Cyprus Before The United Nations

Cyprus, long troubled by inter-communal strife, exploded onto the world stage with the Athens-inspired coup and the subsequent Turkish invasion. This led to partition on the island, a situation complicated by the Yom Kippur War. This book examines the role of the UN as it attempts to maintain peace in Cyprus.

In 1964, the UN Security Council made the fateful decision, in setting up a UN force in Cyprus to keep the peace, to treat the then purely Greek-Cypriot government in office as the Government of Cyprus.

The UN peacemaking operation in Cyprus has been one of the longest of its kind, but has resulted in discarded proposals, non-papers or reports. This study investigates the Cypriot parties' views of peacemaking, to shed light on the problem, and on the theoretical debates surrounding mediation.

The United Nations has rarely been given a fair hearing with regard to its work in Cyprus. Despite competing demands for its limited resources being challenged by the local parties and at the mercy of contradictory political directions at the international level, the UN has actually achieved more than is generally realized. This is the first volume to critically appraise all the major areas of the UN's peacekeeping, peacemaking, and peace building activities in Cyprus.