Cyprus Independence Day - Greek and Turkish Tensions Loom as British Rule Ends (1960)

On 16 August 1960, Cyprus gained independence from the United Kingdom, after 82 years of British colonial rule. In the days leading up to independence, ITN's Huw Thomas captured the mood on the island, interviewing Britain's Director of Military Operations in Cyprus, General Kenneth Darling; Air Marshal Sir William MacDonald; and Governor of Cyprus, Sir Hugh Foot. He also interviewed the first President of the Republic of Cyprus, Archbishop Makarios III, and his Vice President, Fazıl Küçük. The 1950s had seen an insurgency waged against the British colonial government by the EOKA (Ethniki Organosis Kyprion Agoniston; "National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters"), a Greek Cypriot nationalist paramilitary organisation aimed at ending British rule and uniting Cyprus with Greece. As British administrators prepared to depart the island, a question loomed over the future relationship between the island's Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot populations.

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