30 November 1963
Constitutional Crisis
President Makarios proposes 13 amendments to the 1960 constitution. Turkey rejects them, and within weeks the power sharing state begins to break apart.
The 1960 constitution tried to balance two communities of very different size. Greek Cypriots made up almost 80 per cent of the population, yet the Turkish Cypriot community held a guaranteed 30 per cent of civil service posts, 40 per cent of the army, separate municipalities in the main towns, and a vice presidential veto. Within three years the system was stuck. Turkish Cypriot deputies used their veto over income tax laws, the plan for a mixed army stalled after Vice President Fazıl Küçük blocked full integration in 1961, and the two sides could not agree on separate town councils.
On 30 November 1963 President Makarios set out thirteen proposed amendments in a memorandum. They would have removed the presidential and vice presidential vetoes, dropped the rule requiring separate majorities in parliament, unified the municipalities and set the civil service ratio in line with population. Makarios argued that certain provisions threatened to paralyse the state. In return, the vice president would deputise for the president in his absence.
Küçük reportedly agreed to study the proposals, but on 6 December the Turkish government rejected the whole package. The two communities read the memorandum very differently. Many Greek Cypriots saw it as a practical fix for a constitution that did not work. Many Turkish Cypriots saw it as an attempt to reduce them from a partner community to a minority, and as a step towards enosis, union with Greece. Their suspicion was later reinforced by the Akritas plan, a secret Greek Cypriot contingency document associated with interior minister Polycarpos Georkadjis, although how closely it was linked to the amendments remains unclear.
Three weeks later, on 21 December, intercommunal fighting broke out in Nicosia. The Turkish Cypriot vice president and ministers stopped taking part in government from late 1963, and by 1965 the institutions of the Republic were run entirely by Greek Cypriots. The two communities still disagree over whether Turkish Cypriots withdrew or were shut out. Either way, the partnership designed in 1960 had ended in practice.