As the flag-draped coffin of General George Grivas was lowered into the ground last week in the southern Cyprus city of Limassol, a tearful crowd of 50,000 took up their old battle cry, "Enosis or death!" But enosis (union with Greece) seemed farther away than ever for Cyprus. Grivas' death at 75 of a heart attack may finally have brought to an end the reckless terrorist campaign for enosis that he had led since his secret return to the island in 1971.
To many Greeks, the slight, mustachioed Grivas was more god than man. He was already a legend during World War II, when he led a feared band of right-wing guerrillas that fought against the German occupation of Greece and, more actively, against Greek Communist partisans. Then in the 1950s his skillful command of EOKA, the Greek Cypriot guerrilla army, ended British control of the island and gained for Grivas a place in the Greek pantheon of heroes.
But his image had been tarnished in recent years. The campaign of bombings, kidnapings, and assassination attempts that his revived underground organization, EOKA-B, conducted against the government of Archbishop Makarios had become increasingly unpopular among the island's inhabitants. Most Cypriot Greeks, while holding to enosis as a political ideal, had long recognized the impossibility of forcing the island's Turkish minority (20%) into accepting union with Greece. Even the government in Athens had condemned Grivas' terrorist campaign. And in Cyprus, the general's repute had sunk so low that the House of Representatives, just before his death, was threatening to brand him "a common criminal" unless he ceased his guerrilla activities.
After Grivas' death, Archbishop Makarios proclaimed an amnesty for all imprisoned and wanted EOKA-B members; in response, Grivas' successor as head of EOKA-B ordered a stop to all terrorist activities. While not officially identified, the new commander is thought to be Major Vassilios Kourkafas, a relatively unknown Greek army officer. There remained some concern that the more fanatical elements of the EOKA-B would renew the terrorist campaign, but observers wondered how long the band of several hundred men would survive without Grivas' leadership.