CYPRUS: MAKARIOS' DIFFICULTIES

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06762116
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2018
• Case Number: F-2016-01647
• Publication Date: June 21, 1974

Approved for Release: 2018/08/22 C06762116
Weekly Review
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-UirSemt
21 June 1974 (b)(3)
SC No. 00765/74
Copy N2 636
Approved for Release: 2018/08/22 C06762116
 Approved for Release: 2018/08/22 C06762116
The WEEKLY REVIEW, issued every Friday morning by the
Office of Current Intelligence. reports and analyzes significant
developments of the week through noon on Thursday. It
frequently includes material coordinated with or prepared by
the Office of Econornic Research, the Office of Strategic
Research, and the Directorate of Science and Technology.
Topics requiring more comprehensive treatment and therefore
published separately as Special Reports are listed in the
contents.
CONTENTS (June 21, 1974)
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__Approved for Release: 2018/08/22 C06762116
-TO-FrSEeRET
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CYPRUS: MAKARIOS' DIFFICULTIES
President Makarios' continuing effort to se-
cure greater control over the Greek-officered
Cypriot National Guard is encountering strong
resistance from Athens, which uses the Guard as
an instrument of influence in Cyprus. The contro-
versy is intensifying amid an upsurge of anti-gov-
ernment violence by Eoka-B, the outlawed terror-
ist organization that favors the union of Cyprus
with Greece.
Makarios believes Athens is encouraging col-
lusion between the Guard and Eoka-B in an at-
tempt to bring grea.:er pressure on him. He is also
angered by the involvement of guardsmen in a
series of incidents directed against his regime. In
pressing his campaign for control of the Guard,
Makarios demanded in early June that the selec-
tion of Greek Cypriot officer trainees be trans-
ferred from the National Guard general staff to
his government. Th6 legal authority to make such
appointments is vested in the government, but in
fact they have been made by the general staff. In
a follow-up letter on June 15 to the Guard com-
mander, a Greek general. Makarios requested that
57 cadets now undergoing training be removed
from the program by June 20. Makarios charged
they had been specifically chosen for their hostil-
ity to him.
The Greek government has rejected Ma-
karios' demand concerning future cadet appoint-
ments and is likely to refuse to sanction the
release of the cadets already in training. Athens
told Makarios last week that it had instructed
Greek guard officers to cease any involvement in
Cypriot politics, hut that it could not completely
control their activities. Athens also demanded
that Makarios disband all "illegal organizations,"
moaning especially his personal paramilitary
force, and intervene to stop the current campaign
against the Greek government in the pro-Makarios
Cypriot press.
I The President
may bring the dispute over the 57 cadets to a
head by refusing to pay their salaries when they
complete training and are commissioned.
Makarios hopes eventually to reduce the
term of service for national guardsmen from the
present two years to 12 or 14 months. That
would cut the size of the 12,000-man force in
half and secure at least a proportionate decrease
in the number of Greek officers needed to com-
mand it. His ultimate goal is to transform the
Guard into a full-fledged army manned and led
exclusively by Greel, Cypriots.
Meanwhile, the new wave of Eoka-13 vio-
lence, which began following the recent arrest of
a number of its supporters, was capped this week
by the assassination of a pro-Makarios official of
the right-wing farmers' union. The President re-
portedly believes that government pressure on the
terrorist organization has forced its several fac-
tions to reunite and that it is planning further
assassination attempts against prominent officials.
The terrorist offensive is probably designed
in part to put pressure on Makarios to cease his
campaign to control the Guard. The terrorist
leaders want the Guard to remain under mainland
Greek control. While the scale of the offensive
suggests that Eoka-B may have recovered some of
the strength it lost as a result . )f the death last
January of its four.der, General George Grivas.
the Makarios government probably has the cape-
birty to deal with it.
On the intercommunal front, the six-
year-old talks between the Greek and Turkish
Cypriot communities, which aim at devising a
new system of government for the island, were
resumed on June 11. Positions have hardened,
however, and prospects fnr a cotioman+ remain
poor.
-SECRET
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Jun 21, 74
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Approved for Release: 2018/08/22 C06762116