Between the Hammer and the Anvil. The Cyprus Question and Greek Foreign Policy from the Treaty of Lausanne to the 1931 Revolt

Abstract

The HISTORY of the Cyprus Question has attracted the attention of international scholarship, both from a local as well as an international point of view. The vast majority of these studies, however, focus on the period after the end of World War H, and mostly after 1950, when the Cyprus Question hit the international headlines. Focus on this context tends to neglect the interwar period, and in particular the years between the conclusion of the Lausanne Peace Treaty (24 July .1923) and the 1931 Revolt of the Greek Cypriots against British rule This essay based primarily on research in the archives of the Creek Foreign Ministry. aims to fill part of this gap focusing on the way Creek diplomacy viewed the issue at a time of transition, both regionally and in terms of Greece's foreign policy aims. The essay seeks lo answer a series of questions. Did Greek diplomacy have a coherent and consistent strategy in relation to the Cyprus Question from 1923 to 1931? If so, what necessitated the adoption of such a strategy? Did the Greek government interfere in the island·s internal developments? Did it get carried away by the repeated Greek Cypriot demands for union with Greece, or did it adopt a more realistic approach? And, most importantly, was Athens in favor of a "radical" or did it prefer a "progressive" solution to the Cyprus problem?