The Issue of Separate Municipalities in Cyprus 1957–1963: An Overview

This article is an introduction to the municipal issue which dogged attempts to make the Zurich framework viable in the early years of the Republic. It takes a brief look at its origins in the last years of British rule and at the background to the provision for separate municipalities in the Zurich and London Agreements. The article outlines the history of the failure to resolve the issue between 1959 and 1963. It suggests that its significance lies in the symbiosis of Turkish national security interests in the organisation of local government on the island and that the failure to resolve it reflected a failure to reconcile the conflicting perceptions of the nature of the state created by the Zurich and London Agreements.