- 著者
-
鈴木 董
- 出版者
- JAPAN ASSOCIATION OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
- 雑誌
- 国際政治 (ISSN:04542215)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.1983, no.73, pp.44-63,L9, 1983-05-25 (Released:2010-09-01)
- 参考文献数
- 69
I.The Cyprus problem was one of the important international conflicts in the Middle East in the 1960s and 1970s. It was essentially an ethnic conflict between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots, which developed into an international conflict. It was one of the fierce outbreaks of ethnic conflicts which are characteristic of the contemporary Middle East.II.In the modern age, the Western impact destroyed the traditional world system implying a self-sufficient Middle Eastern Islamic World and in the following process of “modernization”, the nature of its basic political units, the structure of identity and the style of co-existence among the ethnic groups, changed greatly.Before the coming of the Western impact, the Middle East was one of the relatively self-sufficient traditional world systems. In the Middle Eastern Islamic World, the idea of the unity of the Islamic World prevailed. There were, in fact, political units called “dawla.” Notwithstanding, the identity of the Middle Eastern peoples who belonged to dawlas was not based on ascription to political units but on religion.The various ethnic groups, which were the components of the mosaic-like societies in the Middle East, formed communities according to religions. And there existed a traditional style of co-existence among them. This traditional style of co-existence in the Middle Eastern Islamic world was not based on the principle of the equality of each ethnic group, but on the principle of the supremacy of the Muslims over the non-Muslims.Non-Muslims were thus second class citizens in Islamic political society. Notwithstanding, considering the limited range of political participation and the structure of the identity of the people of the time, the traditional Middle Eastern style of co-existence, which was institutionalized as a “dhimmi” institution in the classical period and completed in the form of a “millet” institution in the Ottoman Empire, functioned rather well in the complicated mosaic-like societies of the Middle East. Only under the influence of modern nationalism did it begin to dissolve and ethnic conflicts begin to surface. The Cyprus problem is one of these ethnic conflicts of the modern Midddle East.III.Because of its strategic position, Cyprus was occupied by one nation after another. The ethnic composition of Cypriot society also became complicated. When the Ottomans conquered Cyprus in 1571, the largest ethnic group was the Greeks together with some other minor ethnic groups. After the Ottoman conquest, the Turkish soldiers and peasants emmigrated and became at least the second large ethnic group. The millet system, the Ottoman form of the traditional Middle Eastern style of co-existence, was applied to these ethnic groups. The millet system functioned and the fierce outbreak of ethnic conflicts were rarely seen.The beginning of ethnic conflicts came with the impact of the West. Especially, the rise of nationalism and the independence of Greece affected the situation in Cyprus. And the idea of enosis, namely the reunion of Cyprus with Greece, emerged in Greece. Greek nationalism gradually penetrated Cyprus. Because of the rise of the nationalism of non-Muslim subjects, there was an attempt to reform the principle of inequality between Muslims and non-Muslims. In this period, the traditional style of co-existence of ethnic groups was also changing. However, the relationship of co-existence among ethnic groups continued.IV.At the end of this period, in 1878, Cyprus came under British rule. Under British rule, the nationalism of the Greek ethnic group and the Turkish ethnic group developed. The separated educational system of each ethnic group under British rule contributed much to this development. The development of the nationalism of the Greek Cypriots oriented to enosis was especially outstanding. Because of