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Greece’s OstpolitikThe Cyprus Problem as Variable in the Soviet Bloc’s Policy in the Eastern Mediterranean

Greece’s Ostpolitik: The Cyprus Problem as Variable in the Soviet Bloc’s Policy in the Eastern... [The Cyprus problem was a crucial field in Greece’s relationship with Eastern European countries. During the Cold War, Moscow deployed very sophisticated tactics to meddle in the affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean countries, with the aim of weakening the West’s influence and geopolitical aspirations in the region. Yet, it was a strategy entailing serious risks, as the Kremlin’s diplomacy had to maintain a very sensitive equilibrium: fostering ties with one country without jeopardizing its relations with another, possibly sworn enemy of the respective country. The task of justifying or whitewashing this ambivalent and sometimes internally conflicting policy fell to local Communist parties. Hence, the most suitable for this mission could be none other than the most successful among all the Communist parties in the region, the Communist party of Cyprus (the Progressive Party for the Working People, AKEL). As permanent Security Council member of the United Nations, the Soviet Union exploited the repeated political crises in Cyprus and especially the Greek-British confrontation in the UN regarding Cyprus, theoretically to demonstrate its solidarity to the Cypriot people, practically to interfere in the conflict against the Western interests. Cyprus’s neutrality, coupled with the fact that the first President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, had to rely on the Communists in order to rule, created favourable conditions for Soviet penetration. Contrary to the clumsy US handling of the Greek-Turkish antagonism around Cyprus, Moscow turned out to be diplomatically more deft. It avoided taking a clear position in the Greek-Turkish conflict and it exploited it to the detriment of NATO. The complete Soviet absence in the Cyprus crisis in summer 1974 was reversed by pro-Soviet propaganda in the following decades leading to a simaltaneous increase of anti-American and anti-Western sentiments in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, thereby offering a smashing diplomatic victory to Kremlin.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Greece’s OstpolitikThe Cyprus Problem as Variable in the Soviet Bloc’s Policy in the Eastern Mediterranean

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References (9)

Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
ISBN
978-3-030-61128-6
Pages
69 –86
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-61129-3_4
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The Cyprus problem was a crucial field in Greece’s relationship with Eastern European countries. During the Cold War, Moscow deployed very sophisticated tactics to meddle in the affairs of the Eastern Mediterranean countries, with the aim of weakening the West’s influence and geopolitical aspirations in the region. Yet, it was a strategy entailing serious risks, as the Kremlin’s diplomacy had to maintain a very sensitive equilibrium: fostering ties with one country without jeopardizing its relations with another, possibly sworn enemy of the respective country. The task of justifying or whitewashing this ambivalent and sometimes internally conflicting policy fell to local Communist parties. Hence, the most suitable for this mission could be none other than the most successful among all the Communist parties in the region, the Communist party of Cyprus (the Progressive Party for the Working People, AKEL). As permanent Security Council member of the United Nations, the Soviet Union exploited the repeated political crises in Cyprus and especially the Greek-British confrontation in the UN regarding Cyprus, theoretically to demonstrate its solidarity to the Cypriot people, practically to interfere in the conflict against the Western interests. Cyprus’s neutrality, coupled with the fact that the first President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios, had to rely on the Communists in order to rule, created favourable conditions for Soviet penetration. Contrary to the clumsy US handling of the Greek-Turkish antagonism around Cyprus, Moscow turned out to be diplomatically more deft. It avoided taking a clear position in the Greek-Turkish conflict and it exploited it to the detriment of NATO. The complete Soviet absence in the Cyprus crisis in summer 1974 was reversed by pro-Soviet propaganda in the following decades leading to a simaltaneous increase of anti-American and anti-Western sentiments in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey, thereby offering a smashing diplomatic victory to Kremlin.]

Published: Feb 1, 2021

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