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Greece and the Arabs, 1956-1958

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Evanthis Hatzivassiliou
Evanthis Hatzivassiliou*
Affiliation:
Athens
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Extract

In the second half of the 1950s, Greek foreign policy was dominated by the Cyprus question, while in the Middle East the same period was marked by a series of crises. The developments in the Middle East were important to the Greek government partly because Cyprus’s fate depended primarily on British decisions — and these decisions were connected to Britain’s position in the Middle East. Simultaneously, the turbulence in the region endangered the Greek communities in it, mainly the large community in Egypt. Yet, it may be said that Athens was rather slow in making an approach to the Arabs, on whose votes the United Nations debates on Cyprus largely depended: such approach took place only in Spring 1956, after the British had deported the Greek Cypriot leader, Archbishop Makarios, and after the new government of Constantinos Karamanlis had scored its first electoral victory.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 16 , 1992 , pp. 49 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1992

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References

1. Hatzivassiliou, Evanthis, ‘The Suez Crisis, Cyprus and Greek Foreign Policy, 1956: a View from the British Archives’, Balkan Studies 30 (1989) 107–129 Google Scholar; SirEden, Anthony, Memoirs: Full Circle (London 1960) 414.Google Scholar

2. Vlakhos, Anghelos S., Deka Khronia Kypriakou (Ten Years of the Cyprus Question) (Athens 1980) 68–125 and 145–168.Google Scholar

3. For the Greek community of Egypt, see Kitroeff, Alexande, The Greeks in Egypt, 1919-1939: Ethnicity and Class (London and Oxford 1989)Google Scholar. For the numerical strength of the community in the 1950s, see minute (Liatis), 9 Aug. 1957, Athens, Constantinos G. Karamanlis Foundation, Karamanlis Archive (hereafter referred to as KA), reel 1, pp. 1084-1087; FO minute (Brown), 4 Jan. 1957, London, Public Record Office, Foreign Office records (hereinafter FO) 371/125604/1; FO minute (Winchester), 7 Nov. 1958, FO 371/133992/18. For the social dimensions of the Middle Eastern crisis of the mid-1950s, see Owen, Roger, ‘The Economic Consequences of the Suez Crisis for Egypt’, in Louis, William Roger and Owen, Roger (eds), Suez 1956: The Crisis and its Consequences (Oxford 1989) 363–375 Google Scholar. On the Egyptian riots of 1952, see Stephens, Robert, Nasser: A Political Biography (London 1971) 100–103.Google Scholar

4. Vlakhos, Anghelos S., Mia Fora ke Ena Kero Enas Diplomatis (50 Kyverniseis), Tomos IV, Genikos Proxenos (Once Upon a Time a Diplomat [50 Governments] volume IV Consul General) (Athens 1986) 22–40 Google Scholar. At the same time, one should have in mind the anxiety of Athens, in 1952-1954, caused by Makarios’s threat to ask Syria to raise Cyprus at the United Nations. The Greeks did not want interference by Damascus in the issue: see Stephen Xydis, G., Cyprus: Conflict and Conciliation, 1954-1958 (Columbus, Ohio 1967) 133 Google Scholar. For a view on Greco-Israeli relations see Nachmani, Amikam, Israel, Turkey and Greece: Uneasy Relations in the East Mediterranean (London 1987) 85–118 Google Scholar. As Nachmani noted, a further obstacle to the improvement of the relations between Greece and Israel, in the 1950s, was the fact that the Israeli lobby in the US, rendered services to Turkey in regard to the Cyprus question. However, when, in 1957, Israel proposed to Athens a deal, whereby Israel would support the Greek case in Cyprus in the United Nations and Greece would extend de jure recognition to Israel, the Greeks refused, afraid that such a development would destroy their community in Egypt.

5. Greek memorandum to Eisenhower’s Committee, 9 Jan. 1957, KA, reel 1, pp. 642-649; minute (Hatzivassiliou), undated (certainly spring 1957), KA, reel 1, pp. 787-796.

6. Hatzivassiliou, ‘Suez, Cyprus and Greek Foreign Policy’.

7. Memorandum to the Cabinet (Kassimatis), 12 April 1956, KA, reel 5, pp. 2407-2408.

8. Minute (Seferiades), 14 June 1956, KA, reel 5, pp. 2436-2437; Lambert (Athens) to Young, 4 July 1956, FO 371/123852/1.

9. Carlton, David, Britain and the Suez Crisis (Oxford 1988) 35–56 Google Scholar; Lamb, Richard, The Failure of the Eden Government (London 1987) 183–197.Google Scholar

10. Dulles to Karamanlis, 4 Aug. 1956, KA, reel 6, p.34; Hatzivassiliou, ‘Suez, Cyprus and Greek Foreign Policy’; Heikal, Mohamed, in his book Nasser: The Cairo Documents (London 1973) 97 Google Scholar, noted that apart from Egypt herself, of all the countries which invited to the Conference, Greece was the only one to decline the invitation.

11. Foreign Relations of the United States (hereafter referred to as FRUS), 1955-5 7, volume IV, documents 43 and 46, pp. 116-122 and 134-137 respectively; M. Allen to Trivedi, 21 Nov. 1956, FO 371/119331/12; Heikal, 98; Carlton, 56-92.

12. Palamas to Foreign Ministry, 1 Dec. 1956, KA, reel 6, pp. 104-106; Hatzivassiliou, ‘Suez, Cyprus and Greek Foreign Policy’; Xydis, Conflict and Conciliation, 47-48 and 152; FO minute (Thomson), 30 July 1957, FO 371/130116/120.

