The EOKA Period in Cyprus

Understanding the Struggle through New Approaches

Hubert Faustmann, Odysseas Christou, Emilios A. Solomou

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350462649
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

In 1955, the Greek Cypriot organisation EOKA started an anti-colonial struggle against the British aiming at the unification of the island with Greece. This book sheds new light on the historical period of the struggle through the examination of various external and internal aspects of the conflict. It explores the role of international actors like the USA, the USSR, Germany, Turkey, Greece and the United Kingdom and grapples with the complex domestic dynamics from a variety of perspectives.

The EOKA Period in Cyprus analyses the role of armed organisations from both communities, as well as their respective responses to developments at various stages during the evolution of the conflict. By looking at processes such as radicalisation, passive resistance, collective punishment, intercommunal division and disarmament, the volume effectively considers the political, social and military nuances of the struggle, offering new insights from a multidisciplinary perspective in the process.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Historical overview and theoretical approaches to EOKA struggle
• 2 EOKA and Anglo-Greek relations: The view of Athens
• 3 The West German stance on the EOKA struggle, 1955–9
• 4 The transformation of the Greek Cypriot nationalist right in the British colonial era: Continuities and discontinuities and he ‘double soul’ of the Greek Cypriot right1
• 5 Mao Tse-Tung, ELAS, EOKA
• 6 The imposition of collective fines, 1955–6: An introduction to collective punishment as a counter-insurgency method during the EOKA struggle
• 7 The Turkish-Cypriot answer to EOKA: The gradual emergence of the partition project
• 8 The Cyprus Question before the House of Commons in 1956
• 9 EOKA’s campaign of passive resistance, Anglophilia and the English School, Nicosia, 1957–9
• 10 The death of Kyriakos Matsis, 19 November 1958: An interdisciplinary approach
• 11 The EOKA struggle, the Turkish Cypriot reaction and the transformation of inter-communal relations
• 12 Disarmament and the Deniz incident during the transitional period in Cyprus, 1959–601
• Index