ABSTRACT
Starting late in 1954, the two pillars of the Greek security system – NATO and the tripartite Balkan alliance – received serious blows. By the autumn of 1955, this system had come to the brink of collapse. In December 1954, the Greek appeal to the UN over Cyprus was discussed and defeated in the General Assembly. The decision to appeal to the UN was made in April 1954, during a meeting of Papagos and some of his close associates: Stephanopoulos, Kyrou and some other diplomats; only the Ambassador to London, Vassilios Mostras, disagreed and pointed to the dangers inherent in confronting a Western great power. Furthermore, the Greek appeal ignored Turkish reactions, as well as US objections: during his visit to Athens in June 1954, Menderes declined to discuss Cyprus with Papagos, and subsequently Ankara took a tough line at the UN. The Americans did not rule out the possibility of Enosis (union of Cyprus with Greece) in the future, but twice in 1954 – early in the year and in July – indicated to Athens that they were against an appeal to the UN, which would allow Moscow to become involved in an infra-NATO dispute.1 Even the Yugoslavs, who eventually supported the Greek case in New York, disagreed with the Greek appeal, on the grounds that it could weaken the tripartite Balkan pacts.2
The appeal to the UN simply did not take into account international realities. In the December 1954 UN debate, the British and the Turks strongly resisted
the Greek claim for the application of the right of self-determination in Cyprus. The General Assembly decided not to discuss the issue ‘for the present’, a phrase added at the insistence of the Americans as a face-saving formula for the Greeks.3 Following this defeat, Kyrou resigned from the post of Director General of the Foreign Ministry. The December 1954 defeat had serious repercussions: all NATO members except Iceland came out against the Greek item; the Greek public, who had not been informed about the US attitude regarding the UN, felt that the Americans had ‘betrayed’ Greece. In Athens, the UN debate was followed by large demonstrations against the Western powers. In an effort to ease Greek feelings, the government, King Paul and even the standard-bearer of the Cypriot case, the daily Hestia, reminded the public that the opponent in the Cyprus question was Britain, not the US. However, the public pressures
