21 December 1963 and the Green Line: How the Partnership Republic Broke Down

Why It Matters

The events of 21 December 1963 in Cyprus ended the bi-communal partnership that the 1960 settlement was meant to create, and they set the structure of every negotiation since. The sequence is: Makarios's 13 amendment proposals of 30 November, the Turkish rejection of 16 December, the armed violence that followed, and the Green Line of 30 December. Understanding it explains why Ankara and the Turkish Cypriot leadership say that status and political equality, rather than technical power-sharing, must come first. Greek Cypriot and UN accounts differ on causes and responsibility, and this article sets out those differences.

Background

The 1960 partnership settlement

Cyprus passed from Ottoman administration (1571–1878) to British administration, which was recognised internationally at Lausanne in 1923. After the Greek Cypriot campaign for ENOSIS (union with Greece) and the armed campaign of the EOKA organisation, founded in 1955 under Colonel Georgios Grivas, the Zurich and London Agreements of 11 February 1959 produced the Republic of Cyprus in 1960. The Turkish side states that between 1955 and 1958 Turkish Cypriots were forced to leave 33 mixed villages.

The constitutional design rested on the political equality of two communities:

• A Greek Cypriot President and a Turkish Cypriot Vice President, each holding separate veto rights over foreign affairs, defence and security.
• Separate majorities for certain laws, and separate communal chambers.
• Fixed ratios in the civil service (70:30) and the army (60:40), which exceeded the Turkish Cypriot population share of roughly 18 percent.
• Basic Articles that could not be amended, and a Treaty of Guarantee under which Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom undertook to uphold the established order.

Greek Cypriot leaders, including Makarios, criticised the arrangement as unworkable and as imposed from outside. The Turkish side regards it as the negotiated founding bargain of the state.

Chronology, November–December 1963

The 13 proposals

The proposals, as circulated by Makarios, would have:

• Removed the veto rights of the President and Vice President.
• Allowed the Vice President to deputise for the President only in his absence.
• Had the Greek Cypriot President and Turkish Cypriot Vice President of the House of Representatives elected by the House as a whole.
• Unified separate municipalities.
• Dropped the requirement for separate majorities on certain laws.
• Revised civil service and security-force ratios to reflect population proportions.
• Abolished the separate communal chambers.

Makarios presented them as a way to make the state function. The Turkish side argued that they amounted to dismantling the safeguards that defined the partnership and reducing Turkish Cypriots to a minority.

The violence of 21 December and the Green Line

Fighting began in Nicosia on 21 December 1963, in the context of an incident in which Turkish Cypriot civilians were stopped by Greek Cypriot police. It quickly spread to other towns and villages. The Turkish side calls the period 'Bloody Christmas' (Kanlı Noel) and says it was a systematic armed assault. It reports that around 30,000 Turkish Cypriots left 103 villages and that Turkish Cypriot ministers, MPs and civil servants were excluded from state organs. Large numbers moved into enclaves, which then became the basis of separate Turkish Cypriot administration.

On 30 December 1963 a British general, Peter Young, drew a ceasefire line across Nicosia on a map with a green pencil. The line, which separated Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot areas of the capital, took its name from that pencil and was later extended across the island after 1974.

Key Players & Positions

The Turkish Cypriot leadership and the Turkish Foreign Ministry

According to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 1960 Republic was a partnership state whose bi-communal character was destroyed in December 1963 when Greek Cypriot forces seized the state apparatus by force. The Turkish side's account of the Akritas Plan is central to this reading, and it is set out below. The TRNC authorities make the same argument in their own official publications.

Greek Cypriot positions

The Republic of Cyprus (the Greek Cypriot administration) argues that the 1963 amendments were a good-faith attempt to fix an unworkable constitution. It holds that the violence began with clashes in which both communities suffered, that Turkish Cypriots were encouraged by their leadership and by Ankara to withdraw into enclaves, and that the Republic continued as the legitimate state. It regards the 'Akritas Plan' as a contingency document that was neither adopted as government policy nor implemented as such. Greek Cypriot official and academic sources also point to Turkish Cypriot militia preparations and to intercommunal atrocities against Greek Cypriots during the same weeks.

