Kophinou Incident

Ayios Theodoros (Boğaziçi) and nearby Kophinou (Geçitkale) sit beside the main road between Nicosia and Limassol. By 1967 Kophinou was a Turkish Cypriot enclave, and tension there had been building all year. In January General Georgios Grivas, commander of the National Guard, posted a battalion to the area despite a local understanding that UNFICYP had reached with the Turkish Cypriot commander. In Athens, the military junta that now ruled Greece was pressing Makarios to move towards enosis.

In November the Cyprus police announced they would resume patrols through the Turkish Cypriot quarter of Ayios Theodoros, with a National Guard escort if needed. On 15 November heavy fighting broke out. National Guard units overran most of Ayios Theodoros and part of Kophinou before withdrawing the next day. Counts of the Turkish Cypriot dead range from 24 to 26, and around four Greek Cypriots were also killed.

Turkey reacted sharply. Turkish aircraft flew over the island, and on 17 November Ankara sent Athens a note demanding that Greece withdraw the troops it had sent to Cyprus beyond its treaty contingent, recall Grivas, compensate the victims and lift restrictions on Turkish Cypriots. It backed the demands with a threat of military intervention. For several days war between two NATO allies looked possible.

President Johnson sent Cyrus Vance, a former senior Pentagon official, to shuttle between Ankara, Athens and Nicosia from 23 November, while UN Secretary General U Thant sent his own envoy. By early December a deal was in place. Grivas had already resigned and left the island on 20 November, and Greek troops in excess of the agreed contingent, estimated at about 10,000 or more, left Cyprus between 8 December 1967 and 16 January 1968.

No reciprocal arrangement covering Turkish forces was ever agreed, but the crisis eased, and on 2 June 1968 Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktaş met in Beirut for the first of a long series of intercommunal talks. They continued, on and off, until the summer of 1974.