The island of Cyprus has been embroiled in an ethnically charged conflict between the Greek Cypriots, and the Turkish Cypriots, bolstered by the entry of thousands of Turks from the mainland and the British government interested in maintaining their authority in the territory and preparing it for independence. As reports of increased settlement projects by the British colonial administration inviting Turkish settlers into Northern Cyprus increased, so did the outrage of the Greek Cypriot community. Despite the inoffensive nature of the development project according to the British authorities, the arrival of newcomer Cypriot Turks began pressuring the colonial government to recognize and enforce the repatriation of lands previously lost by Cypriot Turks with many showing deeds of land they claimed to be theirs that are now under the ownership of homesteading Greek Cypriots. The Greeks strongly contested the claims of the Cypriot Turks and lobbied for the defense of the Greek locals who they believed were being displaced by the British Colonial administration to make way for the construction of Turkish settlements. The vagueness by which the Turks justified their entry into Cyprus was not missed by the Greek Cypriot community especially as the situation on the ground grew more and more complicated as disputes over land ownership, employment, discrimination, and many more woes continued to rise in the island.

Archbishop Makarios III of Cyprus in response urged the Greek Cypriot people to voice their displeasure against the British colonial authorities who nakedly attempted to divide the Cypriot community along ethnic lines, stoking tensions between Greeks and Turks in the area. A general strike was launched with Greek Cypriots protesting the colonial government's preferential treatment towards Turks. The nationalist paramilitary Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston or "EOKA" would thus begin to prepare for a confrontation against the British authorities but would nonetheless refuse to act unless a window of opportunity is reached. Such a window of opportunity was reached when Greek Cypriots confronted newly arrived Turkish settlers in the settlement of Kepuvela, renamed Girne by the now majority Turkish population of the town quickly escalated into a race riot between Greeks and Turks. Nobody knows who attacked first but the brawl resulted in the deaths of 8 Greeks and 3 Turks as well as many injuries on both sides. The Kepuvela incident resulted in the formation of the TMT "Türk Mukavemet Teşkilatı" paramilitary organization composed of Turkish settlers and Cypriot Turks fearing violent repercussions by the Greek majority in the island and activated militias across the country. A coroner's report of the incident resulted in the revelation that the Turks killed were not Cypriot Turks, but mainlander Turks hailing from Izmir and Antalya as well as one Bulgarian Turk. All of whom were Turkish Citizens given work visas by the Colonial Office to work in construction.

EOKA would thus capitalize on this incident and decried the "Anglo-Turkish Conspiracy" to replace Greeks with Turks and claimed the British colonial policies of the island did not indicate a genuine interest to prepare the island for self-rule, but instead to prepare it for Turkish colonization and annexation. The mounting tensions by newcomer Turks, most of whom lacked the knowledge or ties to Cyprus, or Cypriot Turks who left their new family on the mainland to bitterly settle back in the island, some are even Bulgarian Turks, Iranian Turks, and Circassian Turks, exiled from their homes and resettled in a project funded in part or in whole by a development commission with public ties to the Turkish state and the British colonial office has convinced the majority of greeks on the island that they were facing a similar fate to what the Palestinians have faced against Israeli settlement.

In October 1954, as protests continued to escalate, the EOKA launched a major attack against British military and constabulary installations across the island in Nicosia, Limassol, Famagusta, and Lamarca, utilizing an assortment of imported weapons, allegedly supplied by the Hellenic Republic. The ambush surprised the British garrison and resulted in the deaths of 564 British servicemen and several collaborators of the colonial regime. Most shocking of all was the bombing of Gazimagusa by the EOKA, a port on the eastern half of the island now majority Turkish which resulted in the explosion of a fuel depot that sparked a city fire. 30 Turkish dockworkers and 25 Turkish Cypriot civilians near the blast lost their lives. The bombing enraged much of the leadership of the TMT and launched reprisal killings against Greeks living in Northern Cyprus, One such grizzly incident occurring on November 10th involved the massacre at Kalecik where a TMT contingent allegedly seeking an EOKA agent in the town rounded up all the Greek men in the town and demanded they hand over the agent. No such agent was found and the TMT promptly executed the Greeks in the town. 43 Greeks died in the town. Interment ethnic violence and sporadic militia actions were reported all across the island. The colony issued a state of emergency immediately after the EOKA launched its attack and activated the Cyprus garrison to restore order.

The significant unrest caused by the settlement project was the equivalent of dumping a lit cigarette onto a gasoline barrel and expecting it not to blow up. The violence on both sides alarmed the British Colonial garrison as news of the unrest started to move into the public limelight in London, Istanbul, Athens, and the rest of Europe, Applications for Cyprus by Turkish settlers have dropped for fears of retaliation only compensated by the rise of nationalist Turks willing to move to Cyprus to fight for irredentist Turkish expansionism and the beleaguered Turkish Cypriot community. The increasingly evident meddling and involvement by the Turkish government on the settlement projects in Northern Cyprus. A damning report forwarded to the British media in regards to the extent of cooperation between the Colonial Office and the Turkish state was revealed, stating that the British sought to deliberately change the ethnic makeup of Cyprus to better fit British geopolitical aims in the Mediterranean and by proxy depriving the Greek Cypriots of their political weight in the island to pursue independence.

The diplomatic fallout of these public revelations was significant. The Hellenic Republic now held concrete evidence of Turkish involvement in the settlement programs of the North with Greek intelligence gaining hold of financial records of grassroots organizations and commissions dedicated to the advancement and settlement of Turks in Cyprus straight to government officials from the Turkish state. Massive uproar by the Greeks have stormed through Athens demanding Greece to intervene in the Cyprus emergency to defend their kin against Turkish settlement aggression. The British public has now been alarmed by a mounting scandal at the Colonial Office perceiving this as a repeat of the Palestine fiasco years prior and seeing the government as a party to yet another interethnic conflict in the colonies. Something that would not have been possible had it not been for the volume of information forwarded to British media allocated by as-of-yet unknown sources. Diplomats from the Italian Republic rebuffed the Turks stating that the attitude of the Cypriot Turks was "inflammatory" and "recklessly risked bringing the territory closer to civil war in an attempt to pursue irredentist goals"

The escalation of the Cyprus crisis had ramifications in the Middle East as well, specifically in the perception of Arab states toward Turkey. In the Kingdom of Iraq, an internal memo was leaked from a dissident military officer who cited his frustrations with negotiations between Turkey and Iraq towards the construction of an oil pipeline that would make Iraq economically and militarily dependent on Turkey as Iraqi oil from Kirkuk a Kurdish region the Turkish state reserves the right to intervene should it wish to, while also stating that the Turks disclosed their interest to economically control the Syrian state presenting suspicions of the Iraqi government over what are Turkey's true intentions in the Middle East. The economic and military assistance by Turkey to the Arab states against the Israeli war effort tends to appease some of the more suspicious elements of the Arab governments. Despite the turkophillic tendencies of the old guard, fears of a return to Turkish dominance in the Middle East have now begun to creep into the internal political discourse of the Arab League.

CASUALTIES:

EOKA: 113

TMT: 45

UK: 392

Civillians (Turks): 89

Civillians (Greeks): 95

Militancy has increased by 25% in Cyprus

Compliance increased by 8%

Consciousness increased by 20% in Cyprus

-3% GDP loss in Cyprus

Costs for the Turkish state to continue the settlement process have tripled from $10,000,000 to 30,000,000 due to the increase in complexity and institutional aid.