Might be a good idea to get the facts right

Sir,
I have no desire to enter into any private war between Mr Semmens and Mr Elkis, but the latter needs to be rather more sure of what are facts and what are products of his imagination.

The Republic of Cyprus was born officially on August 16, 1960, not in 1961, and perhaps Mr Elkis would quote the appropriate Article of the Treaty of Establishment on which he found his claims of payment for the British Bases.
James Callaghan was not prime minister in 1974, he was foreign secretary to Harold Wilson. He did not become prime minister until 1976 — two years after the division of the island for which Mr Elkis blames him.

Wilson and Callaghan deserve some credit for flying Makarios from Paphos to Akrotiri after the Greek invasion of Cyprus which set up Nicos Sampson as a dictator. Two days later Makarios arrived at RAF Lyneham via a night in Malta and was assured of support by the British government. Wilson also refused Turkish PM Bulent Ecevit the use of Akrotiri (Wilson, Final Term, and Panteli, Making of Modern Cyprus).

The division of the island had nothing to do with any movement of Cypriot Turks as Mr Elkis claims, but everything to do with the subsequent Turkish invasion that followed the attempt by the Greek Colonels to get rid of Makarios.

He also wears rose-coloured spectacles if the believes that Greek and Turkish Cypriots lived happily in a united island before the invasion. Your own files, sir, covering 1958 and 1959, indicate that any such happiness must have reigned a long time before then. Individually, maybe, collectively in no way.
Finally, what is his justification for claiming that the British Bases survive thanks to 45,000 Turkish soldiers? When did the Bases last come under fire from the National Guard?
Maurice Sokel,
Paphos

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