All Greek to Moore
Sir: Charles Moore employs a more inaccurate term than he may appreciate when he describes the Greek Cypriot organisation EOKA as ‘separatist’. In fact EOKA fought for enosis, Greek for ‘union’, and wanted to attach Cyprus to Greece. It would be far nearer the mark to call it a ‘unionist’ group, even if rather an extreme one.
The ‘separatists’ were those who, often with British encouragement, sought to detach a part of Cyprus and affiliate it with Turkey. Thanks to the divide-and-rule policy of the colonial authorities, and to the partitionist constitution bequeathed by London at independence, these minority splitters and their patrons in mainland Turkey were able to achieve a de facto dismemberment of the island in 1974, which is the ironic reason for something that Moore deplores — namely the fact that the British military cemetery now lies on the ‘wrong’ side of the line.
Christopher Hitchens
Washington DC
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