Abstract

This study is based on a broad range of newly declassified documents which garner revelatory findings pertaining to the involvement of Czechoslovakia in the Cyprus dispute in the years 1960–1974. These new findings reveal that the countries of the Eastern Bloc sought to prevent the overthrow of the Cypriot President Makarios during the studied period, as his foreign policy ensured that the island would not become a NATO base against allied Arab countries in the Middle East. Czechoslovakia played a considerable role in keeping Makarios in power by arms deliveries (some of them hitherto unknown), which allowed him to build up the special police forces to counterweight the National Guard controlled by Greece and face attempts of the Greek junta to overthrow him. Additionally, this article analyses activities of Czechoslovak intelligence on the island which managed to obtain valuable information on the politically unstable Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East from the inner circle of President Makarios. Czechoslovak intelligence, contrary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, backed weapon sales to Cyprus and supported the island’s non-alignment policy because these guaranteed a steady supply of valuable intelligence on the entire Middle East.

Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2020.1860944.

摘要

本研究基于范围广泛的新解密文件，这些文件获得了有关捷克斯洛伐克在 1960 年至 1974 年间卷入塞浦路斯争端的启示性发现。这些新发现表明，在研究期间，东欧集团国家试图阻止塞浦路斯总统马卡里奥斯被推翻，因为他的外交政策确保该岛不会成为北约对抗中东阿拉伯盟国的基地。捷克斯洛伐克在通过武器运送（其中一些迄今未知）保持马卡里奥斯掌权方面发挥了重要作用，这使他能够建立特警部队以对抗希腊控制的国民警卫队，并面对希腊军政府推翻他的企图。此外，本文分析了捷克斯洛伐克情报在岛上的活动，这些情报设法从马卡里奥斯总统的核心圈子那里获得了有关政治不稳定的东地中海和中东的宝贵信息。捷克斯洛伐克情报部门与外交部相反，支持向塞浦路斯出售武器并支持该岛的不结盟政策，因为这保证了整个中东地区有价值情报的稳定供应。

本文的补充数据可在 https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2020.1860944 在线获得。