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Independence Day through the Colonial Eye: A View from the British Archive1 ROBERT HOLLAND, HUBERT FAUSTMANN Abstract The confidential report of the Acting United Kingdom Representative in Cyprus, Ian F. Porter, to the British Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations from September 1960s gives a detailed account of the actual events on Independence Day. Discovered in the British archives2 and reproduced at the end of this Special Issue, this document is of high historical value for the history and historiography of Cyprus. For a better understanding of the document the account of Independence Day in Cyprus is put into its wider historical setting and located within the context of other independence days within the British Empire. Keywords: Independence Day, decolonisation, British Colonial Rule On 1 October 2010, the Republic of Cyprus celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence. When the year began only few Cypriots were aware that for 47 years they had been commemorating the birth of their republic on the wrong day. Cyprus had in fact become independent on Tuesday, 16 August 1960 but in July 1963, the Cypriot cabinet unanimously moved Independence Day away from the summer heat and main holiday season to the more convenient but rather arbitrarily chosen 1 October.3 This change already indicated the low esteem Cypriots felt for that day ever since independence. But if things had gone the way they were originally intended, this change would have not been necessary. At the time of the London conference in February 1959, the decision was taken to grant Cyprus its independence exactly one year after the end of the conference on 29 February 1960. However, things did not go as planned. In particular, the negotiations about the British military bases and other military requirements had resulted in repeated postponements. When Cyprus finally became independent, hardly six weeks had elapsed since the end of the long and intricate negotiations.4 Only since July had it become 1 Parts of this text are based on: R. Holland (forthcoming, 2011) ‘Off to a Good Start?: The Birth of Independent Cyprus, 16 August 1960’ in A. Theophanous and N. Peristianis (eds.), The Republic of Cyprus at Crossroads: Past, Present and Future. Nicosia: University of Nicosia Press. 2 FO 371/152834. Report entitled ‘Cyprus: Inauguration of the Republic’ from I.F. Porter 7 September 1960. 3 ‘What’s in a Date, a Flag and a Tune?’, Sunday Mail, 26 September 2010. 4 For an analysis of the negotiations and the repeated postponements of independence see: H. Faustmann (1999) Divide and Quit? British Colonial Policy in Cyprus 1878-1960. Including a Special Survey of the Transitional 49 THE CYPRUS REVIEW (VOL. 22:2 FALL 2010) clear that independence was imminent and that it would be granted on 16 August. The Independence Bill was passed in the British House of Commons on 29 July 1960. Therefore, there had been no time for large-scale preparations of the celebrations which turned out simple and improvised. Foreign guests were not pouring in the island to mark a day hardly anybody wanted to celebrate anyway since it marked the emergence of a state nobody had really wanted. The four year anti-colonial struggle of EOKA (1955-1959), the Greek Cypriot right wing guerrilla organisation, had succeeded in ending British rule but had aimed at the union of Cyprus with Greece and not independence. The Turkish Cypriots and Turkey had been trying since 1956 to partition the island, whose two parts were then supposed to unite with their respective ‘mother countries’ after massive resettlements. Britain had originally tried to hold on to Cyprus indefinitely and then shifted from a policy to hold Cyprus permanently as a base to two permanent bases in Cyprus. The final outcome of this dispute, the creation of an independent Republic of Cyprus minus two sovereign British military bases was a compromise that ensured that none of the sides but Britain got what they wanted. Even Britain feared beneath the surface that independence was the worst of all solutions, worse even than enosis, because a fully self-governing Cyprus was likely to be one governed by their old opponent, Archbishop Makarios. Neither Greece nor Turkey gained territory or citizens in Cyprus. Instead, they became guarantor powers of the new state and obtained the right to station small military contingents on the island. Moreover, the constitution established the 18% Turkish minority on the island as a second almost equal community with far reaching veto rights and other privileges, which made this new state even less attractive for the Greek Cypriot majority. Consequently, this ‘fettered’ independence was for many on both sides at best acceptable as an interim arrangement but not as a permanent state of affairs. Clearly in the eyes of those present there was not much to celebrate in August 1960 and the somehow muted