ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

By the name of Kofinos, or Businesses of Kofinou, or even Fiasco of Kofinou, the events that occurred between the National Guard and Turkish Cypriots in the village of Kofinou (or Upper and Lower Kofinou), which was a Turkish Cypriot enclave, the province of Larnaca, Cyprus, in November 1967. These events resulted in 24 Turkish Cypriots and 1 Greek Cypriots being killed, and about a thousand being homeless. Excessive use of force turned global public opinion against Greek Cypriot positions, while leading the Greek division, which was unofficially in Cyprus, to leave the island.

Operation Gronthus

During the inter-communal riots of 1963 in Cyprus, Turkish Cypriots in the neighbouring villages of Kofinos and Agios Theodoros were closed in enclaves. The Enclave was controlled by local commander Chietin, who belonged to TMT. Kofinou controlled the Limassol road and Turkish Cypriot forces harassed road traffic.

As the issue of car harassment by the TMT was being discussed with UNFICYP, the President of the Republic of Cyprus Archbishop Makarios III decided to carry out military intervention to solve the issue. At that time, the head of the National Guard was George Grivas, who using artillery, armored and cruisers easily captured the enclave in St. Theodore. The next day, however, the attack on the Kofinou enclave was dynamic and bloody Total 24 Turkish Cypriots were killed, 9 injured, and 1,000 were left homeless. The casualties of the National Guard were a dead man. Among the dead are civilians.

Consequences of Operation
Businesses in Kofinou caused a serious Greek-Turkish crisis. Turkey threatened with military invasion of the island while the dictatorial regime in Greece was forced to withdraw the Greek division on the island from 1963.

Rejection of Rightes
The responsibility of the unfortunate "Operation Gronthos" is sought to date by the protagonists of those days and their fans or continuators. One view wants Junta trying to disarm the Republic of Cyprus by directing a provocation, while the other puts Makarios himself in charge of the fiasco.

References

External links

History of Cyprus
Cyprus problem
Greek-Turkish relations