Why didn't the United Kingdom just give Cyprus to Greece?

Why didn't the United Kingdom just give Cyprus to Greece?

it's kinda far away desu

Not really. If USA can control Alaska and Hawaii than Greece could easily control Cyprus. Plus it's a historically Greek Island filled with Greek people.

Greece can't even control Greece, what makes you want to give them more land to ruin?

>Greece can't even control Greece
Yet they control their nation better than Cyprus controls itself and Turkey controls itself. Greece would only be an improvement.

Because the UK got it from Turkey not Greece

So? Greece got it's territory from Turkey too.

because they needed to balance diplomacy between Greece and Turkey, both being NATO members in the Cold War, Turkey was too valuable to upset with them stationing American ICBM's on the Turkish/Soviet border.

Supporting the coup in Cyprus that aimed towards annexation by Greece would've greatly pissed off Turkey's interests on the island, and the Turks could respond by removing NATO military equipment in their country, or even withdraw from NATO entirely as France already did.

So the Brits and Americans sat out on the crisis and let the Turkish intervention happen, cause opposing Turkey was something they couldn't afford to do with the leverage the Turks had.

British perfidy

Cyprus has a higher GDP than either Turkey or Greece

>Cyprus has a higher GDP
But they are in an awful geopolitical entanglement. Sometimes GDP isn't the end all to judge a nation by.

they tried to give you land from Turkey and you got your ass kicked

probably safe to assume you wouldn't into Cyprus

Would show their untrustworthy to other allies if they 'betrayed' Turkey

they're really really bad at that sort of stuff

see: Palestine, the Partition of India, South Africa, Rhodesia, etc.

So? Not really their fault, they made a bad decision in 1974 and have had to live with that ever since.

Why should it?

Cyprus has had its own civilizations, if anything it should be indipendent

>britain is in the north sea
>greece and cyprus are in the mediterranean
this should make you think..

You know why.

British autism

They didn't want to disappoint the Turks

because we can't have nice things when Britain is around

Because Greece at the time was a communist state in the Soviet sphere, literally why would the Brits hand over more clay to Gommies?

Greece was never commie. The liberals won the civil war.

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