Turkish Resistance Organisation
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The Turkish Resistance Organization (Türk Mukavemet Teskilati – TMT) was a Turkish Cypriot nationalist group formed by Rauf DenktaşTurkish military officer Riza Vurushkan to counter the Greek Cypriot Fighter's Organization EOKA and to bring partition in Cyprus. In response to the growing demand for Enosis (union of Cyprus with Greece), a number of Turkish Cypriots became convinced that this was the only way to protect the interests and identity of the Turkish Cypriot population against a militant Greek Cypriot threat.
The TMT was active mainly between 1957 and 1974, promoting partition (in Turkish: Taksim) of Cyprus. It has been accused by the Republic of Cyprus Government of numerous acts of terrorism against Greek Cypriots. TMT claims that their efforts were simply in response to a real threat against their community by EOKA, and after 1963 the Cypriot Government (which by then was almost exclusively Greek Cypriot in makeup).
It was supported logistically and militarily by the Government of Turkey. While not as well-armed as EOKA and the Greek Cypriot government forces (both supported militarily and logistically by Greece), TMT members managed to hold their own during the 1963-64 inter-communal violence (see Erenköy).
In 1963, TMT was partly responsible for the creation of numerous small Turkish Cypriot enclaves throughout the island, into which the majority of Turkish Cypriots were forcibly concentrated. The organization was the body responsible for the defence of these enclaves between 1963 and 1974. TMT has been held responsible for numerous murders of both Greek and Turkish Cypriots between 1957 and 1974, and for mass executions of Greek Cypriot civilians during the Turkish invasion in 1974. After the war it was finally disbandoned.
In addition, Rauf Denktash admitted in an interview in the early 1990's that the TMT was responsible for several Agent Provocateur acts against Turkish Cypriots designed to ellicit a violent response from Turkish Cypriots against Greek Cypriots.[1]
Sources
- Christopher Hitchens - Cyprus, Hostage to History: From the Ottomans to Kissinger