The Role of American and British Diplomacy in the Cyprus Conflict of 1974

Abstract

The study examines the characteristics of American and British involvement in the 1974 events in Cyprus. Regarding the United States, it highlights the importance of Kissinger’s controversial foreign policy which prior to the coup d’état supported the plans of Greece, while after the Turkish intervention, backed the strategic ideas of Ankara. In case of Britain, the study examines the difference between British goals of intervention and actual possibilities for manoeuvring: it emphasises that even though London strongly opposed the change of the status quo formed in the 1960s, its practical intervention
was not able to prevent the coup against President Makarios or the subsequent Turkish intervention. The paper thus argues that the U.S. and British involvement played a major role in the events of 1974 in which the United States, directly or indirectly supported the nationalist ideas of regional powers, while the United Kingdom wishing to maintain the
delicate balance in the island had neither capacity to avoid the catastrophe nor viable suggestions to solve the existing disputes.