Cyprus President Celebrates EOKA, Ignoring Republic’s Compromise Origins

On October 1, President Nikos Christodoulides marked the 66th anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus by proclaiming the 1955‑59 EOKA campaign as the purest national liberation struggle and unveiled a new monument to its fighters. The columnist argues that EOKA’s goal was Enosis—union with Greece—not the independent state that emerged in 1960, a compromise chosen to avoid both Enosis and partition. By foregrounding EOKA, Christodoulides risks alienating Turkish Cypriots and undermining his own reunification pledge, which he presents as achievable without guarantor powers. The article notes that the Republic’s flag, designed by Turkish‑Cypriot artist Ismet V Guney, symbolizes coexistence, yet the president’s rhetoric recycles grievance and communal ownership. It also points out that EOKA B, formed after Grivas’s death, targeted the independent Republic, and that blaming Erdogan for the 1974 Turkish intervention is historically inaccurate. The piece warns that a narrative that prioritizes Greek Cypriot identity over the compromises that created the state could repeat past exclusionary politics.