Taksim (politics) in the context of "Adnan Menderes"

Play Trivia Questions online!

or

Skip to study material about Taksim (politics) in the context of "Adnan Menderes"

Ad spacer

⭐ Core Definition: Taksim (politics)

Taksim (Turkish: [takˈsim], lit.'division') is a Turkish nationalist and secessionist movement of Turkish Cypriots advocating for the independence and recognition of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus under a two-state solution. It was the primary ideology of supporters of the 1974 invasion, with the concept being articulated as early as 1957 by Vice President Fazıl Küçük.

Turkish Cypriot nationalism developed mainly in response to Greek nationalism and the desire for enosis, union of the whole island with Greece. Initially, Turkish Cypriots favoured the continuation of British rule. However, they were alarmed by the Greek Cypriot calls for enosis, as they saw that the union of Crete with Greece had led to the exodus of Cretan Turks, which was a precedent to be avoided, and they took a pro-partition stance in response to the militant activity of EOKA. Turkish Cypriots also viewed themselves as a distinct ethnic group of the island and believed in their having a separate right to self-determination from Greek Cypriots. Meanwhile, in the 1950s, Turkish leader Adnan Menderes considered Cyprus an "extension of Anatolia", rejected the partition of Cyprus along ethnic lines and supported the annexation of the whole island to Turkey. Nationalistic slogans centred on the idea that "Cyprus is Turkish", and the ruling party declared Cyprus to be part of the Turkish homeland and vital for its security. Upon realising that Turkish Cypriots were only 20% of the islanders and so annexation was unfeasible, the national policy was changed to favour partition. The slogan "Partition or Death" was frequently used in Turkish Cypriot and Turkish protests in the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s. Although after the Zurich and London Conferences, Turkey seemed both to accept the existence of the Cypriot state and to distance itself from its policy of favouring the partition of the island, the goal of Turkish and Turkish Cypriot leaders remained that of creating an independent Turkish state in the northern part of the island. In the 21st century, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has expressed support for a two-state solution.

↓ Menu

>>>PUT SHARE BUTTONS HERE<<<
In this Dossier

Taksim (politics) in the context of Northern Cyprus

Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state comprising the northern third of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, with the international community considering it territory of the Republic of Cyprus under Turkish military occupation. It extends from Cape Apostolos Andreas (the tip of the Karpass Peninsula) in the northeast to Morphou Bay in the northwest, with Cape Kormakitis at its westernmost point and the Kokkina exclave west of the mainland. A buffer zone controlled by the UN forms a barrier between both sides of the island and runs through Nicosia, the island's largest city and the capital of both sides.

After gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1960, Cyprus was dominated by intercommunal violence between the island's Greek and Turkish populations. Greek Cypriots favoured enosis (union with Greece), while Turkish Cypriots favoured taksim (partition of the island). A coup d'état in 1974, performed as part of the Greek military junta's attempt to annex the island, prompted Turkey to invade Cyprus and capture the northern third of the island. This resulted in the eviction of much of the north's Greek Cypriot population and the flight of Turkish Cypriots from the south; the Turkish-occupied north unilaterally declared independence in 1983. UN Security Council Resolution 541 rejected the declaration as illegal and urged UN members not to recognise it. Attempts to resolve the Cyprus problem have been unsuccessful; Northern Cyprus and Turkey favour a two-state solution, while the Republic of Cyprus, the EU, and the UN favour a federalised Cyprus.

↑ Return to Menu

Taksim (politics) in the context of Enosis

Enosis (Greek: Ένωσις, IPA: enosis], "union") is an irredentist ideology held by various Greek communities living outside Greece that calls for them and the regions that they inhabit to be incorporated into the Greek state. The idea is related to the Megali Idea, a concept of a Greek state that dominated Greek politics following the creation of modern Greece in 1830. The Megali Idea called for the establishment of a larger Greek state including the lands outside Greece that remained under foreign rule following the Greek War of Independence in the 1820s, but which nevertheless still had large Greek populations.

The most widely known example of enosis is the movement within Greek Cypriots for a union of Cyprus with Greece. The idea of enosis in British-ruled Cyprus became associated with the campaign for Cypriot self-determination, especially among the island's Greek Cypriot majority. However, many Turkish Cypriots opposed enosis without taksim, the partitioning of the island between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. In 1960, the Republic of Cyprus was born, resulting in neither enosis nor taksim.

↑ Return to Menu

Taksim (politics) in the context of Cyprus problem

The Cyprus problem, also known as the Cyprus conflict, Cyprus issue, Cyprus dispute, or Cyprus question, is an ongoing dispute between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot community in the north of the island of Cyprus, where troops of the Republic of Turkey are deployed. This dispute is an example of a protracted social conflict. The Cyprus dispute began after the Greek Cypriot community challenged the British occupation of the island in 1955, the 1974 Cypriot coup d'état executed by the Cypriot National Guard and sponsored by the Greek military junta, and the ensuing Turkish military invasion of the island, and hence the presence of Turkish soldiers, despite a legal reinstatement of a stable government. The desire of some of the ethnic Turkish people for the partition of the island of Cyprus through Taksim, the desire of some of the ethnic Greek people for the unification with Greece (Enosis), and mainland Turkish nationalists settling in as a show of force as a supposed means of protecting their people from what they considered to be the threat of Greek Cypriots also plays a role in the dispute.

Initially, with the occupation of the island by the British Empire from the Ottoman Empire in 1878 and subsequent annexation in 1914, the "Cyprus dispute" referred to general conflicts between Greek and Turkish islanders.

↑ Return to Menu

Taksim (politics) in the context of Cyprus Emergency

The Cyprus Emergency was a conflict fought in British Cyprus between April 1955 and March 1959.

The National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters (EOKA), a Greek Cypriot guerrilla organisation fighting for unification with Greece, began an armed campaign in support of the end of British colonial rule and the unification of Cyprus and Greece (Enosis) in 1955. Opposition to Enosis from Turkish Cypriots led to the formation of the Turkish Resistance Organisation (TMT) in support of the partition of Cyprus. The Cyprus Emergency ended in 1959 with the signature of the London-Zürich Agreements, establishing the Republic of Cyprus as an independent state.

↑ Return to Menu