13. FO minute (Brown), 4 Jan. 1957, FO 371/125604/1; Porter (NATO) to FO, 28 Aug. 1957, FO 371/130018/7; FRUS, 1955-57, XXIV, document 217, p.442; ibid, document 221, pp. 448-450; Xydis, Conflict and Conciliation 49; and, by the same author, Cyprus: Reluctant Republic, (The Hague and Paris 1973) 91.

14. Amman to FO, 10 April 1957, FO 371/130107/1.

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17. Athens to FO, 10 May 1957, FO 371/130023/3; FRUS, 1955-57, XXIV, document 306, pp. 581-2.

18. Records of the talks between Richards and the Greek Ministers, KA, reel 1, pp. 799-807; minute (Kalligas), 13 May, KA, reel 1, 715-724; Hahn, Peter L., ‘Containment and Egyptian Nationalism: The Unsuccessful Effort to Establish the Middle East Command, 1950-1953’, Diplomatic History 11 (1987) 23–40 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Scott Lucas, W., ‘Suez, the Americans, and the Overthrow of Anthony Eden’, L S E Quarterly 1 (1987) 227–254.Google Scholar

19. Minute (unsigned), 19 Feb. 1957, KA, reel 1, pp. 682-684; Lambros to Foreign Ministry, 2 Aug. 1957, reel 1, pp. 1004-1053; Paper given to Nasser on 3 March 1957, KA, reel 1, pp. 1054-1058; Peake (Athens) to Selwyn Lloyd, 8 Feb. 1957, FO 371/130018/1.

20. FO to Athens, 28 June 1957, FO 371/130018/3; extract from The Times, 17 Aug. 1957, FO 371/130036/1. The question of the Egyptian debt to Greece was settled in the negotiations of June-December 1958: extract from the Journal du Commerce et de la Marine, of Alexandria, 20 Feb. 1959, FO 371/144541/1.

21. ‘Visit to Egypt’, KA, reel 1, pp. 923-933; Allen (Athens) to Selwyn Lloyd, 29 Aug. 1957, FO 371/130018/5; BBC monitoring report, 20 Aug. 1957, FO 371/130036/1; FRUS, 1955-57, XXIV, document 311, pp. 596-597; Averoff-Tossizza, Evanghelos, Historia Khamenon Efkerion: Kypriako, 1950-1963 (History of Lost Opportunities: The Cyprus Question, 1950-1963), volume I (Athens 1982) 260 Google Scholar; Linardatos, Spyros, Apo ton Emphylio Stin Hounta, Tomos III, 1955-1961 (From the Civil War to the Junta, volume III, 1955-1961) (Athens 1978) 251–252.Google Scholar

22. Allen to FO, 20 Aug. 1957, FO 371/130024/1; Beirut to FO, 26 Nov. 1957, FO 371/130106/2; Allen to Selwyn Lloyd, 15 Nov. 1957, FO 371/128006/2; Chapman-Andrews (Khartoum) to Selwyn Lloyd, 21 Jan. 1958, FO 371/136230/1.

23. Xydis, Conflict and Conciliation, 185, 230 and 276-278; Dowty, 39.

24. Record (G. Allen-Averoff), 28 Oct. 1957, KA, reel 6, pp. 385-393; Allen to FO, 11 Nov. 1957, FO 371/130087/127; FRUS, 1955-57, XXIV, document 312, pp. 597-599; Xydis, Conflict and Conciliation, 635 and 236-237.

25. Averoff (New York) to Karamanlis, 3 Dec. 1957, KA, reel 6, pp. 493-495; The Greeks had the ambition to mediate in the Arab-Israeli dispute even in 1954: See Nachmani, 113.

26. G. Melas to Averoff, 20 Nov. 1957, KA, reel 6, pp. 408-423; on the December 1957 UN debate and the Arab support to the Greek item see Xydis, Conflict and Conciliation, 301-484.

27. Allen to Selwyn Lloyd, 28 Jan. 1958, FO 371/136218/1; Middleton (Beirut) to Crosthwaite (New York), 7 Jan. 1958, FO 371/136356/1; Middleton to FO, 31 March 1958, and Middleton to Selwyn Lloyd, 3 May 1958, FO 371/136356/2.

28. Linardatos, 296-334.

29. On the Middle Eastern crisis of 1958, see, Dowty, 23-110; Divine, 97-104. Allen to Selwyn Lloyd, 16 Jan. 1959, FO 371/144516/1.

30. Minute (unsigned) 1 Nov. 1958, KA, reel 2, 871-873; Averoff, volume II, 65; Allen to FO, 11 June 1958, FO 371/136309/131.

31. Averoff, volume II, 66-67; Nicholls (Belgrade) to FO, 7 July 1958, and Lambert to FO, 8 July 1958, FO 371/136232/5.

32. Lambert to FO, 12 July 1958, FO 371/136232/7; Ankara to FO, 30 July 1958, FO 371/136232/8.

33. Record (Karamanlis-Murphy), 12 Aug. 1958, KA, reel 6, pp. 846-853; Murphy, Robert, Diplomat Among Warriors (London 1964) 507.Google Scholar

34. Vlakhos Deka Khronia, 216-255.

35. FO minute (Profumo), 27 Feb. 1959, FO 371/144619/18; Burrows to FO, 23 Dec. 1958, London, Public Record Office, Colonial Office Records, (CO) 926/1070/1556; Burrows to FO, 25 Dec. 1958, CO 926/1070/1562.

36. FO minute (Ross), 23 Dec. 1958, CO 926/621/1390.

37. Allen to Selwyn Lloyd, 6 March 1959, FO 371/144530/2; minute (unsigned), 25 April 1959, KA, reel 2, pp. 2314-2318.

38. Clarke (Rome) to Selwyn Lloyd, 14 Jan. 1959, FO 371/144524/1.

39. Stephens, 246.