ayas Nicholias. Although I think aya nic comes under the esba connected to Dhekalia via the sba corridor. It seems to me to be blindingly obvious that the situation on the island should have been resolved a lot sooner like within a year or two. Now you have multiple generations of refugees, greeks living on Turk property and vice versa. Multi generations of bitterness. The biggest holiday resort, at the time, in the med annexed for more than fifty years just left to nature to reclaim.

@davidreid8075 9 months ago

Goes back a bit further than that..

@Endercrepp 9 months ago

Guys this video is not about "Why cyprus divided" its about "why britian fought" İ hope we will see the first title soon too.

@1cautiousman2 9 months ago

My Uncle was a British soldier and died in Cyprus. From what I was told the truck he was in came under fire from a local militia and crashed. He was thrown from the vehicle and was killed. He was buried in Cyprus.

@indigohammer5732 9 months ago

My father done his National Service there in 1956. He said it was a very nasty dangerous place

@Lt_Starburst 6 months ago

the note at the 0:47 second mark, where is it from? anyone got some details?

@johnmassam161 9 months ago

Just on problem with the article there is more than 2 bases as i was based at episkopi garrison in 2011 to 2013 also there is other places the army has intrests at mount olimbos

@SohoKnights 9 months ago

Is theIWM say that In the 1950s Turkey did not send in the Grey Wolves to disrupt and cause problems?

@mariosh2 9 months ago

The video was very insightful and one of the few which points out the role of UK in this conflict. I was hoping there was also a mention of the British-led talks about Cyprus, between Sir Arthur Clark (the British High Commissioner in Nicosia at the time), Patrick Thursby who assisted in devising and establishing the line and the Major-General Peter Young who physically drew the ceasefire line with a pencil on 30 December 1963 (long before 1974).
This map exists today in the formerly classified/ now partially declassified Cyprus files FO 371 of the UK National Archives.