Calling the Big Brother: Turkish Cypriot Vulnerability and the Geopolitics of Kin-State Intervention

Abstract

This article explores the development of minority and kin-state relations during times of conflict and transition, focusing on the interaction between the Turkish Cypriot ethnic minority and its kin-state Turkey from 1950 to 1974. The study challenges common perceptions that small and vulnerable minorities lack autonomous and effective agency and illustrates the significance of geopolitical drives for kin-state support. The Turkish Cypriot mobilization in the period under investigation provides proof of the effectiveness of minorities mobilizing kin-state support as a means of empowering their domestic security status. The study shows that an accurate grasp of geopolitical correlations, combined with goal-persistence and the willingness to co-opt, have assisted the Turkish Cypriot minority’s bid to entangle Turkey’s geostrategic interests in Cyprus. Essentially, the coupling of Turkish Cypriot calls for protection with Turkey’s broader geostrategic objectives, motivated a relationship of mutual strategic empowerment for the weak ethnic minority and its powerful kin-state. Yet the long-term incongruity of security objectives has significantly reduced the minority’s autonomous agency, inaugurating a new chapter of vulnerability.