The Treaty of Guarantee is a treaty between Cyprus,

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

, and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Nor ...

that was promulgated in 1960. Article I bans Cyprus from participating in any

political union A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governmen ...

economic union An economic union is a type of trade bloc which is composed of a common market with a customs union. The participant countries have both common policies on product regulation, freedom of movement of goods, services and the factors of production ...

with any other state. Article II requires the other parties to guarantee the independence, territorial integrity, and security of Cyprus. Article IV reserves the right of the guarantor powers to take action to re-establish the current state of affairs in Cyprus, a provision that was used as justification for the Turkish invasion of 1974. The treaty also allowed the United Kingdom to retain sovereignty over two military bases. Article IV entitled these three guarantor powers to multilateral action among them or, as a last resort if no concerted action seemed possible, each guarantor to unilateral actions confined to restoring its status according to the treaty as a democratic, bicommunal, single, sovereign independent state: Initially, a bicommunal independent state was at stake because of the July 1974 coup and several

Turkish Cypriot enclaves The Turkish Cypriot enclaves were inhabited by Turkish Cypriots between the intercommunal violence of 1963–64 and the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Events leading to the creation of the enclaves In December 1963 the President of the Repu ...

being attacked at the onset of the coup. Those circumstances made Turkey claim the right to unilateral action, as provided by the treaty, by first invading and creating a bridgehead and corridor between Kyrenia and Nicosia enclave. In the second invasion campaign, Turkish forces invaded and held on to one third of the island, resulting in effective partition of the island and secession of the parts of the island under its military control. Hence, the second invasion is regarded by the international community as a violation of the treaty. Turkish Cypriots and Turkey view the second invasion and the effective partition as legal, citing how bicommunalism had already ended from 1964 and onwards. They maintain that the Turkish intervention did not alter the state of affairs created by the 1960 treaties, as separated communities already existed before the intervention, after provisions guaranteeing equal status of the two communities had already been violated by Greek Cypriot amendments. The treaty was concluded the same year that the

Constitution of Cyprus The Constitution of Cyprus is a document, ratified on August 16, 1960, that serves as the Supreme Law of the Republic of Cyprus (Suprema Lex Cypri) defining the system of government of the Cypriot Republc and the civil liberties for the Cypriot ci ...

was finalised, and the Zürich and London Agreement and the Treaty of Alliance between Cyprus, Greece and Turkey were written.

References

1960 in Cyprus Treaties of the United Kingdom Treaties of Cyprus Treaties of Turkey Treaties concluded in 1960 Treaties entered into force in 1960 Treaties of the Kingdom of Greece Cyprus–Greece relations Cyprus–Turkey relations Cyprus–United Kingdom relations Greece–Turkey relations Greece–United Kingdom relations Turkey–United Kingdom relations {{Cyprus-poli-stub

See also

References