Taksim (politics)

The Taksim current appeared between the two world wars, when the leaders of the Turkish Cypriots, opposing the slogan of Enosis, began to demand to maintain English domination in Cyprus or to return the island of Turkey ^[1] . Given the relative small size of the Muslim community of the island (about 18%), as well as its dispersed settlement over its territory, the chances of success of the taxim among the Turkish Cypriot forces themselves were virtually nil. However, the British colonial authorities, faced with the decisive decolonization movement of the Greek Cypriots, began to actively cooperate with the Muslim community, providing it with a disproportionately high administrative assistance and support.

Greece, interested in enosis, as well as Greek Cypriots themselves, inclined to look at Turkish Cypriots as temporary "migrants", for obvious reasons, reacted to the idea of ​​taxim sharply negatively. Moreover, since Muslims lived all over the island, making up the majority practically nowhere, a direct division of the territory into two parts was impossible without forced relocations. Therefore, Turkish Cypriots generally favored the idea put forward by the British to provide the island with independence while respecting the interests of the Turkish minority.

In 1959, under pressure from Great Britain, Greece was forced to declare abandonment of enosis and conclude an agreement with Turkey on the future status of Cyprus. According to the Zurich-London Agreements, Cyprus became a single independent state in which the rights of both communities were guaranteed by the introduction of fixed proportions in government. England , Greece and Turkey became the guarantors of this status, as well as respect for the rights of both communities. It was on the basis of these agreements that the constitution of Cyprus was developed, which gained independence in 1960 . However, the signing of formal agreements did not mean their real compliance. Household relations between the two communities continued to deteriorate over the following years. In the end, the Muslim quarters in most of the settlements of the island were cut off from the outside world. In 1974, the military junta that ruled in Greece carried out a coup, removing the Cypriot president, Archbishop Makarios , from power. Following the coup, the troops of the Republic of Turkey, on the pretext of restoring constitutional order, occupied the northern part of the island, as well as the exclave Erenkoy , which make up 37% of the territory of Cyprus. Nicosia, the island's capital, turned out to be divided into two parts. Instead of restoring constitutional order, Turkish troops ethnicly purged and expelled the Greek population from the occupied territories, while the Turkish population in the south of the island moved north. Thus, the ideas of Taksim were put into practice. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was established in the occupied territory. TRNC is not recognized by the international community as an independent state; The European Union continues to consider its territory as part of the Republic of Cyprus, temporarily outside the control of the Cypriot government.