THE REFLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL CASE OF TURK'S "THE CYPRUS ISSUE" IN THE MUS LOCAL PRESS BETWEEN 1955-1967

Abstract

Greek Cypriots expressed their desire to join Greece after 1945 and started to receive great support from Greece as of 1950. With the intention of the annexation of Cyprus, Greece brought the issue to the United Nations in October 1954. After failing to realize her aim, Greece started to support violence on the Island. Having been backed by mainland Greece, the Greek Cypriots began their violent activities against the British and Turks in 1955. Violence in Cyprus has been a priority news item in the Muş local press as well as in the Turkish national press. In this period, Muş local press undertook the task of making the Turkish Cypriots' voice heard and enlightening the people of Muş about Cyprus. Upon the pressures of the Turkish public, the UK's invitation to a meeting between Turkey and Greece on 30 June 1955 to discuss the Cyprus issue caused Turkey to abandon its policy of considering Cyprus as an internal matter of Britain since 1923. The Democratic Party Government started to follow an active policy between 1955-1959 in order to ensure that Turkish Cypriots live in peace on the Island. As a result of this, Turkey signed the Zurich and London Agreements and became a guarantor state on the island together with England and Greece. Even though the Republic of Cyprus was established in 1960, ignoring the Cyprus Constitution, the Greek Cypriots carried out bloody attacks against the Turks in 1963 and 1967. Thereupon, Turkey wanted to intervene by using its right to be a guarantor state, but had to be content with small interventions, especially because of the opposition of the USA. In this period, as in the whole Turkish press, the events of 1963 and 1967 were widely covered in the local press of Muş, and the USA's refusal to allow Turkey's intervention led to the questioning of the friendship of the USA. In this study, it is aimed to reveal how the newspapers published in Muş reflect the developments in Cyprus to the Muş public opinion and their attitudes towards the events. For this purpose, the copies of the local newspapers published in Muş between July 1, 1955 and December 15, 1967 were examined to find out how the developments in Cyprus were reflected to the headlines, articles and evaluations published in those newspapers to highlight the attitudes of Turkey, international organizations and allied states.