The Akritas Plan as presented by the Turkish side

The Akritas Plan was a document attributed to circles close to Makarios, reportedly drafted in 1963 and published in the Greek Cypriot newspaper Patris in 1966. The Turkish side presents it as proof of planning: it describes a plan to overturn the constitution by persuading the world that the amendments were reasonable and, if Turkish Cypriots resisted, to subdue them rapidly by force before any outside intervention could take place. Ankara argues that events on the ground followed this logic. Greek Cypriot sources dispute that the document was an operational plan of the state and dispute the Turkish reading of its purpose.

The guarantors and the UN

The United Kingdom, as a guarantor and the colonial power, led the 'Joint Peace Force' in the first weeks. Greece stood with the Greek Cypriot administration. On 4 March 1964 the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 186, which called on all states to refrain from action that could worsen the situation, recommended the creation of a UN peacekeeping force (UNFICYP) and referred to the 'Government of Cyprus' as the party that had consented to its deployment. UN Secretary-General reports from 1964 describe a divided island, displaced populations and enclaves, but they do not adjudicate responsibility in the way each party does.

Source Comparison

The same weeks are read very differently depending on the source. The table sets out typical framings; readers should consult the original documents.

Two cautions apply to every column. Casualty and displacement figures differ by source and period, and the Akritas Plan's status as a document is contested more than its text. This site's Editorial Principles explain how it separates documented fact from attributed position. For other treatments, see The Global Anatomy on Bloody Christmas 1963 and the Akritas Plan and Regional Order on the Treaty of Guarantee and the two-state solution.

Why 1963 still shapes the table

The disagreements above are not only historical. They underpin how each side defines a settlement:

• Who is the state? If the 1960 Republic continued, negotiations resemble talks to reform it. If it ended in 1963, negotiations are between two equals founding something new.
• What is the remedy for exclusion? Greek Cypriot sources emphasise reunification and a single sovereignty. Turkish sources emphasise guarantees, rotating or equal arrangements and recognised equal status, because the 1960 safeguards failed.
• What follows from the record of talks? The Turkish side points to the long record of federal negotiations from 1977 onward, summarised in The Worldlogue's Cyprus negotiation record, 1977 to 2024, as showing that the model does not deliver equality.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Bloody Christmas (Kanlı Noel): The Turkish and Turkish Cypriot name for the violence beginning on 21 December 1963.
• Akritas Plan: A document attributed to Greek Cypriot political circles in 1963 and published in 1966; the Turkish side treats it as a blueprint, while Greek Cypriot sources dispute that reading.
• Green Line: The ceasefire line drawn in Nicosia on 30 December 1963 and extended across the island after 1974. It is separate from the UN-patrolled buffer zone in its later form.
• Basic Articles: The provisions of the 1960 Constitution designated as unamendable, including the communal balance and the veto rights.
• Treaty of Guarantee (1960): The treaty under which Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom guarantee the independence, territorial integrity and constitutional order of Cyprus.
• UNFICYP: The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, created by Resolution 186 in 1964.

Related guides on this site:

• The Cyprus Channel: Guarantor Rights, Sovereign Equality and the Two-State Vision
• The Annan Plan Referendum of 24 April 2004: Two Votes, One EU Accession and the Turkish Cypriot 'Yes'
• Eastern Mediterranean Corridors: Shipping Lanes, Pipelines, Cables and the Jurisdiction Beneath Them
• Corridors of Diplomacy: Türkiye's Treaties, Routes and Records Explained

Corridors of Diplomacy presents Türkiye's official perspective and legal positions alongside the wider diplomatic context, and we state this editorial stance openly to our readers. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaty texts, UN documents, official statements and archival records, so that readers can verify them independently.

Corridors of Diplomacy Editorial Team