celebrations 50 years later still reflect some elements of the frustration and non-identification with the Republic from 1960. It is rather telling that 1 October was only made a public holiday in 1979 while the 16 August date is largely forgotten.5 Since the late 1960s and in particular since the division of the island through the Turkish invasion of 1974, the Greek Cypriot majority has grown to identify with the Republic of Cyprus, which they exclusively control since the bicommunal violence of 1963. For many Turkish Cypriots, the Republic of Cyprus had ceased in effect to be their state, some of the resulting vacuum being filled by the so-called (and unrecognised) ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ declared in November 1983. Suggestively there has been no official commemoration of the 50th anniversary amongst the Turkish-Cypriot community. Period: February 1959-August 1960 (e-book). Available at: [http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/verlag/diss /faustmann/Abstractfaust.html], Mannheim: Mateo, and H. Faustmann (2002) ‘Independence Postponed: Cyprus 1959-1960’, The Cyprus Review, Vol. 14, No. 2 (Fall), pp. 99-119. 5 ‘Our Pride in the Republic Comes 50 Years too Late’. Cyprus Mail, 1 October 2010. 50 INDEPENDENCE DAY THROUGH THE COLONIAL EYE: A VIEW FROM THE BRITISH ARCHIVE But also in a comparative perspective, Cyprus’ actual Independence Day was a rather muted affair. One reason for this was the fact that it differed from established patterns of British departure from a colony. Ever since independence day in India, the ritual or ‘invented tradition’6 of departing from a colony was based on celebrations shared by all involved, the former colonial subjects and the former colonial ruler alike. At least the facade was maintained, that the regime change was welcomed by both, Britain and the respective colonial people. Within this context the British self- image of its own imagined history based on reconciliation, compromise and bloodless evolution was tacked onto the newly independent state on its independence day. But such carefully orchestrated moments need a smooth and largely unchallenged narrative, sufficiently recognisable and mutual on all sides to fit a rough consensus. In Cyprus in the period leading up to 16 August 1960 there were no such overlapping versions of recent history. The fact that none of the sides involved considered independence really desirable explains also the character of Independence Day. The Greek Cypriots wanted a low key, truncated and non- celebratory event or in the words of Archbishop Makarios a ‘business handover’. But also Britain opposed anything excessively pictorial or enthusiastic. It is telling that the original suggestion for a minimal programme came from Governor Sir Hugh Foot to the Archbishop, not the other way around, as one might otherwise have expected. In detailing to Makarios what he had in mind during November 1959, Foot pared it down in advance to the necessary inauguration of a Parliament, the immediate signing of the Treaties prescribed under the Zurich-London accords (the immediacy arising from the need to give absolutely no opportunity for second thoughts), his own private farewells as Governor at Government House, the welcoming of the Greek and Turkish Army contingents at Famagusta, and, Foot hoped, ceremonies of thanksgiving in the Orthodox Churches and some suitable sign of satisfaction in the Turkish quarters.7 Notably, the bit of this sequence which Foot intended to make the most of was the formal induction of the foreign military contingents (that is, the bit which was least Cypriot of all). His conception was that in Famagusta there should be a formal ceremony in the moat, so that when British troops had taken up the lead position, dutifully followed by Greek and Turkish formations, the Union Jack should be run up (not down, as was usual in Independence rituals) the flagpole, and then the colours of Greece and Turkey on either side. At the end of this part of the proceedings the new flag of Cyprus should be raised in lonely isolation high up on the ramparts. This was to be, Foot felt, ‘an occasion not for sadness at the end of a regime but rather rejoicing at the creation of an independent Republic in full allied agreement. We shall go out with flags flying’.8 The last point – the parting flourish of the Union Jack itself – was almost the most vital point, as the snappy wording itself suggested. Finally, the Governor suggested, the Republic of Cyprus could 6 E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger (1983) The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 7 CO 926/763. Note on Foot–Makarios Meeting 16 November 1959. 8 Quoted in R. Holland (1998) Britain and the Revolt in Cyprus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 335. 51 THE CYPRUS REVIEW (VOL. 22:2 FALL 2010) hold an Independence celebration itself, perhaps a year or so in the future, inviting whomsoever one then wished.