Slowly but surely, Turkey, which already has about 40% of Cyprus, seems determined to nibble away at the remaining 60%. With no real opposition from the outgunned Greek Cypriot National Guard, Turkish forces last week advanced their lines another twelve miles to the southwest, taking command of Morphou Bay, the main exit point for the island's copper production.
The Turkish general staff, indeed, seemed independent even of Premier Bülent Ecevit's civilian government, adamantly vetoing any suggestion from Ankara that Greek refugees be allowed to return home until a permanent political solution had been worked out. "It is not because we want to impose anything on the Prime Minister," said a high-ranking military man. "But we are the people responsible for the lives of Turkish soldiers and Turkish Cypriots. We cannot take the risk."
The Turks' hard-lining stand was bolstered by the discovery of a mass grave at the village of Maratha in eastern Cyprus, with 84 crumbling corpses; the village's population had been only 93. As Village Shepherd Kemal Mustafa described it, Greek gunmen entered Maratha Aug. 14, herded away elderly men, women and children and shot them. The number of victims was confirmed by Swedish United Nations officers. Greek authorities rather unconvincingly said that the corpses might be Greek Cypriots instead of Turkish—a suggestion that the Turks angrily denounced as an "added insult to our grief." Later, the Greeks countered with charges that the Turks had also committed atrocities; they brought forth a Greek building contractor, Andreas Stylianouv, who said that he had survived the massacre of 30 Greek prisoners of war, also on Aug. 14.
Unfortunately, both sides may be right, but the mutual anger only delays an end to the island's continuing misery.
Cypriot Greek and Turkish leaders last week agreed to exchange 4,500 prisoners as well as lists of missing persons. But in Geneva, where Greece and Turkey had been holding broader talks before last month's renewed Turkish offensive, there was no sign of a resumption of discussions. The Greeks were waiting for Turkish concessions that were so far not forthcoming.
The Greeks, in fact, would just as soon transfer the talks to New York, where they feel that they will have support when the U.N. General Assembly begins its session on Sept. 23. Greece and Britain, as co-guarantors with Turkey of Cyprus' independence, claim somewhat extravagantly that a solution actually rests not with either Turkey or
Greece but with the U.S. Both Athens and London—the first publicly, the second privately—believe that Washington has been laggard in using its persuasive abilities. Says a high British official:
"There is only one power that can move the Turks—the U.S."